BusinessWest Staff, Author at BusinessWest

WESTFIELD — James Hagan, president and CEO of Westfield Bank, announced several recent changes to the bank’s retail and commercial banking staffs.

Carla DiLoreto has joined the bank as manager of the Enfield, Conn. office; Greg Musante has been hired as assistant branch manager and business specialist in the Holyoke office; and Christopher Fager has joined the bank as assistant vice president, commercial loan officer. In addition, Sean Millane, previously manager of the bank’s Enfield office, has been promoted to commercial loan officer, and Jeffrey Lomma, previously assistant manager and business specialist in the Enfield office, has been promoted to branch manager of the Tower Square office in Springfield.

DiLoreto has nearly 10 years of retail banking experience. Prior to joining Westfield Bank, she was Banking Center manager of the Somers, Conn. office of Webster Bank. While serving there, she was inducted in the Somers Women’s Club, where she helped raise money for its scholarship and charitable-giving programs.

Musante has 15 years of banking experience in commercial and mortgage lending. Most recently, he was mortgage bank officer at Webster Bank and also held the positions of cash management analyst and business specialist at Bank of America. A graduate of Greenfield Community College and Plymouth State College, he is an active member of several area chambers of commerce.

Fager joins Westfield Bank following a successful six-year career at Citizens Bank, where he served as both branch manager and business banking officer. In his new role, he will be responsible for developing and managing commercial banking relationships. A graduate of UMass Dartmouth, he is active in local chambers of commerce.

Millane has 15 years of banking experience and joined Westfield Bank in 2014 as manager of the Enfield branch. Previously, he was branch manager and business development officer of the Ellington and East Windsor, Conn. offices of Rockville/United Bank. In addition to his professional accomplishments, he is president of the East Windsor (Conn.) Chamber of Commerce and treasurer of the North Central Connecticut PTSD Foundation.

Lomma joined Westfield Bank in 2007. Prior to being named branch manager of the Tower Square office, he served as assistant manager and business specialist at the bank’s Enfield branch. A graduate of Western New England University, he is active in the community, serving as treasurer of the North Central Connecticut Chamber of Commerce and board member for both the Springfield Performing Arts Development Corp. (Symphony Hall and CityStage) and the Springfield Hockey Heritage Society.

“I am pleased to announce these exciting changes to our retail and commercial banking staffs,” Hagan said. “At Westfield Bank, we are committed to delivering the best possible banking experience for our retail and commercial customers in Western Massachusetts and Northern Connecticut. In addition to their proven accomplishments, Carla, Greg, Chris, Sean, and Jeff truly epitomize what better banking’s all about.”

Springfield Seeks Developer for Former Chestnut Junior High Site

By BusinessWest Staff August 13, 2015

SPRINGFIELD — The city of Springfield is releasing a request for proposals (RFP) for the eight parcels of land that formerly comprised the home of the Chestnut Junior High School at 495 Chestnut St. The school building was destroyed in a fire in September 2013, and the site has since been fully cleared.

“With $2.8 billion in ongoing economic development in the city of Springfield, now is not the time to rest,” said Mayor Domenic Sarno. We are looking to capitalize on our momentum and bring new jobs and development to the city.”

The RFP became available yesterday. Interested parties must return their proposal to the city by Monday, Sept. 14. The site is a total of 166,617 square feet, or 3.825 acres. The lump assessed value for all eight parcels is $127,900. The property was cleared by Associated Building Wreckers of Springfield, which removed all building elements, including foundations.

“While the fire resulted in a great loss of the historic school, the site is now fully cleared and available for development,” said Springfield’s Chief Development Officer Kevin Kennedy. “To find a nearly four-acre site so close to major employers is rare. We expect strong interest in this property.”

The neighborhood is home to Baystate Health, Mercy Medical Center, and Shriners Hospital for Children, as well as numerous private medical office buildings. Among many potential uses, the site could be appropriate for additional office development, retail development, or workforce housing targeting medical-district employees. Proposers will be expected to address any zoning needs as well as work closely with the neighborhood to ensure a positive redevelopment of the site.

The city recently commissioned an economic analysis of the so called ‘medical district’ to examine its employee base of more than 10,000 people to better understand the opportunities that exist for new housing, retail, and commercial space that would not only serve the neighborhood but also these employees. The report can be found on the city’s Planning and Economic Development website at www.springfieldcityhall.com.

Parties interested in obtaining the RFP should call the Office of Procurement at (413) 787-6284.

Thomas Senecal to Succeed Douglas Bowen as PeoplesBank President

By BusinessWest Staff August 13, 2015

HOLYOKE — The PeoplesBank board of directors announced that bank President and CEO Douglas Bowen will retire in July 2016, to be succeeded by Thomas Senecal, currently executive vice president and chief operating officer.

The board’s leadership-succession plan calls for Senecal to become president at the bank’s annual meeting in February 2016. Bowen will become chairman and CEO at that time. Senecal will be named president and CEO in July 2016 upon Bowen’s retirement. During this transition period, Bowen will remain active in his position and the bank’s management and strategy implementation.

Doug Bowen

Bowen joined PeoplesBank in August 1975 as a teller in the management-development program. He has since worked in almost every department at the bank. In 1986, he started the Commercial Lending department and, in 2002, was named executive vice president and chief lending officer. He was named president and CEO in 2007 and, since that time, has led the bank to its current position in the market, with more than $2 billion in assets and a substantial track record of innovation, community support, environmental sustainability, and employee engagement.

Under Bowen’s tenure, PeoplesBank opened six branches, three of which are LEED-certified; has financed more than $80 million in sustainable-energy projects; and has been named a “Top Place to Work” by the Boston Globe three years in a row. The bank was also named a “Top Charitable Contributor” by the Boston Business Journal seven years in a row. The American Bankers Assoc. gave PeoplesBank a Community Commitment Award for its environmental-sustainability efforts in 2013. The Boston Globe also named Bowen a “Globe 100 Innovator” in 2011.

Thomas Senecal

Meanwhile, Senecal possesses more than 25 years of progressive financial experience. In his current position, he has managed all accounting, financial reporting, and treasury and facility operations. He has overseen asset growth of the bank from $460 million to $2 billion in 2015.

In addition to Senecal’s responsibility for the Finance department, as the COO, he will oversee the Retail, Operations, Internal Control, and Risk Oversight functions. Early next year, he will also be responsible for the Commercial and Consumer Lending, Cash Management, and Human Resources functions.

Senecal holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from UMass Amherst. He also attended the Tuck Executive Program at Dartmouth College. He is a certified public accountant and a U.S. Coast Guard veteran. He currently serves on the boards of directors of Holyoke Community College, where he is chair of the investment committee; Loomis Communities Inc.; and the Hampshire Regional Chamber of Commerce. He also serves on the advisory council of the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst, and is a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank – Boston advisory panel.

“Under his leadership, I am confident that our customers, our staff, and our future are in very capable hands,” said Bowen, making a statement on behalf of the bank’s board of directors. “Tom and I believe in our bank’s mutual charter. We will remain a mutual bank going forward — committed to helping our customers achieve financial success and to serving the community. It is our mutual charter that powers our values. It is also the structure that allows us to invest in innovation, to contribute to nonprofit and civic causes, to support environmental sustainability, and, perhaps most important of all, to help our associates grow and succeed. Our mutual charter has served us well for 130 years, and it is the key to our future as well.”

Unemployment Holds Steady in New England

BOSTON — The New England Information Office of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released New England and state unemployment numbers for June 2015. These data are supplied by the Local Area Unemployment Statistics program, which produces monthly and annual employment, unemployment, and labor-force data for Census regions and divisions, states, counties, metropolitan areas, and many cities, by place of residence. Among the highlights:

• The New England unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 4.8% in June, lower than the national rate (5.3%). One year ago, the New England jobless rate was higher, at 5.9%.

• Two New England states posted jobless rates that were significantly different from the U.S. rate of 5.3%. Vermont (3.6%) and New Hampshire (3.8%) recorded lower-than-average unemployment rates.

• Over the last year, all six New England states recorded statistically significant unemployment-rate decreases, with declines ranging from 1.8% in Rhode Island to 0.5% in New Hampshire and Vermont. In fact, Rhode Island had the largest jobless-rate decline nationwide.

‘Fall Back in Time’ at Holyoke Merry-Go-Round on Sept. 18

HOLYOKE — The Holyoke Merry-Go-Round, the prized carousel with a storied history that dates back to the early 1900s, announced a “Fall Back in Time” fund-raiser to remember the magic of Mountain Park, to be held on Friday, Sept. 18 at the carousel site, 221 Appleton St., from 6 to 10 p.m. Tickets are on sale now for the event, which will support the ongoing maintenance and operation of the ride.

The Holyoke Merry-Go-Round — also known as Holyoke’s Happiness Machine — has delighted children and families since the 1920s, when it was featured at Mountain Park, an amusement park on the side of Mount Tom. The carousel arrived in Holyoke for the 1929 season and remained in Mountain Park until its closure in 1987.

Although the merry-go-round received multiple offers for purchase, its fate ultimately rested with a dedicated group of volunteers — led by John Hickey, as well as Joe and Angela Wright — who raised close to $2 million in donations to purchase the ride for the city and build a structure to house it. Through their efforts, the Holyoke Merry-Go-Round settled at Holyoke Heritage State Park, where it still resides today.

“The merry-go-round plays a vital role in the history of Holyoke, and our residents should be proud of their efforts to preserve it,” said Angela Wright, executive director. “The Holyoke Merry-Go-Round is a nonprofit that is totally self-supporting and does not receive city, state, or federal funding to maintain its operation. We rely on our annual preservation fund, donations, and various fund-raising events to keep the carousel spinning.”

The fund-raiser will feature food and a cash bar prepared by the Log Cabin; live music including sax player Tom Tisdell, his musicians, and a banjo player; train rides to the mall and back provided by the Pioneer Valley Railroad; and carousel rides. Tickets are $45 per person or $400 for a table of 10.

A grand raffle will also be held, with $8,000 in prizes: $5,000 for first place, $2,000 for second place, and $1,000 for third place. Raffle tickets are $100 each. Event and raffle tickets are available now at the Holyoke Merry-Go-Round concession or by calling Meghan O’Connor at (413) 427-7629 or Susan Leary at (413) 592-7573.

For more information or to purchase tickets, call (413) 538-9838 or visit holyokemerrygoround.org.

GZA GeoEnvironmental Awards Grant to Gardening the Community

SPRINGFIELD — GZA GeoEnvironmental Inc., a leading environmental and geotechnical engineering consulting firm, has awarded a $2,500 Shareholder’s Grant to Gardening the Community (GTC) in Springfield, based on an application from Anja Ryan Duffy, a professional landscape architect in the Springfield office of GZA.

GZA bestows four roughly $2,500 grants each year to organizations whose specific programs would best benefit from the award. The Shareholder’s Grant program was established to support employee volunteerism and charity work in the firm’s communities and throughout the world.

Duffy proposed Gardening the Community as a recipient of the GZA Shareholder’s Grant to assist in the development of the organization’s new Walnut Street site, a project for which she has volunteered her landscape-architecture services.

Gardening the Community is a food-justice organization engaged in youth development, urban agriculture, and sustainable living to build healthy and equitable communities.

In her grant application, Duffy said the Walnut Street project location is a 0.6-acre abandoned lot which “for decades has been an eyesore and served as an illegal dumping ground.” GTC purchased the site in July 2014 with the vision of transforming it into a “vibrant, green space which would also help feed the neighborhood and provide service and leadership opportunities for local youth.”

The GZA Shareholder’s Grant will help fund the placement of fencing and perimeter plantings along the Walnut Street site.

Duffy has been with GZA for nearly eight years. Her areas of specialization include site design, planting design, low-impact development, and graphics. A graduate of UMass Amherst with a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture, she is an avid gardener and started a community garden in her former apartment complex, a project now in its fourth year.

Julie Quink Named Managing Principal at Burkhart Pizzanelli

WEST SPRINGFIELD — Burkhart Pizzanelli announced the promotion of Julie Quink to managing principal.

Quink has a wealth of experience, with more than 20 years serving clients in the public accounting industry along with several years in private industry. She received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Elms College and recently returned to her alma mater as an adjunct professor in the MBA program.

She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Mass. Society of Certified Public Accountants, and the Assoc. of Certified Fraud Examiners. She also serves on the Pathfinder Regional Vocational Technical High School Committee, the finance committee for the East Quabbin Land Trust, and the board of directors for the Quaboag Hills Chamber of Commerce.

In addition to her firm management responsibilities, Quink will continue to actively serve clients, primarily in the accounting and auditing area and as a specialist in forensic accounting. She succeeds Richard Burkhart, who is a co-founder of the firm and has served as managing principal from its inception in 1986. Burkhart will continue to provide his clients with service and expertise as a principal of the firm, sharing his 40 years of experience in public accounting.

Burkhart Pizzanelli has been serving private and corporate clients throughout the Northeast for more than 25 years with a range of accounting, auditing, tax, and consulting capabilities. Principals include Burkhart, Quink, Salvatore Pizzanelli, Thomas Pratt, and Deborah Penzias.

Valley Fest Organizers Raise a Toast to Springfield and the Region

Features

Since launching White Lion Brewing Co. in Springfield last fall, Ray Berry had a feeling that organizing a beer festival would be a good way to showcase his brand, and craft brewing in general. But what has become abundantly clear, with the help of a diverse group of local partners, is that Valley Fest, slated for Aug. 29, is also a celebration of what they consider a city and region on the rise.

When Ray Berry launched White Lion Brewing Co. in Springfield last October, he planned from the start to create a regional beer festival within the first two years. As it turns out, he didn’t want to wait that long.

“I didn’t know whether it would be year one or year two, but with the momentum of the company and awareness of our brand, we felt comfortable enough to bring the fest in year one,” he said.

Specifically, White Lion will present Valley Fest on Aug. 29 in Court Square in downtown Springfield, expecting to draw some 2,000 beer enthusiasts to sample more than 100 different offerings of beer and hard cider made by more than 50 craft brewing companies from throughout the region — and well beyond.

Ray Berry calls Valley Fest a way to “bring together a cohesive conversation” about what’s happening in the region — with craft brewing and in other ways.

“This is about the city of Springfield, about the region, but it also revolves around craft beer,” Berry told BusinessWest. “Western Massachusetts is starting to see a tremendous amount of momentum around craft beer — new brewhouses, new enterprises, new products on the market.”

White Lion is actually the first one of those brewers based in the City of Homes, and Berry hopes the festival — which will also feature culinary fare from local restaurants, live music, and a home-brewing contest — will create a buzz, so to speak, that raises the profile of the city and region.

“Springfield was a little late to have its own product — White Lion being that — and we thought it was important to showcase White Lion, but also to bring together a cohesive conversation regionally,” he went on. “We didn’t know at the onset that this would be bigger than Western Mass., but we’re covering the spectrum with local, regional, and national brands participating, which is exciting.”

But this isn’t just the story of craft beer, or a day-long, late-summer party. It’s about a number of individuals and businesses coming together to showcase what they call a city on the rise.

The first of those was MGM Springfield, which got on board as the event’s presenting sponsor.

“From the company’s standpoint, showcasing Springfield was obviously important,” said Seth Stratton, MGM Springfield’s vice president and general counsel, noting that the company presented last year’s Downtown Dinner Table event to bring some energy to the casino’s future neighborhood.

“We were all surprised how amazingly successful that event was, and it hammered home to MGM how important it is to bring people downtown,” he added. “If people not used to coming to the city are coming for an event like that, that is a perfect event. We want people to be accustomed to being out in this vibrant city, and making it a destination by showcasing its food and beverage assets, which are a huge part of our business. There’s a synergy between events like this and what our goals are with our project.”

As a downtown restaurant owner, Nadim Kashouh wants to be part of efforts that make Springfield more of a destination, and considers Valley Fest to be just that.

Like Stratton, Nadim Kashouh — owner of Nadim’s Mediterranean Restaurant and Grill downtown — is invested in developments that make Springfield a destination. He’s one of several area restaurateurs to sign on for the event, citing the event’s potential to showcase Springfield and, by extension, its culinary offerings.

“Ray and I have become good friends, and we were interested in being there at this event,” he said. “Springfield is flourishing right now, and we want to be a part of anything that shows that.”

Worthy Addition

Still, before soliciting sponsors and partners for what would become Valley Fest, Berry first approached Jeff Goulet, who has organized the Worthy Brew Fest in downtown Springfield each spring since 2011.

“We didn’t want our fest to conflict with the other fest, but, rather, to bring a positive impact and awareness of craft beer to Springfield,” Berry said.

Goulet, however, is fully on board — as Valley Fest’s brewery coordinator.

“June was our most successful year by far. It came close to a sellout,” Goulet said. “Our focus has been to have a boutique beer fest, limit it to 1,000 people, with very specialty beers, one-off beers.”

So, when Berry told him about the more wide-open concept of Valley Fest, he felt it was a strong complement to what Worthy Fest has been bringing to the table. He also noted that many of the participating breweries have their own local fan bases, who will then travel to Springfield to take in the festival.

Even after winning Goulet’s support, Berry said a successful event wouldn’t have been possible if not for the support of MGM Springfield. “When they locked in up front as the primary sponsor, that was the key that started the ball rolling.”

Other partners soon followed, all of whom see events like this, as well as Worthy Brew Fest and the second annual Jazz and Roots Festival that landed in Court Square last weekend, as ways to continue the city’s momentum generated by not only MGM Springfield, but a host of new development and business activity downtown.

“Ray came to us and shared his vision for the Valley Fest and asked us to work with him to create the brand narrative,” said Deb Walsh, creative director at TSM Design, which had previously designed the White Lion brand logo, and signed on to create visual and narrative elements to promote the event.

“TSM is very committed to Springfield — and beer,” she said with a laugh. “So we happily joined in and created a look that celebrates the craft, celebrates the location and the history, and emphasizes fun, too, making it an event that people will want to attend.”

Meanwhile, Creative Strategy Agency is developing digital communications and marketing to promote Valley Fest, said President Alfonso Santaniello. Among those efforts is a video introducing the sponsors and vendors and trying to get them to engage with each other well before the event — as well as during it, with the use of the #valleybrewfest hashtag. “This has been a team effort, not just the Valley Fest, but the social site.”

Jill Monson-Bishop, president of Inspired Marketing and Valley Fest’s event planner, said she and other business owners are excited about momentum in the downtown district, whether it’s a company moving into one of the office towers or an event with the promise of becoming an annual attraction.

Jill Monson-Bishop says she and other downtown business owners are looking for “sparks of revitalization.”

“As a downtown business owner, I can say these are the sparks of revitalization we’ve all been waiting for. It’s kind of a renaissance,” she said, adding that she was involved with MGM in the Downtown Dinner Table last year. “That reminded me of back in the days of Taste of Springfield, which brought thousands of people to our downtown without blinking or whining.”

She said it was important to make the event about more than beer, however. That’s why Nadim’s will be joining Plan B Burger Bar, Palazzo Café, the Student Prince, and Sheraton Springfield to deliver an array of food, while live music, including dance-party band Orange Crush and rock act Maxxtone, will spice up the Fest, which Monson-Bishop positioned as an age-21+ event that’s friendly and relaxed.

In addition, Mark Stroobandt of Belgium, an internationally acclaimed beer sommelier, will be on hand for a cooking demonstration. Meanwhile, the second of the event’s two sessions will include pourings from 10 home brewers competing for the title of Valley Fest’s Best Home Brewer, a custom tap handle from East Coast Taps, and, of course, bragging rights.

As a way to give back to the community, Berry said a portion of the event’s proceeds will be donated to the American Cancer Society and Dakin Humane Society, two prominent nonprofits.

Susan Alston, director of development and marketing at Dakin, noted that Berry participated in the PAWSCARS in February, Dakin’s largest annual fund-raiser, and they formed a bond over their concern for animals.

“Every year, more than 6,000 of them need medical attention or new parents,” she said. “Our Dakin facility moved downtown in 2009, and we serve thousands of people who adopt our animals every year within a 50-mile radius. We were lucky to be invited to share the proceeds of this event.”

Coming Together at Valley Fest

The partners promoting Valley Fest stressed that many other entities will support the event in different ways, from Ace Taxi providing free service to those who need it to Sheraton Springfield offering reduced room rates for anyone who wants to turn a day of beer sampling into a safe weekend stay downtown.

“This is a community event,” Santaniello said. “We’re all from various backgrounds and specialties, putting on an event with our community. It’s an opportunity to let people see what can be done when we come together for one great event. People need to realize, it doesn’t have to be one person doing things — people and businesses are here to help, and these events just have to find the right people.”

Berry agreed. “The response from the community — and surrounding communities — has been overwhelming,” he said, noting that those sponsors number around 25, including primetime sponsor MassMutual Financial Group and partnering sponsors the Dennis Group and Williams Distributing. “A number of sponsors stepped up early, believing not only in the festival, but in Springfield in general.”

Berry emphasized that Valley Fest is an important showcase not only for White Lion — which has released three beer selections since last fall and has promoted its efforts in venues all over Massachusetts and other New England states — but for a region ready for a stream of good economic news. “People who are complaining are only reading the headlines. They need to dig deeper.”

Kashouh said MGM and other developments downtown have started to create that buzz, which promises to bring new life to the city.

“I know I find myself investing in renovating, putting more money into the restaurant, waiting for the day when MGM opens up. It’s three years out, but I want to be ready. The beer festival, the jazz festival, these things bring people downtown. People are trickling back. It won’t happen overnight; it’s one store at a time, one restaurant at a time. But we believe in Springfield.”

Stratton stressed that the casino project is not the end-all, be-all, but that each new event or company relocation downtown serves as a catalyst for others.

“I think this is a good example,” he went on. “If you look at the sponsor list, it’s a who’s-who of businesses in Springfield. We’re naturally aligned and interested in having people come down and drink beer and have fun; there’s a natural synergy to what we do. For other businesses, it may not be as immediately apparent. But as people see new, exciting things in Springfield, it’ll eventually be a catalyst for the entire business community, not only those who have a natural interest in this event, like we do.”

That’s a refreshing thought indeed. So cheers, Springfield.

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Southwick Lays Groundwork to Spur Development

Community Spotlight Features

Community Spotlight: Southwick, Mass.

From left, Todd Phillips, Stephen Phillips, and Doug Moglin say Nitor Corp. in the Southwick Industrial Park plans to double its size.

After 12 years in business, Stephen and Todd Phillips decided it was time to own their own building.

They spent two years looking at sites in Springfield, Agawam, West Springfield, and Windsor, Conn. before they found the perfect location: Southwick Industrial Park.

“We were able to buy 3.1 acres on an industrial building lot for $30,000 per acre, which gave us plenty of room to expand; you can’t touch that price anywhere, and the double whammy was the town’s uniform tax rate. It was a huge incentive to come here,” Stephen said, adding that, prior to building a permanent home for laser-equipment supplier Nitor Corp. four years ago, they had leased space in Westfield and then Agawam Industrial Park.

Today, the brothers are planning to double the size of their footprint, and Stephen calls Southwick’s Industrial Park a hidden gem. “It’s close to Route 57, Interstate 91, 291, and the Mass Pike, and the town’s Planning Board is made up of working-class people who are very receptive and understand business,” he told BusinessWest.

The uniform tax rate, $16.94 per thousand for 2015, and amount of affordable property available for development are among attributes Southwick officials are banking on to spur economic development. There are 50 acres in the industrial park primed and ready for development, another 150 acres that will be available in the future, and about 200 acres of former farmland on Route 57, bordered by Routes 10 and 202, that would be an ideal location for retail establishments, especially since there are new sewers in areas proximate to it.

Other factors officials are relying on include infrastructure improvements; a wide range of recreational opportunities; new residential building; closer ties with the Greater Westfield Chamber of Commerce, led by Kate Phelon, who has held nine ribbon cuttings for them since last year with plans to stage more; and other measures that have evolved as they work to remove impediments to growth.

“All roads are open, and we are working hard to get everything in place for the future. All of the ingredients are here; we have done our part, and our eyes are wide open. We want to help and have things in place so people know exactly what they need to do to open a business,” said Joseph Deedy, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, who has owned MooLicious Farm and Ice Cream for eight years, was on the Planning Board before being elected to his current position, and has owned several other businesses in different states, which helps him understand difficulties new companies deal with.

“We’re looking for mom-and-pop operations as well as light-industrial companies that will bring more to the town than just workers. They will be stakeholders in the community,” he explained.

Doug Moglin agrees. “There is so much opportunity here, and our population is growing,” said the selectman, who is OEM director at Whalley Computer Associates Inc., based in town.

Chief Administrative Officer Karl Stinehart says it’s much easier to do business in Southwick than it was 10 years ago.

The town has worked hard to identify areas that need sewers, and completed phase I of its installation plan, which includes downtown as well as part of the area around Congamond Lakes. In addition, the water quality was improved, which has helped to retain businesses along the corridor as well as allowing them to position themselves for growth.

“The interceptor pipe to Westfield’s treatment plant has been finished, which lays the groundwork for us to move forward,” Steinhart said.

In fact, town officials have been working hard for several years to leverage as much federal assistance as they can before their population hits 10,000, when they will no longer qualify for funding aimed at towns below that number. “We want to make sure we don’t miss out on any opportunities,” he added.

New Growth

The multi-faceted efforts of Southwick officials are already bearing fruit.

A new, $2.2 million Rite Aid is under construction on College Highway and is expected to open by Thanksgiving. “They’ve been renting space in a smaller building and are expanding to a free-standing building with a drive-thru,” Deedy explained.

From left, Karl Stinehart, Jesse Saltmarsh, Joseph Deedy, and Gordon Webster at the site of the new, $2.2 million Rite Aid set to open in November.

Site developer Jesse Saltmarsh of Saltmarsh Industries Inc. in Southwick told BusinessWest an old building was demolished to make way for the new, 11,000-square-foot pharmacy, and contractors are creating retaining walls because they lowered the grade of the land to provide enough space for parking.

“Roughly 90% of the vendors we’re using are local companies,” said site superintendent Gordon Webster of Bass Hatfield Construction, the general contractor for the project, adding that Southwick businesses already working or soon to be on the job include Southwick Electric and Brasca Plumbing as well as a landscaper in town.

Meanwhile, Kearsage Venture Capital Co. recently completed construction of the largest solar farm in Western Mass. on Route 168.

“Agriculture is still an important part of Southwick’s identity, and this is just a different way of farming,” Stinehart said. “And the town is in the process of finalizing a purchase agreement to buy a solar farm north of here. We hope it will save us 15% on our electric bill.”

The new, 66-acre Whalley Park, built on donated land and leveraged with Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding, opened this summer and has increased the number of playing fields, which is important because the town didn’t have enough to accommodate demand.

“It’s a wonderful thing, and we are very fortunate because the private, nonprofit Southwick Recreation Center is right next door, which helps kids in town play on sports teams,” Deedy said.

The Polverari Southwick Animal Control Facility was also finished late last year, which meets another need as it replaced an outdated structure.

“We’re doing all we can to make the community an attractive place to raise a family,” Stinehart noted, adding that $69 million was spent over the past few years on renovations to the town’s schools which are almost complete, and a new track was built with private donations and CPA funds. Plus, the Conservation and Open Space committees have used state and CPA monies to acquire land for agricultural use because there is growing demand for it.

New small businesses are also opening, and two restaurants have new owners. D’Georgio’s is expected to open by Labor Day in the former Brew Too building on Westfield Street, which has been repurposed, and the former Salmon Brook Restaurant on Point Grove Road near Congamond Lake was recently purchased and will reopen as the Legends of the Lake.

The selectmen added that the town offers wonderful opportunities for recreation.

“We pride ourselves on our recreation, which ranges from boating to golfing and open space where people can hike,” Stinehart said. “We have two public marinas and a boat launch on the Congamond Lakes, and a dedicated committee makes sure there is a freshwater fishing tournament there every weekend. There is also the 6.3-mile Southwick Rail Trail, four golf courses, a miniature one, and two campgrounds. Southwick is the home of motocross, we have a very active Parks and Recreation Committee, and the Conservation Commission has acquired land that will be used for parking which will provide better access to the segment of the Metacomet Trail that runs through town.”

Residential construction is also on the rise, and land is being cleared for a 26-home development called Noble Steeds. “It was permitted, then shelved due to the downturn in the economy,” Stinehart said. “There are also a significant number of single lots being developed along major roads.

“The housing market is slowly turning around, and a dozen lots in a private community are being developed around the Ranch [golf course], and with our lucrative tax rate, people can afford to build their dream home,” he went on. “The Shops at Gillett Corners were also sold within the last two years, and the new owners have invested money because they see the future in Southwick.”

Deedy noted that the single tax rate has been a great selling point for the town.

“We’re taking a balanced approach to growth,” he explained. “Our planning board is composed of a group of very dedicated individuals, and we are very cautious and deliberate in making any zoning changes. But few are necessary, as permitted uses for land have already been identified; we look at other communities to see what works and what doesn’t.”

Officials don’t expect the MGM casino in Springfield to affect their community much, other than increasing the flow of traffic from Connecticut. “We will evaluate it in the future to see if we are eligible for any funds and will revisit the issue at that time to see if it affects our infrastructure,” Stinehart said.

However, Deedy pointed out that Southwick is only 15 minutes from Springfield, and its low tax rate may prove attractive to businesses that support the casino. “They may want to relocate to the suburbs once it is built.”

Formulated Plan

Deedy added that efforts put forth by the town have been aimed at future development.

“We have plenty of land available, and if people can afford it, they should buy it now while it is still inexpensive,” he said. “Members of the select board are always available to talk to people; the last thing we ever want to hear is that someone who owns a company or wants to open one looked at Southwick, but it was too difficult to do business there.”

Which seems unlikely, because officials strive to promote their town and encourage growth in this rapidly growing community.

Southwick at a glance

Year Incorporated: 1775
Population: 9,629
Area: 31.7 square miles
County: Hampden
Residential Tax Rate: $16.94
Commercial Tax Rate: $16.94
Median Household Income: $78,476
Family Household Income: $89,970
Type of Government: Open Meeting; Board of Selectmen
Largest Employers: Big Y World Class Markets; Whalley Computer Associates Inc.

* Latest information available

Olympics Lessons from Boston 2024

Opinion

Editorial August 10, 2015

Since word first trickled out last year that Boston might put together a serious bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics, the story has generated a veritable ton of ink, as they say in this business.

The bid that became Boston 2024 generated news, and plenty of it, on just about every level imaginable, from cost to where the canoeing competition would be held; from whether a totally beleaguered MBTA could possibly handle such on onslaught of people, to how no one could figure out how to easily handle the significant expense of building a velodrome; from whether Springfield might get a basketball game or two since it was the birthplace of that sport, to how many ‘white elephants’ would be left behind when all the athletes went home.

There was hard news, commentary, speculation, and detailed, blow-by-blow accounts of the recent debate between supporters of this venture and its opponents. As we said, a flood of news.

Yet, for all that, it seems almost certain that the now-failed bid will become yesterday’s news in a hurry — a real hurry. In a way, it already is, with people quickly and energetically moving on to whatever’s next, be it the presidential race and that crowded GOP field, Deflategate, or this train wreck of a Red Sox season.

Soon, people will likely forget that a Boston Olympics bid advanced as far as it did.

And that would be too bad, because, as much as we thought this venture was not well-grounded and was in most ways unnecessary — our argument was, ‘Boston is already a world-class city, so why does it need the Olympics to prove itself?’ — it was intriguing to think about the prospects of the world coming to Massachusetts. This was a healthy exercise in thinking big.

And that’s what we don’t want to be forgotten in all this — the ‘thinking big’ part.

We don’t do enough of it here in Western Mass., or in this state, or even nationally, for the most part. With rare exceptions, we now tend to think about what we can’t do, or why we can’t do something, rather than how to make it happen.

In our view, the biggest message to take away from the Olympics is that’s is fine to think big, just do it in ways that make sense and in ways that solve problems, not create more, and in ways that will bring people together, not divide them.

That’s a hard assignment, we know. For every instance of thinking big in our country’s history — from the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Panama Canal to the moon shot — there has been dissention and doubt, all of it overcome.

To make the Olympics a reality, a great many people would have been called upon to work together, overcome huge challenges, meet tight deadlines, and stretch their imaginations to make the improbable possible. The assignment moving forward, we believe, is to simply reapply all of the above to some real problems — like spreading economic prosperity across the state instead of across the west side of Route 128; finding real solutions to the problems facing this state’s many older cities, such as Springfield, Holyoke, and Greenfield; doing something about the still-alarming levels of poverty in those cities and elsewhere; and getting a high-speed rail line to stretch across the Commonwealth — to name just a few pressing issues.

We know, saying such things is like saying that, if we took all the money we spent on the moon shot and instead put it into poverty-fighting initiatives, no one would have gone hungry in this country in the ’70s.

But, to some extent, that argument is valid. Why can’t those kinds of problems be solved? If we’re willing to invest time, money, and imagination into revitalizing a Boston neighborhood so it can become the site of an Olympic stadium, why can’t we just revitalize that neighborhood for the sake of the people who live there now or might 30 years from now?

As we said, Boston 2024 will likely be a forgotten chapter in the state’s history. We hope not, because much can be learned from it, especially the need to continue thinking big. Unlike the Olympics, that’s a really good idea.

City2City Offers Learning Experiences

Opinion

City2City Pioneer Valley Editorial August 10, 2015

The City2City program, an initiative that has taken city business and nonprofit leaders and elected officials to a number of cities experiencing economic progress — in many different forms — has a new name and new focus.

Well, sort of. The name is somewhat new. Actually, it’s been expanded to ‘City2City Pioneer Valley.’ And that name hints broadly on the new focus that isn’t really new. Indeed, while these visits have always included individuals from across the region, it has been perceived as, well, a Springfield thing.

Before, during, and after the initial visits to Winston-Salem and Greensboro, N.C., Grand Rapids, Mich., and Allentown and Bethlehem, Pa. (the latter being home to a casino), the overarching question was, ‘what can Springfield learn from this community?’

Those trips, organized with support from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, were technically regional in nature, but Springfield tended to dominate the conversation. It will likely do so again, when City2City Pioneer Valley, now being overseen by the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission and supported by several area businesses and foundations, travels to Chattanooga, Tenn. on Oct. 26-28.

But there will be plenty that communities of all sizes can take away from this visit, and we strongly encourage planning officials, municipal leaders, bank officials, and economic-development administrators to be part of the travel party.

That’s because, while there has been progress recorded in many area cities and towns — in realms ranging from infrastructure to entrepreneurship; from the arts to education — there is considerable room for improvement. And while there is plenty of talent and many good ideas to be found in the Valley, it never hurts to see how others are tacking issues common to cities across the country.

During past trips, participants have seen how Greensboro took full advantage of a new minor-league baseball stadium; how Grand Rapids has revitalized its riverfront and created thousands of new jobs in education and healthcare; how Bethlehem has not only opened a new casino, but found many other uses for the massive steel mill that gave the city its identity.

But they’ve also seen how individual neighborhoods have been revitalized, how Grand Rapids has addressed the complex issue of racism, and how each community has prospered through strong leadership and effective public-private partnerships.

Some of the lessons are being directly applied — perhaps the most notable being the Healing Racism Institute of Pioneer Valley, which grew from the Grand Rapids experience — but area communities have benefited indirectly from seeing not only that other cities have overcome extreme challenges, but how.

Thus we encourage participation in this year’s trip, especially when it comes to the region’s younger leaders — those who have chosen to launch or continue a career in this region and will likely play a big part in shaping its future course.

Many of these young leaders have been exposed to great learning experiences through participation with such groups as the young professionals’ societies and organizations such as Leadership Pioneer Valley. City2City can and will broaden their horizons in many different ways.

Continuing and expanding the City2City initiative can only help this region, and area communities and business leaders should take full advantage of this unique opportunity.

Mark Mastroianni Finds a Comfort Zone Behind the Bench

Adjustment Bureau

U.S. District Court Judge Mark Mastroianni

A federal judgeship is, by almost any measure, the proverbial opportunity of a lifetime for those in the legal profession — figuratively and quite literally; one has the job for life. So it is with Mark Mastroianni, although he admits that he became a candidate for the post in Springfield almost reluctantly because he was, at the time, “hitting his stride” as Hampden County district attorney. In fact, he admits feeling relieved in some ways when he missed the deadline for applying. But that deadline was extended, and, well, the rest is history — and a serious period of adjustment that is still ongoing.

Mark Mastroianni was talking about the start of the process that eventually led to him being named a federal judge in Springfield.

To describe it, he used the phrases “completely unexpected” and “perhaps even unwelcome.”

He said it was the former mostly because at that time, early 2014, he was more than halfway through his first four-year term as Hampden County district attorney and thinking about the next one, not a new career challenge.

As for the latter, he chose it because he wasn’t simply serving as DA. He was, as he put it, “just hitting my stride,” and in many ways he actually resented what the ensuing search process represented — an extremely difficult decision he would have to make about his career, or another difficult decision, to be more precise.

“I was three years in the district attorney’s office; I was getting my feet under me and really developing my sense of confidence,” he explained. “And it’s really at the point when you develop a sense of confidence doing anything that you become your most effective. I had things to do — I had things I knew I could do in the district attorney’s office that were important for me as professional accomplishments and for the people I was serving.

“I really took to that, and was serious about what I wanted to do,” he went on. “And when I say ‘unwelcome,’ I say that because that search came about right when I got moving.”

But there was more to this than the opening on the federal bench coming at what Mastroianni would consider the wrong time career-wise. Indeed, he possessed vast experience as both a prosecutor and defense lawyer at that time, and frankly couldn’t imagine himself spending at least the next 15 years (a federal judgeship is a lifetime appointment) being neither.

To get that point across, he put his passion for such work in perspective that only people who have been there could appreciate.

“There will be nothing like — at least, I haven’t experienced anything that looks like it will be the same as — the adrenaline rush in a capital murder case in the minute or two minutes when you’re waiting for the verdict,” he said while comparing his current job to his previous ones. “The jury comes in, the jury stands up, and the verdict form is handed to the clerk … I can’t explain to you what that’s like, really. Every trial I’ve taken, it’s been remarkable to me that I’ve been able to even stay on my feet; your heart is beating so fast, you just think that physically you’re not going to hold up.”

One doesn’t reach that state, emotionally or physically, as a judge, he went on, adding quickly, though, that adrenaline comes in many forms, and he experiences it now — granted, on a much lower level — when one of his rulings is cited by a lawyer when making an argument.

Adapting to this new standard for adrenaline rush is part of an adjustment period Mastroianni says is still ongoing, although overall, he says he’s quite comfortable in his new skin, or robe, as the case may be. He acknowledges that reaching this state wasn’t easy, but in most ways easier than he anticipated.

“I have been so happy and relieved at how I’ve adjusted, because I thought that I was going to really struggle with not being in the courtroom,” he said, referring, obviously, to the seats in front of the bench, not the one behind it. “I have really enjoyed and adjusted to still being part of the trial-litigation criminal process; I take a different seat now than the one I’m used to sitting in, and my decisions are from a different perspective, but I’ve adjusted, and continue to adjust.”

For this issue and its focus on law, BusinessWest looks at that adjustment period, and how it represents one of many career gambles Mastroianni has not only taken, but embraced.

Opening Statements

When asked about whether he had any regrets about taking the federal judgeship, Mastroianni answered in a way one might not expect from someone in such a lofty, respected, and sought-after position.

“Of course I have regrets,” he said, implying that some of his earlier comments would have made that clear. But he went further, and in a manner that once again suggested just how much he liked being DA — and a defense lawyer, for that matter.

“I’ve had regrets from every job I’ve left,” he explained. “If you don’t have regrets from the last job you’ve left, that means that didn’t love your job and didn’t do it with everything you had.”

Mastroianni has left a few positions in his career knowing that there would be not only regrets, but serious doubts from colleagues, friends, and relatives about whether he was doing the right thing, career-wise and otherwise.

There were such sentiments expressed when he left a position as assistant district attorney under William Bennett to go into private practice. He had started a family and purchased his first house, and while prosecutors were poorly paid at the time (and still are today), the job represented a safety net.

He heard them again when he launched a bid to succeed Bennett as DA running as an independent, a campaign for which for which the adjective ‘long shot’ would be considered a serious understatement.

And they were uttered again when Mastroianni became a candidate for the federal court, a position usually placed in that category of ‘opportunity of a lifetime.’

“Every friend and family member expressed the concern that it would be something I might not enjoy or become frustrated with,” he noted. “I had that same concern.”

Mastroianni said he made these various career moves after careful consideration of those expressed concerns, but also what the next challenge would mean for him personally and professionally.

“These were not reckless decisions,” he explained, using that phrase repeatedly with his latest change especially. And as he talked about them, he would reference a need to continually seek new challenges because “there was more for me to do.”

Our story begins at Cathedral High School in the early ’80s, where Mastroanni was mostly unmotivated and anything but a standout student and rising star. In fact, he would say that American International College “took a chance on me when they accepted me.”

“I’m adjusting, I very much like what I’m doing, and the forecast looks good.” – U.S. District Court Judge Mark Mastroianni

He made the most of that opportunity, though, majoring in English and political science and contemplating careers as a writer or journalist while doing so. But he chose a different tack — one encouraged by his grandfather — and enrolled at Western New England University School of Law.

Upon graduation from WNEU in 1989, he found himself in a tough job market as a recession that would last the better part of half a decade settled in on the region. He borrowed money from some family members and opened a private practice in the same building in Springfield’s Court Square that his grandfather practiced from.

But the phone didn’t ring much, and he eventually sought to fill an opening on the staff of then-Hampden County District Attorney Matty Ryan. That assignment lasted only six months, as Ryan’s eventual successor, Bennett, did not keep him on after assuming office.

However, Bennett later rehired him, and he worked five years as an assistant DA, cutting his teeth on a number of high-profile cases, including several murder trials. Despite his success in that role, he sought another challenge — and potentially much larger paycheck — and returned to private practice.

He would remain there for 17 years, enjoying success on the other side of the legal system — defending clients — and on the all-important business side of the equation as well.

Eventually, he became as passionate about defense work as he was with his prosecutorial skills, and when pressed to compare and contrast the two, said that he found the former in some ways as rewarding professionally as the latter.

“What I like in both of them is high-level, high-profile, difficult cases,” he explained. “There’s an enormous sense of satisfaction that comes with successfully prosecuting a case and helping victims. But, quite frankly, I think that feeling is rivaled, and perhaps equaled, by the sense you get in the successful defense of a case and being the person who stands between one individual and the government, the prosecution, and the resources of that prosecution.

“With the murder cases I handled, there were primarily appointed cases — it’s one individual who’s been deemed to be indigent; we’ll appoint you a lawyer, and there you go, good luck with that,” he continued, explaining, in more detail, that sense of satisfaction he enjoyed from helping clients prevail in such matters. “You have a limited budget and limited resources, but there’s no limit to energy and effort you can put in.

“The satisfaction is not of ‘I want to help someone get away with something,’ or ‘I want to pull one over on someone,’” he went on. “The satisfaction is working within the system and making the system work; our system means nothing if there’s not vigorous defense work forcing the government, be it the Commonwealth or the federal government, to meet their burden of proof. Every good defense makes the next prosecution better.”

He said that, if he were ever put in a position of having to choose between the two, that would be a very difficult decision. So it’s fortunate, perhaps, that circumstances now mean he won’t have to make such a choice — at least until he turns 65.

No Objections

As he talked about his career and the many twists and turns it has taken, Mastroanni referred early and often to the notion of timing, and how certain events — from a recession to the retirement of a federal judge — have played a big role in shaping his many difficult decisions.

One such point in time was Bill Bennett’s decision to not seek another term as DA in 2010 after 20 years in that office.

Mastroanni admitted he was already thinking about pursuit of new and different challenges at the time, but Bennett’s decision in some ways forced his hand — again, amid concerns from collegaues and family members that he might be making a big mistake.

“The question from friends and family was, ‘why? What are you doing? … you can’t walk away from this,’” he said, referring to the very successful private practice he had built. “At that point, it was something inside me professionally — a need to do more. It was this reflection, this self-examination of where I was, where I wanted to be, and what I wanted to be doing that led me to run.

“I wanted a challenge, I wanted a change, and I really felt I could do a good job as district attorney,” he went on. “I had very specific ideas about the criminal-justice system and how it could work better.”

But while he had the will to seek the post, he wasn’t exactly dealing from a position of strength, at least to most observers.

Indeed, while the DA’s position is non-political by nature, the processing of winning is quite political, and Mastroanni, upon entering the race, also decided he would wage his fight as an independent. That choice would impact everything from his participation in scheduled debates to raising money, but he stuck to his guns and eventually prevailed.

In the winter of 2011, he settled into the job — or at least the part he wanted to settle into.

He admitted that he had no real appetite for what could be called the operations side of the office — the budgetary matters and many aspects of managing 150 people and several offices. So he effectively delegated — something he says isn’t easy, and is an art form unto itself.

“That was like running full-speed into a brick wall when I encountered that administrative setup at the district attorney’s office,” he told BusinessWest. “You have a lot of employees, an IT team, a state police squadron assigned to you … so I delegated. I had to choose what to delegate, and I chose not to delegate the trial work; I thought I was certainly more qualified and competent as the trial lawyer who could take on the big case than I was as the person who would walk in and take care of the budget.”

Thus, he focused on trying cases (one of his first involved a successful prosecution in the murder of Cathedral High School student Conner Reynolds) and myriad other aspects of a very broad job description.

That list included everything from making progress with a large list of cold cases to going out into area classrooms and providing lessons on how the judicial system worked.

“We opened new units — we opened an unsolved-crime unit and a DNA unit, and we made really big advances in some cold cases that had not been worked on in some time,” he explained. “We solved several cases that were 20 years old and more. I developed a way to use drug-forfeiture money to essentially pay for the overtime so police officers could work on these cold cases.

“Springfield has so many unsolved cases, and one of the reasons they’re unsolved is because new cases keep flooding in every day,” he went on, adding that he developed a process by which trained individuals could devote the needed time, energy, and imagination to such cold cases. And many wound up being solved.

“That program was cranking,” he continued. “Meanwhile, our community outreach was just unprecedented; we were in the schools with all kinds of programs … it was wonderful, challenging, stressful times at the district attorney’s office. That’s a difficult job, and I was really enjoying all the progress we were making.”

It was at this point that the unexpected and “perhaps even unwelcome” search for a successor to the retiring Judge Michael Ponsor commenced in late 2013.

Decisions, Decisions

Then-recently elected U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren was placed in charge of the process of selecting a new federal judge, said Mastroanni, who said he had no intention of pursuing the post until he was encouraged to do so by members of the Gertner Committee, a panel appointed by Warren to solicit, interview, and comment on applications for federal District Court vacancies, and so-named because it was chaired by former District Court Judge Nancy Gertner.

Although he entertained those entreaties to become a candidate, Mastroianni admitted to feeling what amounted to a sense of relief that he missed a posted deadline of Jan. 31, 2013 for submitting a formal application.

“In my mind, how a lot of things work is that I’ll put things off as long as I can, and if I just put it off long enough, it will just take care of itself,” he explained. “I put that into practice with my judicial application. Before I knew it, the deadline had come and gone, and I didn’t get my application in, and I said to myself, ‘that’s too bad … I’ve been so busy as district attorney, I didn’t have a chance to fill this out. It’s just not right; I’m too busy as D.A. This is obviously where I should be.’”

As fate would have it, though, the deadline was extended, and Mastroianni would apply and eventually get the nod after many strenuous rounds of interviews.

When asked to analyze that result and how it came about, he would theorize that Warren was seeking diversity from the next federal judge, not only in the context that one might think, meaning racial or gender diversity.

“I think they thought my political affiliation — choosing to be an independent — as well as working at the highest level on both the prosecution side and the defense side gave me a rather unique perspective and view of the world and the legal system.”

With that perspective — and that résumé detailed above — Mastroianni entered his new role and adjustment period with that degree of trepidation he noted. But he has, in fact, found a comfort zone.

“I knew during my first couple of trials that the adjustment was going to be OK — I wasn’t feeling the need to look at the case that was developing in front of me as the trial lawyer,” he said, adding that he anticipated that being able to do so would be a sizable challenge. “I was not substituting myself for the lawyer in question; I was appreciating the art of trial work, and I do consider it an art.

“I found the challenge of presiding over that and watching how it develops to be so exciting, and so new,” he went on, adding that, while he’s observing and analyzing what the lawyers handling the case are doing, those opinions don’t manifest themselves in words or actions in the courtroom.

“I’m perfectly happy and content with thinking in my mind about what that lawyer does and saying to myself, ‘how could you have done that? What you really needed to do was this,’ or watching a lawyer do something just perfectly and thinking, ‘that was well-done.’ For me to interrupt lawyers and try to make arguments for litigants and try to control how a case goes, that would be going overboard and not being well-suited to be in my position.”

The period of adjustment has other aspects to it, he said, noting, for example, that most of the cases that come to him are civil in nature, while most of his direct experience is with criminal matters.

Overall, though, while Mastroanni had some concerns about whether he could make an easy adjustment to a life of hearing arguments rather than presenting them, he was confident (there’s that word again) that he could do the job and do it well.

“I knew that I could rise and meet the challenges of this job knowing that I would have regrets,” he said. “But I’m adjusting, I very much like what I’m doing, and the forecast looks good.”

He’s even making the time to go into area classrooms and provide lessons on the legal system, as he did when he was DA, and will begin teaching a class in civil law at his alma mater this fall.

As for adrenaline, well, he still gets to experience those rushes, only in much different ways.

“I’m getting an enormous amount of satisfaction from seeing cases that I take develop, crafting the law as I see it applying to facts, and ultimately doing justice in terms of doing the right thing,” he said in conclusion. “That’s really what we do, and that sense of satisfaction from seeing a case come in, taking it from the beginning, working with it, and leaving here having made law, effecting law in a way that other cases that come after you are going to cite … that’s not the same kind of adrenaline rush I described while waiting for a jury to return a verdict, but that’s a satisfaction and type of rush that’s very, very rewarding.”

Closing Arguments

While Mastroianni maintains that he’s successfully adjusted to life on the bench, he nonetheless wishes he could somehow keep this job and experience all those emotions he mentioned when talking about that moment when the verdict is read by the jury foreman.

“I would absolutely love and welcome if there could somehow ever be a setup where I could try a case again,” he told BusinessWest. “That would be like the fantasy football league for me; that would be absolutely it.”

Such a setup isn’t possible, though, and Mastroianni understands that he’ll have to wait until he’s at least 65 to even think about being back on the other side of the bench.

For now, though, he’s focused on that new standard for adrenaline rush and finding new ways to experience it.

As he said, this is an adjustment period that is still ongoing.

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

Recent Rulings Put Independent Contractors in Spotlight

Classified Information

By DAVID McBRIDE, Esq.

David McBride

This July, two developments touching on the topic of independent contractors and the issue of potential worker misclassification have been in the news.

As background, it’s nearly impossible for Massachusetts employers to classify a worker as anything other than an employee: the state’s Independent Contractor Law is very narrow, and most workers will not meet the test for independent-contractor status.

Nonetheless, last month, the federal District Court for Massachusetts ruled that federal law preempts part of Massachusetts’ Independent Contractor Law as it applies to businesses that can be considered ‘motor carriers.’ Just one week later, the U.S. Department of Labor issued an administrator’s interpretation on how to determine whether workers should be classified as employees or independent contractors under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

For most Massachusetts employers, however, neither of these developments represents a significant change.

Part of State’s Independent-contractor Test Pre-empted by Federal Law

In 2013, the Massachusetts Delivery Assoc. (MDA), a trade organization representing businesses involved in same-day delivery services, filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming that Massachusetts’ independent-contractor test is preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration Act (FAAA).

In brief, the FAAA preempts state laws “related to a price, route, or service of any motor carrier … with respect to the transportation of property.” The problem for MDA and its member businesses was that, based on the plain language of the state’s independent contractor law, they all would fail the test because the services provided by the drivers are directly within the members’ ordinary course of business, known as ‘prong B’ of the Independent Contractor Law’s ‘ABC’ test.

MDA argued that, to comply with the Independent Contractor Law, its members must change their national business model or risk penalties. National companies that utilize independent owner-operators to deliver products in the other 49 states are unable to do so in Massachusetts; no other state has made the use of this business model unlawful.

Complying with the Massachusetts statute, therefore, would drive up costs and adversely affect prices, routes, and services. Additionally, not only is the Independent Contractor Law expressly pre-empted by the FAAA, but it also imposes an impermissible burden on interstate commerce. The District Court agreed with the MDA that the FAAA pre-empts prong B of the ABC test because, if it were applied to any motor carriers, their drivers would have to be classified as employees rather than independent contractors. Motor carriers have a long history of using independent contractors to perform deliveries. Therefore, forcing MDA’s member businesses to classify the drivers as employees would necessarily affect prices, routes, or services.”

However, the court made it clear that its ruling is limited to only motor carriers and that the pre-emption is limited to prong B of the statute’s ABC test, not the entire test, and therefore it is still possible that the motor carriers could fail the other two prongs of the test and be required to treat drivers as employees.

Shedding Light on Federal Misclassification Analysis

On a national level, misclassification of employees as independent contractors has been on the radar screen for the U.S. Department of Labor for some time. The administrator’s interpretation issued by the DOL on July 15 is, at its essence, a guidance document explaining the factors and considerations taken into account by the DOL when analyzing cases involving independent-contractor misclassification cases.

In contrast with the Massachusetts statute, the DOL uses the ‘economic-reality test’ to decide whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor. The guidance explains how all of its numerous factors are applied in each case, with none of the factors dominating over the others.

According to the DOL, the test is almost more of an economic-dependence test than an economic-reality test, in the sense that the central question that all the factors contribute to is whether the worker in question is “economically dependent on the employer or truly in business for him or herself.” This is not a shift in philosophy, just a clarification on the existing process. For Massachusetts employers, this guidance will be relevant in misclassification cases brought under the FLSA.

Significance for Massachusetts Employers?

Neither the MDA case nor the DOL guidance have an effect on the way that most Massachusetts employers should classify their workers. Massachusetts’ independent-contractor statute remains one of the toughest in the nation, and almost all workers in the state should be considered employers, not independent contractors.

The MDA case is of great significance to motor-carrier employers, but has little relevance to most employers. The DOL guidance relates only to the analysis under federal law and is not a change in their current process, but rather a further explanation of how the DOL is interpreting the law. Massachusetts employers are bound by state law when determining whether their workers should be classified as employees or independent contractors.

Because violations of the Independent Contractor Law can create huge liability, Massachusetts employers should consult with labor and employment counsel to ensure they are complying with both state and federal law in this complicated area.

David McBride is an associate with the labor and employment firm Skoler, Abbott & Presser, P.C., concentrating his practice on labor relations and employment law for management; (413) 737-4753.

Protecting Digital Assets

They’re Just as Important as More Traditional Forms of Property

By ANGELA P. STAFFORD, Esq.

Angelina P. Stafford

When taking inventory of property, most people focus on the tangible, material items they own, such as their house, car, clothing, jewelry, and photographs. Property, however, is not limited solely to these types of possessions.

As people have become more reliant on technology, more aspects of their personal lives are being shared online. For example, it is just as easy to post vacation photos to Facebook as it is to print copies, and to ‘tweet’ the latest personal updates rather than calling family and friends. Likewise, it is more convenient to finish Christmas shopping on Amazon, instead of braving the local mall during the busy holiday season.

All of this electronic information makes up a person’s ‘digital assets,’ and, just like material belongings, people accumulate various digital assets during their lives. Digital assets include, for example, blog posts; social-media accounts (like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Tumblr); e-mail accounts; photos, videos, and communications shared or stored electronically; and financial accounts (such as PayPal and Amazon).

End of the Road

It is simple enough to share and store information electronically, but accessing these digital assets after incapacity or death becomes much more difficult. Although the personal representative of an estate is charged with collecting and administering a deceased person’s assets, at this time Massachusetts laws do not give the personal representative power to access a decedent’s online accounts. In fact, only a handful of states have enacted statutes authorizing fiduciaries to access a decedent’s electronic information and to terminate online accounts.

In many cases — in part because fiduciaries lack authority to access digital assets — the service-provider agreement (which the user agreed to when creating the account or sharing the information) controls who is authorized to access online accounts and, ultimately, what happens to them. For a variety of reasons, including privacy laws, some service-provider agreements are stringent and provide only for the termination of the account upon verification of the user’s death.

Yahoo!, for example, will remove a deceased user’s account after receiving verification of death, but explicitly refuses to provide access to the accounts. Because access to the user’s accounts are not allowed, it would be difficult to retrieve and save information, including photographs, video, letters, or other posts, which will eventually be deleted when the account is removed by the service provider.

On the other hand, some service providers have developed mechanisms that enable a deceased user’s family to keep the account active or to retrieve information from the user’s online accounts. In 2013, Google began to offer a solution called the ‘inactive account manager,’ which allows a user to elect what will happen to their data once the account has been inactive for a designated period of time, by either having all data deleted or sending it to a nominated individual.

Most recently, in February 2015, Facebook added a new feature that allows users to designate a ‘legacy contact’ who can manage the user’s account after they pass away. Once notified that the user has died, Facebook will memorialize the account, and the legacy contact will be able to post on the timeline, respond to new friend requests, and update the user’s profile photo. Like Google’s inactive account manager, Facebook users may even give the legacy contact permission to download an archive of the photos and posts they shared on Facebook.

The inability to access digital assets may result in a significant loss — particularly when these assets, had they existed in physical form, could have been collected by the fiduciary and easily distributed to family and friends. Unless someone is able to access these accounts directly, and until Massachusetts establishes a law that gives fiduciaries the power to access and manage digital assets, the disposition of digital assets is based primarily on the service-provider agreement.

Steps to Take Now

I suggest that you prepare a detailed inventory of your digital assets that includes website and online account information, user names and passwords, access information, and instructions specifying how the account should be handled after your death or incapacity. You should also review the terms and conditions applicable to each website with which you have an account or maintain digital assets.

Most importantly, contact an attorney who is aware of the nuances of digital assets and is able to advise you of your options to assist you with your estate-planning needs.

Angelina P. Stafford is an attorney with the Springfield-based firm Doherty Wallace, Pillsbury and Murphy, P.C., and her practice encompasses all areas of business law and taxation. She specializes in estate planning, estate administration, and probate litigation; (413) 584-1500.

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In Any Case: A List of Law Firms in Western Mass.

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Healthcare Workforce Partnership Aligns Education, Workplace

Health Care Sections

Roundtable Refinements

David Cruise says employers consider the partnership a good way to find quality workers, among other benefits.

Anticipating the workforce needs of healthcare providers five, 10, or 20 years down the road doesn’t require a crystal ball. It does require forward thinking, initiative, and effective partnerships between the many players involved with creating a large, effective workforce. And these are the ingredients that go into the Healthcare Workforce Partnership of Western Mass., an arm of the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County.

Dramatic changes are expected to take place in the field of healthcare and the way it is delivered over the next five years. But graduates from local colleges should be well prepared to fill the needs of regional employers, thanks to the Healthcare Workforce Partnership of Western Mass., an arm of the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County, or REB.

“Our partners come together to think through strategies to respond to ever-changing workforce needs,” said David Cruise, the REB’s president and CEO. “Part of the challenge is to be forward-thinking, innovative, and able to anticipate and balance supply versus demand within the healthcare workforce sector.”

The partnership has two divisions: the Western Mass. Nursing Collaborative, composed of employers and nursing school deans, directors, and faculty members; and the Allied Health Committee, which includes employers, educators, training providers, one-stop career centers, and project managers and personnel. They have each collaborated on a number of new programs and initiatives that Cruise believes are making a difference in educating, attracting, and retaining qualified healthcare professionals.

One of the workforce partnership’s current projects is an on-the-job training program that allows new hires to earn while they learn, and provides them with the knowledge or skills needed to succeed in their specific position. It’s funded through a two-year grant, and reimburses employers 50% of the workers’ salaries during a pre-set training period that cannot exceed 20 weeks.

Cruise said the first year was spent developing the program with employers. And although the wage reimbursement offsets the cost of the additional training the program provides, employers say it’s a secondary benefit.

“They believe it’s an efficient way to find good candidates and regard the reimbursement simply as a value added,” Cruise told BusinessWest as he talked about the process of selecting and presenting employers with a pool of qualified job applicants.

They come from a variety of venues, and a significant number are referred by local colleges. Others come from the one-stop career centers (FutureWorks and Career Point) which conduct assessments before choosing candidates, while the remainder apply directly for advertised positions in a traditional manner.

However, a large percentage have some clinical experience, because the grant can only be used to fund training for nurses or people in allied healthcare fields, and each employer has to provide the REB with a monthly progress report on their new hires.

Although the grant limits what professions are eligible for reimbursement, the program was enhanced in late June by a $25,000 grant from Bank of America that does not specify what jobs it can be used for.

“It will offer us greater flexibility and can be cobbled with other grants,” Cruise explained. “The REB is matching the $25,000, and the money will provide reimbursements for 10 new employees in nursing, medical assisting, health information technology, medical billing/coding, and other positions that include pharmacy technicians and community health workers.

“We’re trying to shorten the recruitment period for employers with this program,” he went on. “They have complete authority over the final hires, and this is putting people to work and giving them opportunities.”

Targeting Young People

The Healthcare Workforce Partnership works on many fronts, but has prioritized its goals, said Cruise.

They include creating more workforce diversity in Hampden, Franklin, and Hampshire counties; educating more advanced nurse practitioners and physician assistants; the formation of a Career Pathways Initiative that brings together high schools and community colleges to create industry-specific programs that align education, training, and employment opportunities for today’s youth; support for new graduates as they transition into jobs; and education that promotes team-based healthcare.

Cruise said Chicopee Comprehensive High School and Holyoke Community College are piloting a Pathways to Prosperity Health Sciences program that is similar to a grade-9-to-14 career path model that was launched several years ago at West Springfield High School to fill jobs in the precision manufacturing sector.

The impetus began after Cruise contacted Kenneth Widelo, Comp’s career and technical education director, and explained the grade-9-to-14 model, then met with officials from Holyoke Community College (HCC) and set up a meeting between the two schools.

“It quickly became obvious that a program could be mutually beneficial, and although there wasn’t any funding to create a healthcare model, they felt it was so important that they cobbled resources to make it work,” said Cruise.

Widelo said they had several meetings with representatives from HCC to create an appropriate curriculum before the program was launched. “We had researched healthcare-delivery systems used by other vocational technical schools, but they all put students into one very specific track, such as working as a certified nursing assistant,” he told BusinessWest, adding that their goal was to offer a broader range of options.

The pilot program kicked off two years ago with 10th graders, which allowed the high school to make refinements to the curriculum. It has been highly successful, and allows students to earn 21 credits at HCC before they graduate high school.

“After they matriculate, they can transfer to the community college or attend a four-year college and go into nursing, work to become a doctor, or pursue a degree in healthcare business management,” Widelo said, noting that internships are part of the curriculum.

However, both schools are looking forward to the fall semester, which will mark the first class of incoming freshmen in their newly created Medical Science Academy, which is in line with the grades-9-to-14 career pathway they set out to establish.

Wideo said recruitment efforts for participants involved a variety of measures. Students from the city’s two middle schools completed a career-assessment survey, and two career counselors talked with them, then worked with the middle school guidance departments to identify interested candidates. They were interviewed, and a group of 40 graduating eighth-graders was selected and will begin their course of study this month in HCC’s science laboratory.

“We’re really excited about the program,” said Widelo, adding that students had expressed interest in healthcare careers in the past before the track was created.

Cruise said the students are enthusiastic and understand that the program will help them jumpstart a career.

“The academy has a rigorous academic program that has been aligned with the demands students need to satisfy in order to move seamlessly into an associate-degree program,” he told BusinessWest, noting that the five college courses they take in high school will save each student approximately $3,000 in tuition.

“It’s a model we think could be used by other schools, and once we get the template down, there is no doubt that it could be replicated,” he went on. However, it will require willing partners and involvement by the private sector, which could include summer jobs that bring the students’ academic studies to life.

Filling a Critical Need

The Western Mass. Nursing Collaborative, meanwhile, is also doing its best to guarantee there will be enough well-educated nurses to fill a growing need in Western Mass., which is especially important because registered nurses represent the largest segment of the healthcare workforce.

“They’re working from a set of priorities and updating their strategic plan by setting specific goals,” Cruise noted. “We have more than 40 very active educational institutions and employers who are members, and it’s important to provide a forum for them because the healthcare landscape is changing rapidly. The needs are so dramatic that they have to be innovative and responsive as they make plans to move forward and meet the workforce needs of the future.”

Their priorities include increasing the diversity of the nursing workforce, ensuring that nurses have the competencies and full scope of practice needed to meet the changing health needs of the community; increasing the number of nurses with a bachelor’s degree or higher; increasing the supply and diversity of nursing faculty in area programs and the retention of new nurses in all care settings; and sustaining the partnership.

Patricia Samra, a registered nurse and director of Clinical Workforce Planning and Finance for Baystate Health, said the Western Mass Nursing Collaborative was formed in 2006, thanks to a three-year grant, and was initially called Partners Invested in Nursing. “It focused on workforce initiatives and marked the first time that major healthcare providers and educators in the region convened,” she said, explaining that they included all area schools of nursing along with employers that ranged from hospitals to long-term care providers, who have been working steadily to make sure there is a pipeline of qualified nursing students who are supported after they graduate and get jobs.

The support is imperative, because approximately 30% of nurses leave the profession less than two years after they begin working.

“They burn out due to a lack of confidence,” said Samra, adding that Baystate has created a program to lower that rate.

It brings newly hired nurses together monthly to share emotions as well as clinical challenges, and they are given a case study to analyze, which involves discussing best practices and allows them to reflect on their own experiences.

“They may go into our simulation lab and practice techniques, but the goal is not to gain clinical experience, it’s about critical thinking at the bedside centered around quality care and patient safety,” said Samra, noting that their retention rate has risen significantly since the program began.

Karen Rousseau, director of the Division of Nursing at American International College, says the school works closely with Baystate, and some of its staff members are clinical instructors.

The school also has alliances with other employers, because nursing students have to complete a designated number of clinical hours, which is done in a variety of settings.

“One of the biggest projects our students have been involved with in the past two years is helping patients transition from an acute-care setting to their homes,” said Rousseau, noting that they have shadowed nurses from visiting nurse associations, then worked with the nurses to identify gaps to improve care.

AIC is also a partner in the Health Inter-professional Educators of Pioneer Valley, which seeks to promote communication between students in areas such as ethical dilemmas.

Baystate’s Patricia Samura (left) and AIC’s Karen Rousseau say the Western Mass. Nursing Collaborative has forged strong bonds between hospitals and nursing schools.

“It grew out of the Cooperating Colleges of Greater Springfield, and encompasses AIC, Western New England University, Elms College, Springfield Technical Community College, HCC, Baypath University, Springfield College, Westfield State University, UMass Amherst, and members from Baystate Medical Center who are interested in supporting interprofessional education and collaboration in health care,” Rousseau said.

Keeping Pace

The programs created by the Healthcare Workforce Partnership of Western Mass under REB’s umbrella ensure that communication takes place between schools, training facilities, and employers. “It’s a challenge to meet the headwinds we are facing, but there is a growing demand for healthcare professionals both at the patient level and away from the bedside,” Cruise noted.

As a result, the collaborations that are formed are taken seriously by members.

“We all believe the partnership is very valuable,” said Samra. “The REB helps get organizations to the table for two to four hours each month, and even though we are all busy, full-time working professionals, it’s worthwhile because it adds value to all of our programs.”

And it also helps ensure a steady flow of workers in the pipeline to meet the growing healthcare needs of this region for years to come.

American River Nutrition is Opening New Frontiers with Vitamin E

Health Care Sections

Down to a Science

Dr. Barrie Tan, seen here in the early stages of construction of American River Nutrition’s plant in Hadley, says he’s “all in” when it comes to researching and manufacturing tocotrienol vitamin E.

For some time now, Dr. Barrie Tan says, vitamin E suffered from what might be considered a public relations problem of sorts.

Indeed, the dietary supplement, a noted antioxidant discovered in 1922 and available to the public for decades now, had been drawing mostly unfavorable reviews for its disappointing lack of benefits for cardiovascular health. One large-scale clinical study even concluded that it actually increases the risk of prostate cancer.

But Tan, president of American River Nutrition (ARN), stressed that the bad press essentially concerned what would be considered one form of vitamin E.

As he explained, the supplement is not a single compound — contrary to popular belief up until a few decades ago — but rather a family of at least eight similar, yet structurally different, molecules. And while the once-popular vitamin E alpha-tocopherol has seen its stock fall somewhat in recent years, the lesser-known form of the supplement — tocotrienols, as they’re called — have seen theirs rise amid links (through tests on animals) to everything from improved cardiovascular health to delaying the onset of cataracts; from enhanced bone health to cancer treatment and prevention.

And it is a product known as DeltaGold, with the marketing slogan “Simply Tocotrienol,” that Tan will be manufacturing at a 25,000-square-foot facility now taking shape in Westmass Development’s Hadley University Business Park, in the shadow of the UMass Amherst campus, where he was once a professor of Food Science and Nutrition.

In recent months, the company, the plant, and Tan have been in the news — primarily because the facility will use propane rather then natural gas, simply because there is a moratorium on new natural-gas hookups in that region, a ban that has many concerned about possible long-term effects on economic development and that has also thrust the proposed but highly controversial Kinder-Morgan pipeline even further into the spotlight.

But Tan hopes to change the tenor of the headlines concerning his venture, and, in many ways, he already has.

Indeed, there’s been a steady stream of articles in various health publications regarding tocotrienols, DeltaGold, and Tan. Most of these stories talk about the supplement’s potential and about ongoing studies and trials. However, evidence is mounting that this natural form of vitamin E, derived from annatto (an orange-red condiment and food coloring derived from the seeds of the achiote tree — more on that later), could have a number of significant health benefits.

“We’re engaging a study on cardiovascular benefits, and there are also studies on several forms of cancer,” said Tan, adding that the phrase “Simply Tocotrienol” captures the essence of this development, and its significance, because DeltaGold is considered to be the only natural, annatto-derived tocotrienol that is free of tocopherols.

And that’s important because research has shown that tocopherol interferes with tocotrienol benefits, essentially resulting in that aforementioned bad press, he explained, adding that, in 1996, it was first determined that the cholesterol-modulating properties of tocotrienol were found to be compromised by what Tan called a vitamin E “sibling” — alpha-tocopherol.

“The researchers concluded that effective tocotrienol preparations should contain less than 15% of alpha-tocopherol and more than 60% of desmethyl tocotrienols [gamma- and delta-tocotrienol],” he told BusinessWest, adding that the only natural source of tocotrienols that fits those tight parameters is annatto, derived from trees grown mostly in Central and South America, but also India and Sri Lanka.

Tocotrienol is extracted from annatto, a substance derived from the seeds of the achiote tree.

Tan has found a way to extract the tocotrienol from annatto through a proprietary distillation process that produces no toxic or harmful byproducts, and he’s ready to take his venture to a much higher level.

For this issue, BusinessWest talked at length with Tan about DeltaGold, American River Nutrition, research on possible pharmaceutical versions of the product, and where he wants to take this company in the years to come.

A Venture Takes Root

Tan has taken a rather circuitous route to his current station as an entrepreneur and researcher at the forefront of developments with vitamin E. In fact, he summed up that path and detailed what’s transpired over the past several years by borrowing from Robert Frost.

“We certainly took the road less-traveled,” he said, referring to what became years of research and development of the far-lesser-known variety of vitamin E, and eventually DeltaGold. It’s a trek that’s taken him from his native Malaysia to Amherst and eventually to South America, where he found not only what he originally set out to find — a plant rich in carotene — but also something more promising, and lucrative, just a few yards away.

Our story begins in late November 1982, when Tan arrived at UMass Amherst. He taught there for more than a decade, first in the Chemistry department and later the Food Science department. It was during that latter assignment when he initiated work with vegetable oil and, through that, the tocotrienol form of vitamin E, which he found in palm oil.

“We didn’t know much more than that this was a different kind of vitamin E,” he explained. “We started doing research and found that it was different in its properties than tocopherol.”

Research in this area eventually led to formation of a business venture called Carotech, which, as the name suggests, was involved in products derived from carotene. It was later sold to a Malaysian concern. At the time, Tan said, he lacked the skills needed to lead a business, and when the Asian economy tanked in the mid-‘90s, Tan started a lab from which he created American River Nutrition in 1998. He told BusinessWest that he soon put aside work with tocotrienols and went back to researching potential medical uses of carotene.

This work took him to South America in early 2000 to search for a plant said to be a potent source of carotene. He found that plant, a much larger version of the traditional, garden-variety marigold, but 30 feet away, he found something else.

“It’s what the British call the ‘lipstick plant,’” he noted, referring to the achiote, which bears a red fruit, or seeds, which natives of that region used as body paint and, yes, lipstick; other uses include the coloring of cheese, margarine, fabric, and other products.

But Tan made another key discovery.

“The chemist in me hypothesized a theory,” he explained, “which is that there must be something very powerful that protects the carotene color from this annatto, which is not protected otherwise, from degradation. I wondered what it might be.

“This question that I raised eventually helped us in the discovery of this form of vitamin E [natural tocotrienol],” he went on. “We thought that it could be a powerful antioxidant, or anything, really. But shocking to us, and to everyone else, it was the most potent form of vitamin E.”

Seed Money

Fast-forwarding a little, Tan said ARN eventually filed a patent and commenced work on a method for effectively extracting this new form of vitamin E, one free of tocopherol, from the plant’s fruit.
“I decided that this was a gamble worth taking,” he said. “So … to use the simplest term I can think of, I was all in.”

Over the next six years, research continued into the engineering of a process to extract the tocotrienol and take what eventually became known as DeltaGold to the marketplace.

“It was very risky — we weren’t making any sales,” he said. “Those were lean years, but we had a rich patent, and we found places that would process this for us in the United States and were able to get into the business.”

The timing wasn’t ideal — the nation’s economy nosedived in 2008, slowing Tan’s pace of progress with his venture. But a critical mass of sales had been achieved, and solid foundation had been established on which to build.

And he’s doing just that — figuratively and quite literally.

Indeed, with financing from Citizens Bank and the U.S. Small Business Administration, Tan is erecting his facility in Hadley, one in which he expects to grow the workforce from the current nine to 15 or 20.

Meanwhile, he’s working to broaden a customer base that already includes a number of manufacturers of dietary supplements and related products, including Nutricology, Biotics Research Corp., Bronson Laboratories, and many others who use DeltaGold in products bearing their brand names.

Tan’s undertaking is another gamble, but he remains all in, as he said, because the news on tocotrienols, and especially those derived from annatto, is increasingly promising.

One recent study conducted by scientists at the University of Missouri, for example, found that certain doses of tocotrienol, combined with a healthy diet, decreased lipid levels significantly after four weeks. According to another report’s findings, published in Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, tocotrienols from annatto, mainly composed of delta-tocotrienol, stimulated bone formation and cut back bone decay in a post-menopausal osteoporosis rat model.

Another study found that vitamin E tocotrienals from annatto may slow the development and reduce the number and size of breast tumors in rats, and still another concluded that annatto tocotrienol may delay the onset and progression of cataracts when given in a topical formulation.

“There might be 100 researchers at universities and institutions conducting research on tocotrienols, and they seem to say that they are good for chronic conditions,” said Tan, listing as examples type-2 diabetes and certain types of cancer, such as breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and prostate cancer.

Research involving DeltaGold and a number of cancers is ongoing, with involvement from students at the university, he continued, adding that others, as noted, are exploring its potential benefits with cardiovascular health, bone health, cholesterol, and other health issues.

“Over the past five years, we’ve been focusing on investments in clinical studies,” Tan went on. “Everyone wants to know what this will do in human beings. It’s an easy question to ask, but not an easy question to answer.”

Fruits of His Labor

Just how that question is eventually answered will obviously be a huge factor in the future of DeltaGold and ARN, Tan acknowledged.

But in many ways, the gamble he has taken is already paying off.

That chance discovery in South America years ago is bearing fruit in many ways, and this venture has tremendous potential to blossom into a business with national and international reach.

Indeed, by taking that road less traveled, Tan and ARN have embarked on an intriguing and potentially lucrative entrepreneurial path.

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

Listing of Western Mass., Behavioral-health Services

Health Care Sections

Mind Matters: Behavioral-health Services in the Area

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Attendance Surging, the Big E Looks to the Future

Sections Travel and Tourism

Fair Forecast

Big E Crowd

Since taking over as CEO of the Eastern States Exposition in 2012, Gene Cassidy has overseen record-setting attendance during the 17-day Big E fair and a robust series of year-round events that, together, generate nearly a half-billion dollars in economic impact. But that success is no fluke; it’s a result of year-round work and the ability to plan years down the road. That road will soon bring several challenges, from increased competition for dollars (notably from a Springfield casino) to a very worrisome highway reconstruction. But with a century of history behind it, the Big E seems poised for a promising future.

Gene Cassidy buys groceries just like everyone else, but he doesn’t look forward to it.

“I’ve said this before: There are very few places to work, places you can establish yourself as a professional, where your patrons look forward to supporting you,” said Cassidy, CEO of the Eastern States Exposition (ESE). “Don D’Amour [CEO of Big Y] is a good friend of mine, but, as much as I like Don, I hate grocery shopping. But people want to come to the fair. So we have to work 24/7/365 to make sure this stays relevant in people’s minds and they come to support us.”

That year-round effort — which is intensifying this month as the Big E, the ESE’s flagship, 17-day agricultural fair, prepares to open on Sept. 18 — has resulted in record-setting attendance figures every year since Cassidy, who has been with Eastern States since 1993, took the reins from Wayne McCary in 2012.

Gene Cassidy says record-setting attendance for the past three fairs is a result of year-round planning.

“Obviously, our goal is to set records,” he said. “We want to create an event that people want to be a part of, and we really operate 365 days a year with that in mind. We want people to buy into the whole product that is the Eastern States Exposition.”

And they do, he continued. But it’s fun with a purpose.

“We’re geared toward families and geared toward fun, but we have a mission,” Cassidy told BusinessWest. “We are stewards of a nonprofit organization that’s charged with the promotion of agriculture and industry for the six New England states.”

Cassidy reveres the fair’s founder, Joshua L. Brooks, an industrialist so concerned that agriculture was losing ground in New England at the turn of the last century — with so much being produced out of the Midwest and South Central states — that he persuaded the National Dairy Show to move its annual event from Chicago to West Springfield in 1916, christening the new event the Eastern States Agricultural and Industrial Exposition.

“That name was so cumbersome that, in 1923, Mr. Brooks shortened it to Eastern States Exposition,” Cassidy said. “But he was an industrialist; he wanted to make sure we pay attention to industry in our region, and that’s something that’s easily lost in translation to the average fair patron. Even residents of West Springfield may not associate Eastern States with industry, but we play a significant role in supporting educational endeavors to that end.”

As treasurer of the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County (REB), Cassidy has long been involved in efforts to meet the workforce needs of area industries by supporting education and training programs. “We need to make sure we have the resources to keep building a workforce for the future.”

He noted that trades aren’t taught in high schools like they were 25 years ago, having been replaced by an emphasis on preparing students for a liberal-arts education in college, and that shift has contributed to a skills gap area companies grapple with today.

From Maine lobster to Rhode Island chowder to anything that can possibly be deep-fried, the Big E offers food for every taste.From Maine lobster to Rhode Island chowder

“The machine-tool industry will need 44,000 more people in the next 10 years, and at the rate we’re educating these kids, we can only produce half that number,” he said. “We have to change the way we’re doing things today if we want to keep these core industries relevant in our economy. Otherwise, those companies will move somewhere else.”

The Big E has long played a role in raising awareness of industry in the region, but that has become an increasingly difficult task.

“We’ve struggled with that,” Cassidy said. “There was a time at the fair when there were more elements of industry; we had big trucks and combines, machine-tooling equipment on display. In this age, there are now trade shows that satisfy those specific markets, and they advertise on the Internet.”

Years ago, he explained, companies like Westinghouse and General Electric would introduce new products at the Big E, and Nash Motors would put brand-new models on display. “In this contemporary age, fairs don’t fill that need anymore; there are other means by which companies communicate with customers.”

To fill that gap, Cassidy and his team bring as many niche trade shows as possible to the fairgrounds throughout the year, but the Big E itself has had to evolve past its industry-centric roots. No worries, though — there’s still plenty on tap.

Farm System

Agriculture, for instance.

“The lion’s share of our revenue goes to supporting best practices in agriculture production,” Cassidy told BusinessWest, and it’s an effort that extends throughout the year.

“Because of the way agriculture has changed over the past 100 years, our reach goes way beyond New England,” he added. “Last week, we had a youth sheep show that attracted people from 20 states, including Michigan, Missouri, and Oklahoma.

“Our agriculture schedule takes place all year,” he went on. “Obviously, it’s very important for us, as it was to our founder. We play a material role in subsidizing the horse-show industry. Two of the oldest horse shows in the country are produced during our fair. It’s historically important — a part of our DNA.”

But Cassidy admitted that plenty of people attend the Big E for the wide array of food.

“We’re always searching for new food products, and that search goes on every day,” he said, noting that the recent food-truck festival held on the fairgrounds — which featured 41 trucks and attracted almost 30,000 attendees, double the expected turnout — reflects how important food offerings are to the success of the fair. “And nowadays, the food trailers have incredible technology; they can cook virtually anything.”

Still, he added, “it’s not easy to get into the Big E. We’re very, very concerned about people’s health. We work very closely with the town of West Springfield’s health inspector, and we also have an independent health inspector on our own payroll to make sure the food products are second to none,” he said, noting that, for example, all frying oil must be changed daily, where restaurants might reuse a batch for two or three days.

In a time when an incident can spread across social media with viral speed, the Big E takes its reputation seriously.

“Food safety is extremely important to all of us,” he added. “All you need is one person to get sick, and that’s the end of you. You’ve got to be diligent with refrigeration. It’s not inexpensive to be a food purveyor on the fairgrounds because we insist on high standards.”

The animal shows and competitions also feature much more behind the scenes than patrons realize, he added.

“We have very high ethical standards on our agricultural programming; in fact, the code of ethics at Eastern States has been copied by other agricultural entities across the country. If you’re competing at that level, people will drug their cattle, so we have to do a lot of animal testing. Just like with steroids in baseball, we make sure they’re not chemically tampered with.

“We take that stuff seriously,” he went on. “Just this week, the headlines in the agriculture industry were that all the people showing cattle at the Indiana State Fair last year were stripped of their ribbons after it was determined there was some drugging going on. We wouldn’t want our cattle show to be compromised. That’s our frontline reputation, same as if someone got sick with salmonella at a food stand.”

This year has brought another threat — breakouts of avian flu, which is lethal to poultry.

“The avian flu is a big issue for us. That’s why this is the first year in maybe 60 years we won’t have a chick hatchery,” Cassidy explained. “We just can’t take a chance of contributing to the spread. It doesn’t harm humans, but we don’t want to take any chance of spreading avain flu to other birds.

“People won’t like that,” he said regarding the hatchery closing. “They do look forward to it. But we’ll have an exhibit about poultry, educating people about avian flu.”

Music, Music, Music

Musical entertainment has been a staple of the Big E for generations. But every year, Cassidy noted, it has become more expensive to book top acts, so several years ago, the Big E started charging for a top musical act or two while charging fair attendees nothing for the rest.

The midway lined with carnival rides is typically a big hit with the younger set at the Big E.

“You have to budget for a profit so you can pay your bills, but you have to invest in your product so people can enjoy their experience. We give away a lot of entertainment, so that everyone can participate at no extra cost,” he said, noting that this year’s live concerts include Kansas, Ace Frehley, Bridgit Mendler, the Charlie Daniels Band, Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, Anita Ward, and about a dozen more, including a visit from DJ Paris Hilton, who, it turns out, enjoys spinning records when she’s not earning tens of millions annually in the fashion world.

“Now, as we speak, in the early weeks of August, we’re really focused on 2016,” Cassidy said, adding that John Juliano, the Big E’s long-time special-events director, is already working on securing entertainment contracts for next fall. “He’s constantly building his contact network so we’re able to attract good-quality talent. So much of our ability to promote ourselves is connected to these big names.”

He added that the Big E has a strong reputation in the entertainment industry for managing talent, which is critical. “We make it so these people have a great experience here, so we can attract the next batch. And we have to be really good at it, because we’re competing in a very difficult marketplace.”

It’s a constant battle, he went on. “Within three days of the fair closing down, John is in Nashville, meeting with talent agents, and the management team from Eastern States will be fully engaged, out at national conventions, looking for exhibitors and vendors. It’s a lot of fun, but it’s a lot of work. You have to get 2016 booked up; if you don’t have everyone lined up by May 1, you’re in trouble.”

There’s plenty at stake when planning a successful fair, he noted. According to a report the ESE produced last year, the 17-day Big E, plus all the other events that take place on the fairgrounds each year — which feature exhibitions for animal lovers, car enthusiasts, gun owners, campers, and dozens of other groups — benefit the region with an annual economic impact of $479 million.

The tax revenues alone include $3 million in income tax, $1.4 million in sales tax, $427,000 in hotel tax, and $3.3 million in food and beverage tax. More significantly, events generate $299 million in gross regional product and account for 3,000 jobs in Hampden County that generate $91.9 million in personal income. The exposition’s impact on the rest of New England and New York include 2,000 jobs generating $134 million in personal income. In all, 2.5 million visitors stop by the fairgrounds each year, well over 1 million for the Big E alone.

“A lot of my time is dedicated to discovering more non-fair events, trying to draw people to the region year-round with trade shows and other stuff,” he said. “It’s a means by which to promote the region, get more people here to our hotels, drive people to our airports, and create a mechanism for commerce.”

Home Stretch

Of course, most of the staff’s attention is acutely tuned to the Big E — everything from the big picture to the smallest details.

“We’re making sure the fairgrounds are tuned up,” Cassidy said. “Everything has to be tested — door locks, fire suppression, make sure the drains are clear. We do a lot of maintenance during the year, but this is the time everything gets tested.

“If we didn’t start setting up the fair until very late, we’d have way too many people working way too many hours, and mistakes would happen,” he added. “So, right now, we’re a steam locomotive going downhill.”

That preparation mingles with a healthy dose of hope — mostly for favorable weather, as a weekend of steady rain can wreak havoc with revenues. But weather isn’t the only challenge. As Cassidy mentioned, the entertainment market has been crowded in recent decades by the two Connecticut casinos (and more to come in Massachusetts, including MGM Springfield right across the river in 2017), civic centers, and other venues.

The annual fair also provides a showcase for local talent from schools and clubs.

“The addition of the [Springfield] casino is terrific in terms of a rising tide lifting all boats,” he told BusinessWest. “I’m looking forward to a time when we can help them with promotion and some talent, and maybe they would be interested in helping us as well. Working in unison, they can benefit from the traffic we drive to them, and people experiencing their facility for the first time may learn about the existence of the Eastern States Exposition.”

That casino might not open until 2018, however, thanks to a major highway reconstruction project that will shut down a portion of I-91 in downtown Springfield for more than two years.

“The highway job scares the hell out of me; it really, really does,” Cassidy said. “This could extend beyond two fairs, and it’s something we have very serious concerns about. Frankly, everyone in the region who is in business needs their awareness raised about this. Once it’s done, it will be a marvelous thing, a terrific improvement. But between now and then, it’s going to tax businesses — and the ability of facilities such as ours to attract people.”

But, when it comes to such challenges, he’s accustomed to planning ahead, because that’s how a century-old institution remains vital in the public’s mind.

“In a 100-year-old organization, I have to be thinking 25 years out,” he said. “This place has got to be as relevant in 2040 as it is in 2015. Mr. Brooks, when he conceived of this place, he was thinking way into the future.”

The fairgrounds have seen plenty of change; Cassidy recalled how the site was once an ice-hockey mecca before the rink was eliminated in 1992. And he showed BusinessWest detailed plans for how the Big E grounds might have been used for several Olympic events in 2024, including cycling and cross-country — plans that are now defunct, obviously, since Boston is no longer competing to host those Games. But the effort demonstrates how Eastern States Exposition leaders need to think outside the box to remain relevant in the next 100 years.

“We have a responsibility to families to maintain ourselves as a place that provides a family environment an outlet for socializing and learning about agriculture and industry, and I think those things won’t change; those are staples of American society,” he said. “There’s a sense of community at Eastern States, and fewer and fewer places have that sense.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Family-owned Lupa Zoo Offers Exhibits, Education

Sections Travel and Tourism

Walk on the Wild Side

Joan Lupa shows off a baby two-toed sloth, one of many exotic animals that have found a home at Lupa Zoo.

It’s early in the morning at Lupa Zoo.

And while visitors have yet to arrive, the creatures that live there are doing all they can to make their presence known.

Laughing kookaburras have been screeching since 4 a.m. to announce a new day, macaws are squawking loudly, monkeys chatter excitedly as they execute gracious leaps in their cages, and the braying of donkeys echoes throughout the entire 15-acre park.

But the sounds don’t penetrate into the community; although the sanctuary houses more than 300 species that include a giraffe, llamas, two camels, a menagerie of monkeys, a black leopard, a large reindeer, a zebra, arctic foxes, bears, and oddities such as capybaras (large rodents from South America), it’s a hidden treasure that cannot be seen or heard from the front gate on Nash Hill Road in Ludlow.

When visitors pass through the gate, they travel along a long driveway that leads to a spacious parking lot. The roadway is peppered with cages that house strutting ostriches and other animals, and when they leave their vehicles, guests enter an exotic world created by Henry Lupa and his wife Joan, who painstakingly carved out a habitat for animals in the deep woods behind their home with enclosures that mimic what each creature would find in its natural environment.

Joan glows as she talks about their venture into the unknown and its success, and is tearful when her late husband Henry is mentioned.

They were married for 48 years before his passing two years ago, and the zoo was a dream he nurtured for years before they brought it to reality in a way that exceeded their wildest imaginations. “Henry wanted to create a natural habitat for animals that would serve the community,” Joan recalled, as she spoke about her husband’s living legacy, adding that it’s a very good place for children as well as adults, who stroll along the shaded brick walkways and relax on benches as they watch the animals and learn about species from all over the world.

Her pride in and passion for the venture is evident as she talks about the school groups it hosts and the excitement the zoo generates in visitors, how her son brings some of the animals into inner-city schools and nursing homes to educate people and make them happy, and how the family does everything possible to keep entrance fees affordable so the zoo is accessible to everyone.

It’s no easy feat, because the annual operating costs for the privately owned operation are $400,000, which doesn’t include the cost of snowplowing and other services provided by the family’s company, N.L. Construction, which started out as Henry’s landscaping business and morphed into a larger entity, thanks to hard work by him and Joan, who always played a major role in the business.

That same company, which specializes in commercial projects, including schools, fire stations, and other municipal buildings, provided the bulk of the money needed to build the zoo and the funds needed to maintain it.

And although Joan refers to it as a “hobby,” much of the endless labor required to keep the zoo open is donated by family members who don’t earn a salary. They include Joan; the couple’s son Wally, who is a veterinary assistant; his wife Ewa, who does the bookkeeping; and Joan’s two grandsons.

“Our son Stanley is the only family member who gets paid,” Joan said, explaining that he’s in charge of educational programs and oversees personnel, which include a zookeeper and two staff members. “But everything else is accomplished by a great staff of volunteers, an annual fund-raiser, and grants, which have made a significant difference.”

The business community also plays a small role in the upkeep: some companies sponsor an animal, while others send volunteers to do much-needed work.

“Last year, 30 volunteers from Keller Williams Realty painted the cages, benches, tables, and entranceway and did a fabulous job,” said Joan. “And this year, volunteers from Big Y in Ludlow helped us plant flowers in all of our gardens; it was a huge help.”

For this issue and its focus on travel and tourism, BusinessWest looks at how Henry Lupa’s dream became reality, and how his family continues to keep that dream alive.

Near and Deer

Joan and Henry grew up on small farms in Poland that were self-sustaining. They emigrated to the U.S. in 1964, married a year later, purchased a 32-acre parcel in Ludlow in 1976, then bought their house and an additional three acres when the adjacent parcel became available, then added 13 more adjoining acres in 1991.

They had grown up with animals, and by the ’70s, Henry was raising pheasants and miniature horses.

“They were our pets, and he did it for our family’s enjoyment,” Joan said, noting that, by the ’90s, the neighborhood children and their sons’ friends made a habit of visiting frequently to see their small menagerie.

After Henry emigrated, he started a landscaping company, which he grew into the highly successful N.L. Construction business, in which Joan played an active role. They were very busy with their business, home, and family, so she was shocked one day when he told her he wanted to open a zoo.

Lupa Zoo’s giraffe enjoys some branches fed to him by Joan Lupa, who stands on a high platform built so guests can enjoy the experience.

“I thought he was off the wall,” Joan recalled. But she agreed to try it, since the initial application was inexpensive, and before they knew it, they were deep into the complex licensing and permitting process. “It was a challenge to put everything together, but we wanted to serve the community, and in 1996 we received a license from the Mass. Wildlife and Fisheries Department and the United States Department of Agriculture, and starting buying exotic animals. The rest is history.”

It’s a storied history well worth recounting, as the couple turned an idea that seemed … well, nearly impossible, at least to Joan, into a reality that grew beyond anything they envisioned. “You start something, and when you come to the point where it is well-received by the community, you just can’t stop and go back. You have keep going,” Joan said. So, although the construction company continued to thrive, after Henry retired due to health issues, he devoted himself entirely to the zoo, and Joan continues to work there year-round.

But talking about the past takes away from the excitement of the zoo, so she jumps up, eager to show off its occupants.

Her first stop is inside one of their two heated barns, which are backed up by generators and used to house many of the animals during the winter. She heads straight for her newest favorites, twin baby two-toed sloths.

“I’m going to take the female out; the male tends to bite,” she said as she reached inside and removed a baby who stuck its head out, then buried it in the towel she held beneath it.

A short distance away, she stopped at a cage containing squirrel monkeys which leapt from bar to bar to get close to her as she called out to them. “They think I’m going to give them a banana,” she laughed, explaining that this is something she does in the evening. “They recognize me, but it’s all about the food.”

Joan told BusinessWest that visitors are allowed to feed the hoof stock with compressed hay and grain they buy on the premises and place in tubes, but no one is allowed to have direct contact with any of the animals. However, an exception is made for their most famous resident — a 20-foot-tall giraffe they’ve owned for 15 years.

A special staircase was created so patrons can climb to see its face and feed it carrots and branches from nearby trees, and it takes his time and chews slowly as Joan offers it a handful of food.

Paws for Effect

After leaving the giraffe’s enclosure, she pointed out other animals, providing details about their personalities.

She knows them all, and even though the zoo houses many endangered species, every creature in it was carefully chosen. “You have to study where it comes from to figure out the kind of environment it will need and the size of its cage; we do whatever we can to make our animals comfortable, and we do it for all the right reasons,” Joan explained, adding that their exhibits mimic the species’ natural environments.

Since the ability to hide is important to the health and well-being of many of the creatures, sometimes visitors have to take time to look closely to discover where they are.

The zoo’s newest additions are a pair of Asian river otters. “We got them this spring, and they’re very, very playful,” Joan said as she stood near their enclosure and watched them roll over and over near a fast-moving water slide.

She told BusinessWest that the upkeep of the zoo and maintenance of the facility is never-ending. But the work the family has done and continues to do is a labor of love and has less to do with meeting government regulations than ensuring that the animals and patrons are happy.

But she admits it’s not easy to comply with the USDA codes required for different animals, and they are closely monitored. “We’re also inspected several times each year by the Board of Health; they keep an eye on all exhibitors,” Joan said. “We’re doing a very good job, but the government wants to be sure that animals are taken care of according to their needs.”

As she walked, she added that the cost of building the zoo was mitigated in part by the fact that the family’s construction company used recycled materials it obtained when it demolished old structures to build it. Joan pointed them out during the tour; they ranged from bricks used to create the walkways to large boulders inside cages, to a railing taken from the grounds of a school in the Berkshires.

“We used all of our resources, and instead of throwing away lumber, we recycled it; most of the fencing comes from job sites, and a lot of it was donated by local contractors,” she noted.

Many of the extras in the zoo are paid for by grants, such as the signs outside each cage that contain the name of the animal inside, a map showing its natural habitat, and printed information about its lifestyle and habits.

“We bought them with a grant we received seven years ago from the Community Foundation,” Joan explained. “They’ve had to be replaced since then, but they are important so children can identify each animal and where it comes from by looking at its name, a picture of it, and the map.”

State grants distributed between the Commonwealth’s three zoos also help; last year Lupa Zoo received $60,000, and this year it was given $46,000.

“We really hope Governor Baker doesn’t cut these funds because they help us keep the admission price low. It’s only $6 for each child in a school group as well as their chaperones, and we do everything in our power to keep it affordable because many of the students who come here are from low-income families,” she noted.

Living Legacy

Joan and her family are happy the zoo has flourished and hope it will serve the community for generations to come. It contains a playground that was added six years ago and is bordered by a beautiful raised garden; an area with fiberglass animals that children can sit on and have their photos taken; and also a concession stand, gift shop, educational center, and two large pavilions with picnic benches where people can relax and enjoy a snack in the shade.

There is also a replica of a blacksmith’s shop because Henry’s father was a blacksmith in Poland, and a small area with a miniature merry-go-round and other pint-sized rides.

But the main attraction is the animals, which is exactly what Henry hoped for, and the entire zoo is a living legacy that continues to grow.

The success of the endeavor has been astonishing, especially to Joan.

“In my wildest dreams, I never thought this would become such a popular place. The initial permitting process was difficult, but it you are determined to do something and have a good intention, you can get it done,” she said. “Henry’s dream is a reality, and we will do our best to keep it going as the patrons who come here really enjoy it.

“The chores will always be there,” she added, “but we made the right choice, and we hope the zoo will be here for many, many years to come.”

Building Permits

Building Permits Departments

The following building permits were issued during the month of July 2015

AMHERST

Friends of Hospice House Inc.
1165 North Pleasant St.
$25,904 — New roof

CHICOPEE

Bill Stetson
103 Main St.
$26,000 — Re-roof Falls Pizza

Cory Briere
14 Center St.
$5,000 — Frame interior walls and section off store

Joyce Lacaprucia
129 Church St.
$12,000 — Interior remodel

GREENFIELD

Baystate Franklin Medical Center
164 High St.
$160,000 — New sprinkler system

CHD Watershed Project
148 Montague City Road
$31,500 — New roof

Franklin Associates
87-91 Main St.
$9,000 — Interior alterations for two offices

Greenfield Center School
61 Montague City Road
$57,000 — New roof

Kennametal Inc.
34 Sanderson St.
$49,000 — Renovate existing bathrooms on west side of shop area

Lawrence Pfeffer
220-228 Main St.
$18,000 — New roof system

Paul Viens
302 Main St.
$16,000 — Add four interior offices

William Wong
431 Deerfield St.
$104,500 — Install new roof system

LUDLOW

Iron Duke Brewing
100 State St.
$15,000 — Alterations

Uncle Bob’s General Store
967 East St.
$26,500 — Commercial addition

NORTHAMPTON

Athena Health Care Systems
222 River Road
$6,000 — Install cross-corridor doors

Leeds Grammar School
20 Florence St.
$401,550 — Install new membrane roof

Real Estate Transactions

Departments Real Estate

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

FRANKLIN COUNTY

ERVING

8 East Main St.
Erving, MA 01344
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Laura H. Pepper
Seller: Ellen M. Hastings
Date: 06/29/15

14 Ridge Road
Erving, MA 01344
Amount: $241,742
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Steven Whiteman
Date: 07/08/15

GILL

8 South Cross Road
Gill, MA 01354
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Joe E. Otto
Seller: Joseph A. Bailey
Date: 06/30/15

GREENFIELD

774 Bernardston Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Kathleen M. Olson
Seller: Melinda A. Boudreau-Price
Date: 06/30/15

340 Chapman St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $372,000
Buyer: Winker LLC
Seller: Comfort Mechanical Inc.
Date: 07/09/15

4 Federal St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $405,000
Buyer: Jebco Realty Assocs. LLC
Seller: Pushkin LLC
Date: 07/02/15

67 Ferrante Ave.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $249,000
Buyer: Melpomeni Floratos
Seller: Diane M. Killeen
Date: 06/29/15

50 Linden Ave.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $148,500
Buyer: Rebecca J. Beauregard
Seller: Angela J. Mass
Date: 06/30/15

285-291 Main St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $550,000
Buyer: Jebco Realty Assocs. LLC
Seller: Arts Block LLC
Date: 07/02/15

332 Main St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $405,000
Buyer: Jebco Realty Assocs. LLC
Seller: Pushkin LLC
Date: 07/02/15

47 Riddell St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $146,965
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Robert F. Barron
Date: 07/07/15

51 River St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $272,000
Buyer: Breakaway Real Estate LLC
Seller: Emanuel D. Rovithis
Date: 06/29/15

32 Shattuck St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $208,000
Buyer: James M. Adam
Seller: Edward H. Letourneau
Date: 07/01/15

LEVERETT

268 Long Plain Road
Leverett, MA 01054
Amount: $207,000
Buyer: Tracey L. Field
Seller: John R. Field
Date: 07/01/15

MONTAGUE

94-98 2nd St.
Montague, MA 01376
Amount: $239,000
Buyer: Ginger S. Robinson
Seller: Turners Falls RT
Date: 07/08/15

470 Millers Falls Road
Montague, MA 01349
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Tammy R. Sachse
Seller: NJT LLC
Date: 07/01/15

105 Montague St.
Montague, MA 01376
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Leonard C. Currier
Seller: Richard B. Gates
Date: 06/29/15

306 Montague City Road
Montague, MA 01376
Amount: $152,000
Buyer: Jacob S. Dlugosz
Seller: Rodney J. Demers
Date: 06/30/15

26 North Leverett Road
Montague, MA 01351
Amount: $305,000
Buyer: American Classic Properties
Seller: Bellinger RT
Date: 07/07/15

49 O St.
Montague, MA 01376
Amount: $123,386
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Denise B. Dunbar
Date: 07/07/15

36 Turners Falls Road
Montague, MA 01301
Amount: $150,300
Buyer: Kimberly A. Macdonald
Seller: Burke, Kenneth J., (Estate)
Date: 06/30/15

NEW SALEM

10 Hunt Road
New Salem, MA 01355
Amount: $325,000
Buyer: Jennifer L. Parker
Seller: Lisa M. Sihvonen-Binder
Date: 07/07/15

66 North Prescott Road
New Salem, MA 01355
Amount: $171,000
Buyer: Nancy E. Slator
Seller: Ernest J. Nemeth
Date: 07/02/15

ORANGE

62 Chase St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: Gretchen Turner
Date: 07/09/15

160 Oaklawn Ave.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $138,000
Buyer: Anthony R. Cravatta
Seller: Timothy J. Nelson
Date: 07/10/15

196 West Orange Road
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Sarah L. Nolan
Seller: Mary E. Ziemba
Date: 07/01/15

ROWE

64 Dell Road
Rowe, MA 01367
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: James Lively
Seller: Corarito INT
Date: 07/08/15

SHELBURNE

72 Mechanic St.
Shelburne, MA 01370
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Elizabeth J. Bukolsky RET
Seller: Irene L. Cronk RET
Date: 06/30/15

SHELBURNE

72 Shelburne Center Road
Shelburne, MA 01370
Amount: $191,000
Buyer: Wanda Pacheco
Seller: Marc R. Servant
Date: 07/10/15

SHUTESBURY

226 Montague Road
Shutesbury, MA 01072
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Jennifer L. Reil
Seller: Susan Hanna
Date: 06/29/15

SUNDERLAND

36 Country Lane
Sunderland, MA 01375
Amount: $295,000
Buyer: Matthew P. Martin
Seller: Jeffrey B. Smith
Date: 06/30/15

12 Garage Road
Sunderland, MA 01375
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Stephanie B. Motamedi
Seller: Greenfield Pilgrim 1 LLC
Date: 07/07/15

154 North Silver Lane
Sunderland, MA 01375
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Courtney A. Kinney
Seller: Matthew P. Martin
Date: 06/30/15

239 River Road
Sunderland, MA 01375
Amount: $365,000
Buyer: Moon-Kie Jung
Seller: Pamela C. Peterson
Date: 07/10/15

33 Russell St.
Sunderland, MA 01375
Amount: $147,000
Buyer: Tyler Tomlinson
Seller: US Bank
Date: 07/10/15

WENDELL

127 Montague Road
Wendell, MA 01380
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Mara Bright
Seller: Yvette L. Segal
Date: 06/29/15

HAMPDEN COUNTY

AGAWAM

30 Barry St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: George M. Palanjian
Seller: Andrew C. Campbell
Date: 06/29/15

158 Country Road
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Satoshi Yamaji
Seller: Adrien J. Boucher

24 Dwight St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $2,080,000
Buyer: Dwight Group LLC
Seller: Hallmark Partners LLC
Date: 06/30/15

65 Federal St. Ext.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $278,000
Buyer: Filipa F. Filipe
Seller: Patrick D. Armstrong
Date: 07/10/15

29 Giffin Place
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: John E. Fellion
Seller: Daponde, Yolanda M., (Estate)
Date: 07/01/15

108 Norris St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Lori A. Mountain
Seller: Sharon K. Lange
Date: 06/30/15

39 Oriole Dr.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $302,750
Buyer: Michael A. Curto
Seller: Paul E. Lussier
Date: 07/02/15

541 South West St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: James Parent
Seller: John L. Mondella
Date: 07/07/15

825 Springfield St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: PEM RT
Seller: Agawam Auto Mall Inc.
Date: 07/08/15

378-384 Walnut St., Ext.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $311,989
Buyer: F. Fiore LLC
Seller: Azon Realty LLC
Date: 06/30/15

48 Wilbert Terrace
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Diana L. Papadakis
Seller: Adriano Bocchino
Date: 07/06/15

BLANDFORD

14 Russell Stage Road
Blandford, MA 01008
Amount: $168,000
Buyer: Kyle A. Lewkowicz
Seller: Angela M. Mikuski
Date: 07/06/15

BRIMFIELD

32 7th St.
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $266,950
Buyer: Dmitriy S. Gotlib
Seller: Clifford A. Madru
Date: 06/30/15

105 Cubles Dr.
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Beverly F. Clark
Seller: Dorothy E. Perman IRT
Date: 07/08/15

50 Mill Lane
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $212,000
Buyer: Sandra J. Arsenault
Seller: Jeanne H. Davis
Date: 07/02/15

CHICOPEE

35 Barre Circle
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: National Res. Nominee Services
Seller: Sheree C. Cardin-Rae
Date: 06/30/15

67 Beverly St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Gilberto Ortiz
Seller: Chicopee Neighborhood Development
Date: 07/10/15

77 Carpenter Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Buyer: Robina Carestia
Seller: Angela J. Agostino
Date: 06/30/15

167 Carriage Road
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $247,500
Buyer: Duane A. Recchia
Seller: Ann E. Velthouse
Date: 06/30/15

490 Chicopee St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Robert D. Manning
Seller: Daniel F. Pragosa
Date: 07/01/15

4 Dobek Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Dennis Pelletier
Seller: Household Finance Corp. 2
Date: 07/10/15

35 Dresser Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $162,500
Buyer: Rachel M. Farley
Seller: Ryan J. Loring
Date: 06/29/15

30 Edmund St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $179,000
Buyer: Jessica Batiz-Orengo
Seller: Edward E. Elie
Date: 06/29/15

69 Gagne St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $272,000
Buyer: Baystate Restoration Group
Seller: Dean G. Spencer
Date: 07/01/15

263 Grove St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $214,000
Buyer: Eric A. Froebel
Seller: David Lengieza
Date: 07/02/15

52 Hendrick St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Brent A. Dillard
Seller: William D. Morris
Date: 06/30/15

105 Hendrick St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Nuno M. Inacio
Seller: Artur C. Inacio
Date: 07/07/15

39 Labelle Circle
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $241,000
Buyer: Andrew Santo
Seller: Christine R. Bennett
Date: 07/08/15

Lemay St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $272,000
Buyer: Baystate Restoration Group
Seller: Dean G. Spencer
Date: 07/01/15

24 Leo Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $209,900
Buyer: Michael J. Brennan
Seller: Alison M. Cienciwa
Date: 06/30/15

23 Lombard St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $141,000
Buyer: William Dinguis
Seller: Raymond P. Gaumond
Date: 06/29/15

74 Mary St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $194,000
Buyer: JWK Real Estate LLC
Seller: Michael Donskoy
Date: 07/10/15

617 Mckinstry Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $237,500
Buyer: Frederick J. Sabbs
Seller: Ryszard J. Marcinowski
Date: 07/10/15

97 Rivers Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: Lake Rentals LLC
Seller: Paul L. Gauthier
Date: 07/07/15

73 School St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $161,000
Buyer: Bayview Loan Servicing LLC
Seller: Kazimiera Dorobisz
Date: 06/30/15

73 Sesame Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $291,000
Buyer: Robert K. Andersen
Seller: Robert K. Andersen
Date: 06/29/15

145 Trilby Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $149,900
Buyer: Mark A. Morin
Seller: Barbara A. Bielizna
Date: 07/06/15

60 Trilby Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: N. Riley Realty LLC
Seller: Alma V. Bourbeau
Date: 07/08/15

EAST LONGMEADOW

42 Braeburn Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $166,000
Buyer: Olan A. Johnston
Seller: Patricia A. Lamontagne
Date: 07/06/15

30 Brook St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $142,500
Buyer: Kathryn Barney
Seller: Alice J. Goodrich
Date: 06/29/15

71 Brookhaven Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $306,500
Buyer: Jeffrey A. Galarneau
Seller: Jeremy T. Shurtleff
Date: 06/30/15

57 Brynmawr Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $285,000
Buyer: David Leblanc
Seller: Ronald J. Oliveri
Date: 07/08/15

36 Granby St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $148,900
Buyer: William Purcell
Seller: Granby St Associates LLC
Date: 07/01/15

244 Hampden Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Keith J. Fitzgerald
Seller: Neil R. Pomeroy
Date: 07/08/15

27 Meadow Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $367,000
Buyer: Gerard Sprofera
Seller: John E. Labrie
Date: 07/01/15

41 Merriam St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Robbin D. Jones
Seller: Jeanne R. Dufault
Date: 07/01/15

116 Millbrook Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $465,000
Buyer: Thomas A. Zoltowski
Seller: Douglas G. Mcadoo
Date: 07/08/15

Pondview Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Craig L. Gay
Seller: Joseph Chapdelaine & Sons
Date: 07/03/15

154 Prospect St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $259,800
Buyer: Laura M. Pixley
Seller: Robert T. Liucci
Date: 07/08/15

GRANVILLE

231 Old Westfield Road
Granville, MA 01034
Amount: $211,000
Buyer: City Of Westfield
Seller: Paul D. Jensen
Date: 06/29/15

HAMPDEN

31 Crestwood Lane
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $188,000
Buyer: Philip A. Tarsi
Seller: Brenda M. Little
Date: 06/29/15

521 Glendale Road
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $319,000
Buyer: C. A. Gagliarducci
Seller: Maureen O’Sullivan
Date: 07/01/15

27 Raymond Dr.
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Andrew R. Tsitso
Seller: Cynthia L. Fiore
Date: 07/06/15

HOLLAND

4 Ames Trail
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Douglas Cayer
Seller: Patrick M. King
Date: 07/02/15

9 Park Road
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Chadwick E. Carter
Seller: Karen L. Essex
Date: 07/10/15

18 Pine Tree Dr.
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Michael Chadwick
Seller: Beverly J. Page
Date: 07/01/15

107 Sandy Beach Road
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: Peter M. Faria
Seller: Shaun Dyson
Date: 07/09/15

HOLYOKE

5 Appleton St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Benz Holdings LLC
Seller: Ralph Thompson
Date: 07/08/15

352 Apremont Hwy.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Moises Rosario
Seller: Gravel, Constance D., (Estate)
Date: 07/10/15

80 Beacon Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Hui Yan
Seller: Sean M. Dugre
Date: 07/06/15

405 Mountain Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: John J. O’Connell
Seller: Dina Levesque
Date: 07/10/15

447 Beech St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Michael M. Lalchandani
Seller: Cynthia Rivera
Date: 06/30/15

47 Cherry Hill
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Michael T. Bellingham
Seller: Suzanne M. Cole
Date: 06/30/15

27 Concord Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $214,900
Buyer: Celia E. Overby
Seller: Tina M. Wildhagen
Date: 06/29/15

5 Evergreen Dr.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $167,500
Buyer: 5 Evergreen Drive Land TR
Seller: Glenn J. Nadeau
Date: 06/29/15

28 Grandview Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $134,305
Buyer: Stephen J. Miller
Seller: FNMA
Date: 06/29/15

80 Hitchcock St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Shane T. Jackson
Seller: William T. Lyle
Date: 07/02/15

236 Lower Westfield Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Ryan J. Loring
Seller: Scott D. Beliveau
Date: 06/29/15

611 Northampton St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Josyln Larson
Seller: Timothy J. Brunelle
Date: 07/09/15

1215 Northampton St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $285,000
Buyer: Theresa Meckel
Seller: Maryellen Dinn
Date: 07/02/15

437 Northampton St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $355,000
Buyer: Roque Sanchez
Seller: Anibal Rivas
Date: 06/30/15

Pleasant St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $368,000
Buyer: Dara N. Sullivan
Seller: Marjorie P. Stark
Date: 07/01/15

6 Shepard Dr.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $296,000
Buyer: Anthony J. Disanto
Seller: Levin, David, (Estate)
Date: 06/30/15

35 Temple St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: Irma Lopez
Seller: Mary E. Trudeau
Date: 07/01/15

44 Vassar Circle
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $249,900
Buyer: Matilda Friedrich
Seller: 3F Properties LLC
Date: 07/01/15

39 View St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $131,000
Buyer: Jose M. Rivera
Seller: Nancy D. Ayers
Date: 07/02/15

38 West Glen St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: David K. Bartley
Seller: Jeanne Bartley
Date: 07/01/15

LONGMEADOW

76 Blokland Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $421,800
Buyer: Ana Muriel
Seller: Celeste Benoit
Date: 07/10/15

168 Blueberry Hill Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $470,100
Buyer: Varaha S. Gopisetti
Seller: Harry R. Auerbach
Date: 06/29/15

43 Briarcliff Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $310,000
Buyer: Eric G. Gorenstein
Seller: Eileen R. Fountaine
Date: 06/30/15

17 Canterbury Lane
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $500,000
Buyer: Nadia Furqan
Seller: Ellen R. Shapiro
Date: 07/01/15

175 Cedar Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $247,500
Buyer: Jimmy Chang
Seller: Jeffrey Vedovelli
Date: 06/30/15

31 Cherry Lane
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $375,625
Buyer: Yuebiao Feng
Seller: Daniel Karpman
Date: 07/10/15

75 Churchill Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $510,000
Buyer: Kevin K. Labrie
Seller: Anne W. Mackenzie
Date: 07/02/15

95 Dover Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $247,500
Buyer: James V. Barilaro
Seller: William D. Keen
Date: 07/01/15

30 Fernleaf Ave.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $352,000
Buyer: David S. Culver
Seller: James Neveu
Date: 06/30/15

592 Frank Smith Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: Martin J. Lobik
Seller: Chad S. White
Date: 07/08/15

25 Highland St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $320,000
Buyer: William D. Keen
Seller: Alfonso D. Via
Date: 07/01/15

45 Kenmore Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $248,100
Buyer: Amy L. Cairy
Seller: Walsh, Rita J., (Estate)
Date: 06/30/15

89 Longmeadow St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $420,000
Buyer: Robert J. Khoury
Seller: Peter M. Gerard
Date: 06/30/15

67 Maplewood St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $253,921
Buyer: Guidewire Inc.
Seller: Venture Community Services
Date: 06/30/15

103 Pleasantview Ave.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: John R. Koegel
Seller: Susan L. Greco
Date: 07/02/15

61 Twin Hills Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $700,000
Buyer: Tyler Saremi
Seller: Harry A. Klug
Date: 06/30/15

40 West Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Ricardo Malave
Seller: Jagodowski, Eleanor E., (Estate)
Date: 06/30/15

43 Wildwood Glen
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $378,450
Buyer: Tammy R. Rex
Seller: Kenneth R. Holt
Date: 06/29/15

LUDLOW

53 Blanchard Ave.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $250,500
Buyer: Leah T. Kaira
Seller: Claire A. Burgess
Date: 07/10/15

382 Miller St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: Michael J. Desimone
Seller: James P. Kane
Date: 07/01/15

36 Prospect Gardens
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $154,000
Buyer: Mary E. Racicot
Seller: Dorothy C. Saletnik
Date: 06/30/15

74 Sunbriar Lane
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Richard N. Belanger
Seller: Robina Carestia
Date: 06/30/15

MONSON

490 Boston Road West
Monson, MA 01095
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: JW Realty LLC
Seller: Paul A. Bouchard
Date: 07/10/15

77 Bradway Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $410,000
Buyer: William H. Rawleigh
Seller: Joshua A. Vassallo
Date: 07/01/15

30 Butler Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $222,500
Buyer: Richard A. Cordner
Seller: Nicholas J. Gasperini
Date: 07/10/15

50 East Hill Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: 27 East Hill Road RT
Seller: Matthew H. Macfarlane
Date: 07/02/15

3 Heritage Lane
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $308,500
Buyer: Kyle Williams
Seller: James W. Fiore
Date: 06/30/15

4 Lincoln St.
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Derrick A. Talbot
Seller: Dapri Rentals LLC
Date: 07/10/15

138 Silver St.
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $360,000
Buyer: Richard C. Machado
Seller: Jaciow, Susan A., (Estate)
Date: 06/29/15

MONTGOMERY

217 Pitcher St.
Montgomery, MA 01085
Amount: $390,000
Buyer: David W. Tourville
Seller: Renee Pecor
Date: 07/02/15

PALMER

141 Breckenridge St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Travis J. Richer
Seller: Sherry A. Kennedy
Date: 06/29/15

141 Burlingame Road
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Raymond A. Blanchette
Seller: Flynnanita, E., (Estate)
Date: 07/10/15

10-12 Fox St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $169,574
Buyer: Nationstar Mortgage LLC
Seller: Ronald C. Lawrence
Date: 06/29/15

38 Harvey St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $245,265
Buyer: Kelsey K. Sheehan
Seller: Lorraine Novak
Date: 06/30/15

3141-3143 High St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Louise L. Hickenbottom
Seller: Daniel B. Rhodes
Date: 07/08/15

57 Riverview Pkwy.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Stephen M. Keegan
Seller: Peter D. Hull
Date: 06/30/15

315 Shearer St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $147,000
Buyer: Nicole A. Sherman
Seller: Martin F. Maloney
Date: 07/07/15

1001 Thorndike St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $4,842,875
Buyer: MA Svc. LLC
Seller: Merchant Palmer LLC
Date: 06/29/15

RUSSELL

37 General Knox Road
Russell, MA 01071
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Kim M. Morgan
Seller: Robert M. Gardner
Date: 06/30/15

170 Timberidge Dr.
Russell, MA 01071
Amount: $375,000
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Bruce D. Bosworth
Date: 07/08/15

SPRINGFIELD

2020 Allen St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Ruben Flores-Marzan
Seller: Thomas M. Gordon
Date: 07/01/15

95 Alvin St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $123,000
Buyer: Linda M. Owens
Seller: Michael A. Chelkonas
Date: 07/08/15

239 Ashland Ave.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $146,000
Buyer: Synthia Perrin
Seller: Thomas J. Sliney
Date: 06/30/15

28-30 Battery St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Luis E. Soto
Seller: Richard Muise
Date: 06/30/15

137 Bellevue Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $191,200
Buyer: David C. Melrose
Seller: Don B. David
Date: 06/30/15

335 Berkshire Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Vietnamese Buddhist Asscociation
Seller: Pine Point Community Council
Date: 06/30/15

35 Bruce St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $131,000
Buyer: Nicole K. Bertera
Seller: Erik J. Allis
Date: 07/03/15

126 Caseland St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $186,375
Buyer: Loleta Collins
Seller: Gary M. Chase
Date: 07/01/15

131-133 Davenport St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $189,000
Buyer: Eric Newkirk
Seller: Randall M. Stebbins
Date: 06/30/15

14 Dennis St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: Robyn L. Sheehan
Seller: Reid C. Hunter
Date: 07/10/15

111 Duggan Circle
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Peter H. Christensen
Seller: Justin M. Reynolds
Date: 07/10/15

199 Eddy St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $150,500
Buyer: Christina M. Joyce
Seller: Gelson D. Laguerre
Date: 06/30/15

155 Fargo St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $117,000
Buyer: Arelis Whitaker
Seller: Kim Bress
Date: 06/30/15

124 Gillette Circle
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Jo Anne A. Evans IRT
Seller: James M. Santamaria
Date: 06/30/15

24 Glenoak Dr.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Bryce C. Buchanan
Seller: Erica L. Rossini
Date: 06/30/15

17 Groton St.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $117,900
Buyer: Russell V. Jenkins
Seller: Lisa R. Crouser
Date: 06/30/15

16 Harkness Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $124,900
Buyer: Tina Forbes
Seller: Jason M. Bienvenue
Date: 07/08/15

23 Hudson St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $127,000
Buyer: Carmen T. Velazquez
Seller: Charles J. Scalia
Date: 07/09/15

320 Island Pond Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $139,325
Buyer: Michael K. Dagger
Seller: Suzanne E. Larue
Date: 06/29/15

101 Jeanne Marie St.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: Amanda M. Fortune
Seller: Leighton L. Stewart
Date: 07/02/15

306 Laurelton St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Tawana Davis
Seller: Theresa Harris
Date: 06/29/15

410 Liberty St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $170,911
Buyer: Nationstar Mortgage LLC
Seller: Wayne Street LLC
Date: 07/02/15

208 Longhill St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $485,000
Buyer: Dennis P. Duquette
Seller: John B. Murray
Date: 06/30/15

111 Manchester Terrace
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $157,500
Buyer: Robert C. Washington
Seller: Andrew M. Knight
Date: 07/06/15

38 Martha St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: Johnathan Nguyen
Seller: Rachel A. Bazile
Date: 07/10/15

88 Mayflower Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Leonard A. Lindsay
Seller: Victoria M. Gruneiro
Date: 07/07/15

129 Naismith St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $203,000
Buyer: Peter W. Otiende
Seller: Anna Danilewicz
Date: 07/10/15

143 Naismith St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Eduardo Valentin
Seller: Bretta Construction LLC
Date: 07/08/15

52-54 Narragansett St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $129,500
Buyer: Alexis Javier-Breton
Seller: Marlin Investments LLC
Date: 07/01/15

81-83 Noel St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Luis J. Espejo
Seller: Mattie L. Robinson
Date: 07/02/15

11 Peer St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Damarys Lopez
Seller: Lorenzo Ezell
Date: 07/10/15

73 Pennsylvania Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $122,500
Buyer: Elizabeth M. McFarlin
Seller: Labruzzo, Debra L., (Estate)
Date: 06/30/15

111 Quaker Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Orville L. Williams
Seller: Sean F. Smith
Date: 07/10/15

33-35 Ruskin St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $186,000
Buyer: Sha Pradhan
Seller: David Leblanc
Date: 07/02/15

935 Saint James Ave.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $115,900
Buyer: Wilmarie Rodriguez
Seller: Danny P. Rebelo
Date: 07/06/15

6 Sedgewick St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $168,000
Buyer: Omar Colon-Perez
Seller: Samuel E. & F. I. Johnson LT
Date: 07/08/15

127 Slater Ave.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $129,000
Buyer: Emanuel Class
Seller: Edward J. Janik
Date: 06/30/15

100 Webber St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $143,000
Buyer: Lisa L. Jubinville
Seller: Heather Echevarria
Date: 06/30/15

SOUTHWICK

124 Berkshire Ave.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $320,000
Buyer: Karen L. Deyo
Seller: Donald R. Dubuc
Date: 06/30/15

26 Davis Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $450,000
Buyer: Paul J. Boyne
Seller: Jay A. Pelley
Date: 06/30/15

157 Feeding Hills Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Dege LLC
Seller: Geofrank LLC
Date: 07/02/15

1 Hummingbird Hollow
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $405,900
Buyer: Patrick D. Armstrong
Seller: Randy R. Shaver
Date: 07/10/15

350 North Loomis St.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Luis S. Vazquez
Seller: Joan Bannish
Date: 06/30/15

23 Pine Knoll
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $310,000
Buyer: Lilia Mereshko
Seller: David Reipold
Date: 06/30/15

23 Rails End Road #23
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $324,500
Buyer: Paul E. Lussier
Seller: 20 Depot Square LLC
Date: 07/02/15

40 Sam West Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Flex Properties LLC
Seller: John A. Litwak
Date: 07/10/15

WESTFIELD

141 Bates Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $308,500
Buyer: Michael J. Csekovsky
Seller: Deanne M. Grant
Date: 06/29/15

6 Big Wood Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $425,000
Buyer: Edmund G. Apostle
Seller: Tina L. Liquori-Cody
Date: 07/10/15

13 Carriage Lane
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Jeffrey P. Casey
Seller: Elizabeth A. Wood
Date: 07/10/15

68 Crescent Circle
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $314,000
Buyer: James D. Corker
Seller: Jason L. Hoffman
Date: 06/30/15

11 Dwight St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $188,000
Buyer: Mancino Enterprises Inc.
Seller: Bruce C. Neumann
Date: 06/29/15

28 Fawn Lane
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $317,800
Buyer: Patrick P. Nay
Seller: Anthony R. Lapinski
Date: 06/30/15

10 Frederick St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $187,000
Buyer: Catherine Acevedo
Seller: JJS Capital Investment
Date: 07/10/15

193 Holyoke Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: John P. Sorrentino
Seller: Earl W. Slate
Date: 07/03/15

15 Hunters Slope
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $376,000
Buyer: Jason L. Hoffman
Seller: Daniel J. Harris
Date: 06/30/15

3 Laurel Terrace
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $189,000
Buyer: Christopher Mullen
Seller: Michael J. Csekovsky
Date: 06/29/15

21 Leaview Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $289,900
Buyer: Richard T. Fohlbrook
Seller: Robert P. Scott
Date: 07/02/15

340 Lockhouse Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $133,750
Buyer: Michael P. Stolpinski
Seller: Alma I. Fisher
Date: 06/30/15

70 Mill St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $192,000
Buyer: Courtney A. Gearing
Seller: Richard T. Fohlbrook
Date: 07/02/15

117 Montgomery St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $204,900
Buyer: Anne Norton-Graffum
Seller: Lucille R. Sobczyk
Date: 06/30/15

306 Montgomery Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Arthur J. Laramee
Seller: Britton, Pauline C., (Estate)
Date: 07/10/15

14 Phelps Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Joanne Ouimette
Seller: Julie Parsons
Date: 06/30/15

106 Ridgecrest Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $310,000
Buyer: Bryan F. Grabowski
Seller: Jeffrey Arps
Date: 06/30/15

Sackett Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $126,000
Buyer: Stephen J. Oleksak
Seller: Northwest Realty LLC
Date: 07/08/15

61 School St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: School St Property LLC
Seller: Thomas J. Rockwal
Date: 06/30/15

20 Sherwood Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: 20 Sheroood Avenue Land TR
Seller: Mark A. Baron

1120 Southampton Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Dennis Bolduc
Seller: Home Loan Investment Bank
Date: 07/01/15

431 Southwick Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Kenneth M. Liberty
Seller: Liberty, Margaret J., (Estate)
Date: 07/06/15

199 Susan Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $253,000
Buyer: Jason T. Edwards
Seller: Stephen A. Foster
Date: 06/30/15

229 Western Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Jennifer L. Sady
Seller: Kevin R. Queenin
Date: 07/10/15

WILBRAHAM

48 Beebe Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $362,700
Buyer: Benjamin J. Strobridge
Seller: William W. Blanchard
Date: 07/06/15

3 Bridle Path
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $589,900
Buyer: Craig R. Lareau
Seller: William D. Metzger
Date: 07/02/15

4 Chestnut Hill Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $279,900
Buyer: Ryan Visneau
Seller: Neil W. Bennett
Date: 07/02/15

97 Manchonis Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $221,500
Buyer: Jaime Masse
Seller: Ann Robillard
Date: 07/03/15

22 Overlook Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $522,000
Buyer: Atu O. White
Seller: Matthew P. Natcharian
Date: 07/01/15

4 Springfield St.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Thomas J. Martin
Seller: Marjorie N. Agerton
Date: 07/01/15

10-1/2 Springfield St.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $435,000
Buyer: Marc L. Stimpson
Seller: Sharmaine Barone
Date: 07/10/15

25-27 Stony Hill Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Veronica Machuca
Seller: Raymond J. Alberici
Date: 07/01/15

1222 Stony Hill Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $234,900
Buyer: Darren C. Elwell
Seller: Sok H. Cho
Date: 07/10/15

30 Sunnyside Terrace
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $269,900
Buyer: Leighton L. Stewart
Seller: Changheon Choi
Date: 07/02/15

16 Tall Timber Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Joseph M. Pierce
Seller: Kara A. Arcidiacono
Date: 06/30/15

7 Woodland Dell Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $344,900
Buyer: Lauren S. Stanley
Seller: Maureen A. Rooney
Date: 06/30/15

WEST SPRINGFIELD

262 City View Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $189,900
Buyer: Puspa L. Dhimal
Seller: Lynne M. Sullivan
Date: 07/08/15

32 Ely Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $269,000
Buyer: Robert Hill
Seller: Mary J. Flaherty
Date: 06/29/15

97 Havenhurst Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Mary A. Flaherty
Seller: James S. Wachala
Date: 06/30/15

47 Hewitt St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $181,000
Buyer: Sean P. Riley
Seller: Barto, Anthony J., (Estate)
Date: 06/30/15

14 High Meadow Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $297,000
Buyer: Angela J. Agostino
Seller: William J. Viecelli
Date: 06/30/15

59 Interstate Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $2,100,000
Buyer: 73 State Street LLC
Seller: 59 Interstate Drive LLC
Date: 06/30/15

181 Jeffrey Lane
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $375,000
Buyer: Adam N. Rochon
Seller: Alison S. Danalis
Date: 06/30/15

264 Morgan Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $202,000
Buyer: Kevin A. Cady
Seller: Paul M. Rossmeisl
Date: 07/02/15

94 Nonotuck Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $332,500
Buyer: Cindy A. Shippee
Seller: Edward A. Pacitti
Date: 06/29/15

15 North St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $205,950
Buyer: Shannon Kumiega
Seller: Jefferey J. Vallee
Date: 07/10/15

63 Therese Marie Lane
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $455,000
Buyer: Tejash R. Patel
Seller: Michael J. Halpy
Date: 06/30/15

30 Vincent Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Flagstone Properties Inc.
Seller: Dorothy Krieger
Date: 06/30/15

131 Westwood Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: John V. Roth
Seller: Richard R. Germano
Date: 07/08/15

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY

AMHERST

115 Blackberry Lane
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $425,000
Buyer: Huanye Hu
Seller: Aytac Camdeviren
Date: 07/07/15

1 Dwight Circle
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $314,900
Buyer: Stefan J. Antonowicz
Seller: Daniel J. Stering
Date: 07/08/15

15 Farmington Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $285,000
Buyer: Sarah B. Thompson
Seller: Christopher G. Potts
Date: 07/10/15

850 Belchertown Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $441,000
Buyer: Nuray Ozcelik
Seller: Benjamin J. Zahradnik
Date: 06/30/15

6 Grantwood Dr.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Catrine E. Tudor-Locke
Seller: Marese Hutchinson
Date: 06/29/15

66 Grantwood Dr.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $232,050
Buyer: Bank of New York
Seller: Glenn M. Jackson
Date: 06/29/15

66 Grantwood Dr.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Norman D. Brown
Seller: Bank of New York
Date: 07/09/15

108 Harlow Dr.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $302,000
Buyer: Timothy A. Binkert
Seller: Sousa, Helen R. G., (Estate)
Date: 07/06/15

7 Laurel Lane
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $321,900
Buyer: Zac Early
Seller: Hampshire Property Mgmt.
Date: 07/06/15

18 Lilac Lane
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $469,900
Buyer: David M. Kawall
Seller: David R. Crowe
Date: 07/03/15

31 Longmeadow Dr.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $248,000
Buyer: Hesham Ahmed
Seller: Kathleen Fahey
Date: 06/30/15

44 South Mount Holyoke Dr.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $314,520
Buyer: Xin Li
Seller: Tien D. Pham
Date: 06/30/15

8 Weaver Circle
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $460,000
Buyer: Matt Robison
Seller: Jennifer L. Parker
Date: 07/07/15

320 West St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $264,500
Buyer: Johnny B. Tran
Seller: Brian S. Ertel
Date: 07/07/15

BELCHERTOWN

12 Barrett St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $267,600
Buyer: Harvey A. Sansoucy
Date: 06/30/15

3 Barrett St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: John D. Sansoucy
Seller: Harvey A. Sansoucy
Date: 06/30/15

91 Canal Dr.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $399,000
Buyer: Jennifer L. Harris
Seller: Richard W. Noble
Date: 07/01/15

555 Daniel Shays Hwy.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $166,000
Buyer: CJB T. 2
Seller: Robert Johnson
Date: 07/01/15

21 Dogwood Dr.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $381,200
Buyer: Rosemary E. Defronzo
Seller: Benchmark Custom Homes
Date: 07/01/15

18 Forest Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Anne Mistivar
Seller: Shaysreb LLC
Date: 07/01/15

10 Franklin St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Christopher Lukes
Seller: Kevin R. O’Brien
Date: 06/29/15

288 Franklin St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $292,000
Buyer: Thomas R. Orszulak
Seller: Andrew G. Cavanaugh
Date: 07/08/15

26 Hickory Hill
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $397,900
Buyer: Nancy Brill
Seller: J. N. Duquette & Son Construction
Date: 06/30/15

17 Lloyd Ave.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Douglas A. Cahill
Seller: Susan A. Detorrice
Date: 06/30/15

90 Ludlow St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $320,000
Buyer: Shawn C. Leblanc
Seller: Daniel R. McDonald
Date: 07/09/15

155 Oakridge Dr.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $359,900
Buyer: Thomas J. Barker
Seller: Michael A. Henson
Date: 07/01/15

27 River St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $216,000
Buyer: Lynne M. Sullivan
Seller: Paul R. Richard
Date: 07/08/15

413 South Gulf Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $525,000
Buyer: James & Margaret Tibbitt LT
Seller: Morando Defronzo
Date: 07/01/15

317 Warren Wright Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Daniel C. Ingraham
Seller: Gilbert M. Bouchard
Date: 06/30/15

433 Warren Wright Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $242,500
Buyer: Chaitra Gopalappa
Seller: David F. Teague
Date: 07/07/15

243 West St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $228,000
Buyer: Norman E. Olmstead
Seller: Sharon R. Leblanc
Date: 07/01/15

18 Westview Dr.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Jason W. Aller
Seller: Christopher A. Dorval
Date: 07/08/15

CHESTERFIELD

Bofat Hill Road
Chesterfield, MA 01012
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Seller: Nature Conservancy
Date: 06/30/15

EASTHAMPTON

15 Duda Dr.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $259,500
Buyer: Robert Baceski
Seller: Anne M. Lynes
Date: 07/02/15

30 Everett St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Bryan J. Emond
Seller: Elizabeth A. Bower
Date: 07/02/15

175 Pleasant St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: San K. Chhung
Seller: Marcella Severance
Date: 07/08/15

131 Strong St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $242,000
Buyer: Ilene Berezin
Seller: Norman H. Cabana
Date: 07/07/15

7 Valley Lane
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $317,000
Buyer: E. Smith Sinnigen TR
Seller: Karen D. Carswell
Date: 06/29/15

GOSHEN

20 Pond Hill Road
Goshen, MA 01032
Amount: $320,000
Buyer: Paul A. Sihvonen-Binder
Seller: Christine E. Kubacki
Date: 07/07/15

GRANBY

32 Amherst St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $218,000
Buyer: Benjamin Rosenthal
Seller: Holly P. Barton-Lopez
Date: 07/10/15

529 Amherst Road
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $172,000
Buyer: George F. Hicks
Seller: Thomas Pittsley
Date: 07/01/15

5 Greystone Ave.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $117,900
Buyer: David R. Laplante
Seller: PNC Bank
Date: 06/30/15

7 Jackielyn Circle
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Jason A. Laprade
Seller: Jorge L. Casasnovas
Date: 06/30/15

51 Kendall St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $198,800
Buyer: OCWEN Loan Servicing LLC
Seller: Todd M. Morehouse
Date: 06/29/15

107 Maximilian Dr.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $418,000
Buyer: Frank L. Bradfield
Seller: Peter J. Giroux
Date: 07/01/15

18 New Ludlow Road
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $162,500
Buyer: Hector Crespo
Seller: Jason W. Aller
Date: 07/02/15

8 Ridge Path
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Commonwealth Of Massachusetts
Seller: Evelyn S. Slater
Date: 06/30/15

HADLEY

6 Cold Springs Road
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Cynthia A. Therrien
Seller: Jacqueline B. Price
Date: 07/10/15

3 Indian Pipe Dr.
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $611,700
Buyer: Shiyue Cheng
Seller: Bercume Construction LLC
Date: 07/10/15

349 River Dr.
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $326,000
Buyer: Dale M. Jones
Seller: Cendrowski, Victor J., (Estate)
Date: 07/09/15

Russell St. #C
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $800,000
Buyer: Russell LLC
Seller: Lowes Home Centers LLC
Date: 07/02/15

172 South Maple St.
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Marion F. Grader
Seller: Nancy J. Podolak
Date: 07/07/15

HATFIELD

3 Clay Hill Way
Hatfield, MA 01038
Amount: $500,000
Buyer: Steven D. Hoyt
Seller: William E. Dowd
Date: 06/30/15

450 Main St.
Hatfield, MA 01038
Amount: $288,011
Buyer: Erik Pardee
Seller: Mt. Tom Properties LLC
Date: 07/07/15

28 Pleasant View Dr.
Hatfield, MA 01038
Amount: $379,500
Seller: Stephen D. Hoyt
Date: 06/30/15

HUNTINGTON

25 Montgomery Road
Huntington, MA 01050
Amount: $229,900
Buyer: Philip W. Boisseau
Seller: Jeffrey S. Fisk
Date: 07/10/15

MIDDLEFIELD

123 Clark Wright Road
Middlefield, MA 01243
Amount: $249,000
Buyer: Donald C. Trask
Seller: Ellen M. Rubenstein
Date: 07/01/15

17 Harry Pease Road
Middlefield, MA 01243
Amount: $178,000
Buyer: Aaron P. Allen
Seller: Laurie E. Wehman
Date: 07/10/15

NORTHAMPTON

228 Audubon Road
Northampton, MA 01053
Amount: $242,600
Buyer: Jesse M. Adams
Seller: Susan A. Warga

36 Beacon St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $430,000
Buyer: Karen Carswell
Seller: Charles P. Gleason
Date: 06/29/15

153 Bridge St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $309,000
Buyer: Gregory Schweitzer
Seller: Michael L. Shaughnessy
Date: 07/06/15

251 Bridge Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $204,500
Buyer: Katherine M. Fabel
Seller: Jordana M. Rosenberg
Date: 06/29/15

239 Bridge St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $316,000
Buyer: Gordon M. Meadows
Seller: Roque Sanchez
Date: 06/30/15

87 Bridge St.
Northampton, MA 01039
Amount: $362,500
Buyer: Winterberry LLC
Seller: Donald M. Shaw
Date: 07/02/15

1136 Burts Pit Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $224,900
Buyer: Susan M. Nykorchuk
Seller: Ruth Fogg
Date: 07/02/15

69 Day Ave.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: W. M. Goggins
Seller: Kathleen F. Malynoski
Date: 07/01/15

15 Fair St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $198,750
Buyer: Jennifer M. Nery
Seller: James S. Founds
Date: 07/08/15

317 Florence Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $227,200
Buyer: Glenda G. Neely
Seller: Theresa Meckel
Date: 07/02/15

142 Franklin St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $370,000
Buyer: Cheryl E. Mathein
Seller: Donna Ann Park RET
Date: 07/06/15

144 Franklin St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $310,000
Buyer: Christopher W. Hayhurst
Seller: Roger Salloom
Date: 06/30/15

37 Kensington Ave.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $405,000
Buyer: William Wimsatt
Seller: Janice M. Irvine
Date: 07/03/15

67 Laurel Park
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $285,000
Buyer: Laura M. Pravitz
Seller: Jonathan G. Westphal
Date: 07/01/15

15 Laurel St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $407,900
Buyer: Heather J. Dysert
Seller: Transformations Inc.
Date: 07/02/15

10 Madison Ave.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $395,000
Buyer: Natalie M. Brady
Seller: Michael J. Maginnis RET
Date: 07/10/15

223 Maple Ridge Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $696,800
Buyer: Wayne H. Duke
Seller: Judith G. Steinberg
Date: 06/29/15

N/A
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $395,000
Buyer: Christian Hawkins
Seller: George T. Barrett
Date: 06/29/15

185 Nonotuck St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $172,000
Buyer: Carol J. Gray
Seller: Patricia A. Kopka LT
Date: 07/10/15

164 North Maple St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $420,000
Buyer: Caroline B. Theoharides
Seller: Steven P. McDonough
Date: 06/30/15

5 Pomeroy Terrace
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $362,500
Buyer: Winterberry LLC
Seller: Donald M. Shaw
Date: 07/02/15

193 Prospect St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $309,900
Buyer: Noa Milman
Seller: Ravya Taghavi
Date: 06/30/15

347 Riverside Dr.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Sandra J. Staub
Seller: Ricardo S. Malave
Date: 07/09/15

292 South St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $335,000
Buyer: Corinne M. Chandless
Seller: Shaila Chowdhury
Date: 06/30/15

73 Vernon St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $360,000
Buyer: William S. Cutler
Seller: Martha J. Beckwith
Date: 07/09/15

46 Whittier St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $387,000
Buyer: Thomas S. Underwood
Seller: Joseph M. Ustaitis
Date: 06/29/15

SOUTH HADLEY

7 Country Lane
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Julie-Anne G. Stebbins
Seller: Jonathan H. Aseltine
Date: 06/29/15

53 Dartmouth St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $156,500
Buyer: Rebecca A. Ciecko
Seller: Mark C. Robinson
Date: 06/29/15

309 Hadley St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: David J. Malek
Seller: Thomas A. Spring
Date: 07/10/15

36 Ludlow Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $185,500
Buyer: Adam Lukomski
Seller: Linda L. Drozdowski
Date: 07/01/15

156 Lyman St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $217,500
Buyer: David C. Leiman
Seller: George Kansas
Date: 06/29/15

89 Mountain View St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $140,330
Buyer: Veterans Affairs
Seller: Karl Hathaway
Date: 07/10/15

71 Sunset Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Naim Mayer
Seller: Alicia L. Boyer
Date: 07/07/15

10 Sycamore Knolls
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: Jennifer L. Lachapelle
Seller: Jason M. Clifford
Date: 06/30/15

SOUTHAMPTON

Bissonnette Circle #28A
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Florida Corp.
Seller: Joseph C. Sampson
Date: 07/09/15

32 Bissonnette Circle
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $451,500
Buyer: Kelly A. Winkler
Seller: Florida Corp.
Date: 06/30/15

10 Nicholas Lane
Southampton, MA 01085
Amount: $167,000
Buyer: Marta Golasinski
Seller: W. Marek Inc.
Date: 07/07/15

201 Pomeroy Meadow Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $375,000
Buyer: Lise M. Lemeland
Seller: Jeffrey S. Smith
Date: 07/06/15

WARE

38 Coffey Hill Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $264,000
Buyer: Stephen J. Orszulak
Seller: Garretson FT
Date: 06/30/15

142 Eagle St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Gerald F. Skaza
Seller: Joseph F. Kelley
Date: 07/02/15

19 Malboeuf Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Jessica A. Pajonk
Seller: Quink, Paul J., (Estate)
Date: 06/29/15

239 Monson Turnpike Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Jeffrey A. Bressette
Seller: Peter M. Faria
Date: 07/09/15

204 Upper Church St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Paul R. Richard
Seller: Louis J. Albano
Date: 07/08/15

WESTHAMPTON

52 Chesterfield Road
Westhampton, MA 01027
Amount: $358,500
Buyer: Katharine P. Nelson
Seller: Celia M. Jeffries
Date: 07/09/15

179 Easthampton Road
Westhampton, MA 01027
Amount: $610,000
Buyer: Nabil A. Hannoush
Seller: Karen S. Alexander
Date: 06/30/15

18 Hathaway Road
Westhampton, MA 01027
Amount: $305,000
Buyer: Suzanne M. Krafft
Seller: Frederick W. Krafft
Date: 07/09/15

WILLIAMSBURG

11 Cole Road
Williamsburg, MA 01039
Amount: $417,000
Buyer: Virginia D. Golay
Seller: Schweickhard E. Goeler
Date: 07/07/15

25-1/2 Hyde Hill Road
Williamsburg, MA 01096
Amount: $422,500
Buyer: Michael A. Henson
Seller: Meghann L. Parkinson
Date: 07/01/15

46 Hyde Hill Road
Williamsburg, MA 01096
Amount: $260,925
Buyer: Thomas A. Raschi
Seller: US Bank
Date: 07/10/15

86 South St.
Williamsburg, MA 01096
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Brian R. McGill
Seller: Mary W. Foster IRT
Date: 07/09/15

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies Departments

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

Allyn, Ryan M.
16 Memorial Circle
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 07/09/15

Appliance Plus Gift Shop
616 Boston Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/10/15

Baczek, Joan
114 Lincoln St.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/10/15

Barsalou, Paul F.
Barsalou, Wendy E.
93 Grochmal Ave.
Indian Orchard, MA 01151
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/01/15

Black, Melanie I.
21 Bowers St., Apt. #2
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/02/15

Bliss, Annamarie
63 Hampden St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/14/15

Brandon Kelly Trucking LLC
Kelly, Brandon J.
35 Rocky Hill Road
Hadley, MA 01035
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/02/15

Campbell, Lori D.
75 Mulberry St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/08/15

Daniele-Doyl, Ann C.
69 Mohegan Ave.
Indian Orchard, MA 01151
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/06/15

DeVoie, Nathan
DeVoie, Missy M.
a/k/a Cayo, Missy M.
62 Hampden St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/30/15

Dominique, Mona M.
780 Moore St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/09/15

Dunn, Frederick C.
Dunn, Elaine G.
30 Meadow Wood Dr.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/10/15

Flynn, Judith A.
13 Harris Court
Greenfield, MA 01301
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/10/15

Garcia, Edward J.
Garcia, Nancy N.
56 Clayton St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/09/15

Glasgow, Sharon Kieras
47 Farview Way
Amherst, MA 01002
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 07/14/15

Gregoire, Stephanie D.
290 Sumner Ave., Apt. 4
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/09/15

Guiel-Demaio, Ina Renee
27 Hilltop St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/06/15

Hodecker, Edward P.
1307 North St.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/01/15

Kazimierczak, Maria
10 Nadeau Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/10/15

Kempesty, Timothy J.
Kempesty, Sarah E.
13 Grattan St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 07/10/15

Kielbasa-Richardson, LuAnn J.
190 West Bay Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/10/15

Lavalley, Eric W.
72 Reservation Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 07/06/15

Lavigne, Sonja B.
33 Gillette Ave.
Southwick, MA 01077
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/10/15

Maurer, Mark C.
Maurer, Cathy A.
484 Somers Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 07/09/15

McKenzie, Timika
36 Pidgeon Dr.
Springfield, MA 01119
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 07/06/15

McLean, Korienne L.
862 North Main St.
Orange, MA 01364
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/15/15

Mendez, Jorge Y.
90 Strong St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/02/15

Moran, Elizabeth
121 Waite Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/06/15

Morey, Craig L.
99 Valley Road
Barre, MA 01005
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 07/06/15

Mularski, Annette T.
65 Center St., Apt. 4
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/09/15

Murray, John Logan
Murray, Sandra Jean
87 Shadow Brook Estate
South Hadley, MA 01075
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/13/15

Nikonczyk, Teddy
Nikonczyk, Deanna M.
765 Florence Road
Florence, MA 01062
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/02/15

Novak, Gary Joseph
Novak, Carol Rose
a/k/a Siegel, Carol R.
14 Beverly St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/08/15

Otero, Angel M.
50 Beacon Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/14/15

Ottey, Rhonda Maureen
132 Mill St. #2R
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/02/15

Peralta, Thomas
450 Hancock St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/02/15

Rivera, Zaida I.
49 Massachusetts Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/09/15

Sambor, Marc V.
14 Brookfield St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/15/15

Smith, Manda D.
162 1/2 Main St. Apt 1
Indian Orchard, MA 01151
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/08/15

Stafford, Joan C.
1242 South Main St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/30/15

Stafinski, Mark A.
Stafinski, Christina M.
a/k/a McCray, Christina M.
16 Ferry St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/10/15

Stefanelli, Maryanne
244 Brainerd St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/02/15

Strader, Patricia R.
41 Franklin St., #2
Easthampton, MA 01027
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/15/15

Wickedhoule Creations
Houle, Victoria A.
1165 River Road
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 07/15/15

Wojnarowski, David J.
Wojnarowski, Sheryl L.
40 Joffre Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/10/15

Wood, David A.
Wood, Amy L.
102 Wilbraham Road
Monson, MA 01057
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/12/15

Yerrick, Paul W.
Yerrick, Beverly L.
65 Columbus Ave.
Apartment 609
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/03/15

Doing Business as Certificates

DBA Certificates Departments

The following Business Certificates and Trade Names were issued or renewed during the month of July 2015

AGAWAM

Dan Orszulak
16 School St.
Dan Orszulak

GG’s United Transmission
247 Elm St.
GG’s United Transmission

Riverside Contracting
77 Mill St.
Riverside Productions, LLC

CHICOPEE

Brodeur Contracting
1541 Donohue Road
Richard Brodeur

Gorobuilders
4 Coolidge Road
Timothy Gorobinsky

Jim Buddy’s Vape Shop
1271 Memorial Dr.
James Robinson

Jim’s Custom Hats
82 Center St.
James Ramah

New World Weatherization
59 Homer Ave.
Michael Desilets

Sarah’s Place
930 Chicopee St.
Sarah Bennis

The Little Pup Salon
525 Grattan St.
Erin Croteau

GREENFIELD

Rite Aid
107 Main St.
Maxi Drug, Inc.

Shine Nail Spa
54 School St.
Kelly Stevens

Vision Works
14 Chapman St.
Dick McLeester

HOLYOKE

Auto Zone
2231 Northampton St.
Stephanie Forbes

Brad Matthews Jewelers
2225 Northampton St.
Brad DiMiero

Lyman Laundry
228 Lyman St.
Bonnie Pan

PM Food Center Inc.
753 Dwight St.
Oqui Pena Melo

PNY Consulting
58 Ashley Road
Pamela Young

PALMER

Shah Food N’ Fuel, LLC
1239 Park St.
Iftikhar Shah

Thorndike Mills & Martin Importing
25 Ware St.
Anna Garabedian

SPRINGFIELD

3 Sisters Beauty Salon
901 Carew St.
Elisandro Cuevas

Baystate Visiting Nurse
50 Maple St.
Maura Queeney

Bumpy’s Corner Store
542 Page Blvd.
Derryl Gibbs

Carlos Professional Delivery
15 Merida St.
Carlos Cosme

Domari Marketing
218 Pearl St.
Taisha Ceus

Family Remodeling
34 Grant St.
Annette O’Farril

Father & Son Door to Door
34 Francis St.
Marc D. Leon-Fils

Gebo’s Glass Creations
250 Albany St.
Brian D. Gebo

Horizon
34 Goodwin St.
Glenroy Bristol

Interstate Threading Spa
475 Sumner Ave.
Mena Tiwari

Irie Design Custom Silk
80 Sunset Dr.
Paul A. Wilson

J. Lo Home Improvement
21 Standish St.
Jorge I. Lopez

JRS Distribution
250 Verge St.
Robert Hendrickson

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Balise Honda
400 Riverdale St.
Balise Motor Sales

Capital Enterprises
172 Harwich Road
Arthur A. Arena

Devoie Framing
62 Hampden St.
Nathan A. Devoie

Discount Medical Depot
70 Windsor St.
Tammy Pierson

Music Tuitions
66 Irving St.
Mera Gorosit

Paper Delivery Services
41 Irving St.
Yelisei Rabuhenko

Sparky’s
173 Elm St.
Sanjay Patel

Strategic Analysis
181 Park Ave.
George W. David

The Friendly Barbershop
90 Elm St.
Daniel V. Dineen

Vitos Office Cleaning
89 Worcester St.
Vitaliy Karapysh

Incorporations

Departments Incorporations

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

AMHERST

81 January Inc., 81 January Hills Road, Amherst, MA 01002. William Shaine, same. Sales of vintage watch accessories.

Gem Show Live Inc., 248 Flat Hills Road, Amherst, MA 01002. Joseph D. Chenelle, same. Live online coverage of gem shows.

BELCHERTOWN

E. T. Construction Corp., 46 Shea Avenue, Belchertown, MA 01007. Eric T. Scalise, same. All phases of construction.

Shree Manki Inc., 2 Stadler St., Belchertown, MA 01007. Ramesh Patel, 305 Bullard St., Fairfield, CT 06825. Retail convenience and liquor store.

DEERFIELD

Blazing Light Photography Inc., 19 Kelleher Dr., Deerfield, MA 01373. Richard F. Logan, same. Professional photography.

EASTHAMPTON

Hallapoolooza Inc., 35 West St., Easthampton, MA 01027. Kelly L. Hall, 35 West St., Easthampton, MA 01027. Billiards franchise.

GREENFIELD

Pioneer Valley Pediatric Dentistry, P.C., 51 Church St., Greenfield, MA 01302. Ashish Parameswaran, 48 Holy Family Road, Springfield, MA 01040. Dentist offices.

HOLYOKE

Sexton Roofing & Siding Inc., 102 Pine St., Holyoke, MA 01041. Everett J. Sexton Sr., same. Roofing and siding.

Vet Air Inc., 82 Nonotuck St., Holyoke, MA 01040. Jesus M. Pereira, same. To transport veterans via general aviation aircraft to medical appointments.

PITTSFIELD

GHI Greenhouse Initiative Inc., 800 Dalton Ave., Pittsfield, MA 01201. Marcus McGuire, 16 Maiden Lane, Chatham, NY 12037. Providing sustainability training related to food production and alternative energy independence.

Global Education Institute of America Inc., 82 Wendell Ave., Ste 100, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Henry Muliono, 3045 22 nd Ave., San Francisco, CA 94132. Supporting international student exchange programs at the high school and university levels.

SPRINGFIELD

Luis Deli Grocery Corp., 74 Eastern Ave., Springfield, MA 01109. Luis R. Carrasco Nunez, same. Grocery store and deli.

Metaneo Teleois Ministry Inc., 10 Commonwealth Ave., Springfield, MA 01108. Nathan A. Daniels, same. Church organizations.

Paint Sip Fun Inc., C/O 33 State St., Springfield, MA 01103. Erin Rhindress, same. Operate painting instructional events.

Briefcase

Briefcase Departments

State Economy Expands Robustly in Q2, UMass Journal Reports

AMHERST — Massachusetts real gross domestic product grew at an estimated annual rate of 5.4% in the second quarter of 2015 according to the MassBenchmarks Current Economic Index, released today by MassBenchmarks, the journal of the Massachusetts economy published by the UMass Donahue Institute in collaboration with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. U.S. real gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 2.3%, according to the advance estimate of the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Based on the latest available information, it’s estimated that, in the first quarter of 2015, the state economy expanded at a 2.1% annualized rate while the nation grew at a 0.6% annualized rate. In the second quarter, the state’s economy rebounded strongly from the weather-induced slowdown of the first quarter, with robust growth in employment and spending. Massachusetts payroll employment expanded at a 3.1% annual rate in the second quarter, nearly twice as fast as in the first quarter, when employment grew at a 1.7% annualized rate. Nationally, payroll employment grew at a 1.7% annual rate in the second quarter, down from 2.2% in the first quarter. The state’s unemployment rate fell from 4.8% in March to 4.6% in June, while the U.S. unemployment rate fell from 5.5% to 5.3% during the same period. The state’s unemployment rate has reached pre-recession levels. “The rising tide appears to finally be lifting the boats of the long-term unemployed, even though conditions for these workers remain difficult,” noted Dr. Alan Clayton-Matthews, MassBenchmarks senior contributing editor and associate professor of Economics and Public Policy at Northeastern University, who compiles and analyzes the Current and Leading Indexes. The broader U-6 measure of unemployment, which includes part-time workers who want full-time work and those who are unemployed but marginally attached to the labor force, declined significantly in the second quarter. “For the 12-month period ending in June, the Massachusetts U-6 rate fell to 10.4%, a 0.6-percentage-point drop from the 12-month period ending in March,” he noted. “In June, Current Population Survey-based estimates put the Massachusetts U-6 rate at 9.7%. The corresponding U.S. rate in June was 10.5%.” Massachusetts income and spending growth was also very strong in the second quarter. Based on withholding tax revenues, state wage and salary income in the second quarter grew at a 4.8% annual rate, following growth of 4.8% in the first quarter. Consumer and business spending on goods subject to the state’s regular sales and motor-vehicle sales tax increased dramatically in the aftermath of the snowiest winter on record. In the second quarter, spending grew at a whopping 19.3% annual rate, following 1.8% growth in the first quarter. The ability and willingness of households and businesses to spend reflects the underlying strength of the state economy and bodes well for future growth, the report asserts. The MassBenchmarks Leading Economic Index for June is 4.8%, and the three-month average for April through June is 5.0%. The leading index is a forecast of the growth in the current index over the next six months, expressed as an annual rate. Thus, it indicates that the economy is expected to grow at an annualized rate of 4.8% over the next six months (through December 2015), suggesting that the state’s solid economic performance will continue through the rest of the year. It is projecting real state gross-product growth of 5.1% in the third quarter and 4.8% in the fourth quarter. However, while the state economy appears to be in the midst of a solid economic expansion that positions the Commonwealth for solid future growth, risks to the outlook remain. Weak international economic conditions and geopolitical uncertainty continue to weigh heavily on the economic outlook for Massachusetts and the nation. The strong dollar, combined with sluggish growth in Europe and slowing growth in China, has had a significant impact on state and national exports. For the first five months of this year, Massachusetts merchandise exports are down 14.0% as compared to the first five months of 2014, while U.S. merchandise exports are down 5.2% during the same time period.

Markey, Delegation Call for Greater Access to Opioid Overdose Prevention Treatment

WASHINGTON — In a letter sent Wednesday to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), U.S. Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and eight members of the Massachusetts Congressional delegation called on the agency to take action to support broader access to the opioid-overdose-prevention treatment naloxone. There has been much documented success preventing fatalities with the use of naloxone by medical professionals and first responders, and there has been a recent movement to expand access to the overdose treatment for use by trained community and family members, who are most likely to be present during an opioid overdose. More than 1,000 people died of an opioid overdose last year in Massachusetts. The Mass. Department of Public Health (MDPH), which collects rescue reports on episodes where non-medical bystanders and community members use naloxone supplied by MDPH, has documented 5,000 rescues, with more than 1,000 of them reported in 2015 so far. Joining Markey on the letter are U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and U.S. Reps. Michael Capuano, Katherine Clark, Jim McGovern, Seth Moulton, William Keating, Joe Kennedy, and Richard Neal. “The routine practice of distributing naloxone or co-prescribing naloxone with prescriptions for opioid painkillers may help to get naloxone into households that may otherwise not have easy access to this life-saving antidote,” write the lawmakers in the letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell. “Thousands of Americans who are currently taking prescription opioid painkillers, whether legitimately for the treatment of pain or illicitly without doctor supervision, could potentially be saved from accidental overdose by having wider access to naloxone.” In the letter, the lawmakers call on HHS to explore issuing recommendations that could be used to institute best practices for co-prescribing naloxone with opioid painkillers and examine establishing demonstration programs, encouraging federally funded health centers to adopt policies for co-prescribing, and reducing payment barriers for naloxone coverage and reimbursement.

Home Sales Rise in June in Pioneer Valley

SPRINGFIELD — The Realtor Assoc. of Pioneer Valley reported that single-family home sales in June were up 4.9% compared to the same time last year. The median price, meanwhile, dropped 1.5%, from $204,000 last year at this time to $201,000 this year, as first-time buyers continue to come into the market. The association reported that, across the Pioneer Valley, sales in June 2015 totaled 552, compared to 526 a year ago. In Hampden County, sales were up 11.4% over the same month last year (370 in 2015 and 332 in 2014), with the median price down 2.2%. In Hampshire County, meanwhile, sales remained the same (135 both years), with the median price down 4.6%. In Franklin County, though, sales were down 22% (42 in 2015 and 54 in 2014), and median prices were up 8.8%.

Unemployment Rates Rise in Most Areas

BOSTON — The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development (EOLWD) reported that seasonally unadjusted unemployment rates went down in two areas during the month of June and increased in 22 areas in the state. According to data from U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor and Statistics, Nantucket and Vineyard Haven were the two areas where unadjusted unemployment rates dropped in June. Eleven of the 15 areas for which job estimates are published recorded seasonal job gains in June, with the largest gains in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Barnstable, Framingham, Pittsfield, and Lawrence-Methuen, as well as Salem, N.H. Compared to June 2014, unemployment rates are down in all labor markets measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The EOLWD also reported the statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 4.6% for the second consecutive month. The unemployment rate is down 1.1% over the year. The statewide seasonally adjusted jobs estimate showed a 10,500-job gain in June and an over-the-year gain of 72,700 jobs.

Company Notebook

Company Notebook Departments

Westfield Financial Posts Solid Second Quarter

WESTFIELD — Westfield Financial Inc., the holding company for Westfield Bank, reported net income of $1.4 million, or $0.08 per diluted share, for the quarter ended June 30, compared to $1.3 million, or $0.07 per diluted share, for the quarter ended June 30, 2014. For the six months ended June 30, 2015, net income was $2.7 million, or $0.15 per diluted share, compared to $3.0 million, or $0.16 per diluted share, for the same period in 2014. Among other selected financial highlights for second quarter of 2015:
• Total loans increased $73.3 million, or 10.7%, to $759.4 million at June 30, 2015 compared to $686.1 million at June 30, 2014. This was primarily due to increases in residential loans of $47.3 million, commercial and industrial loans of $23.4 million, and commercial real-estate loans of $2.1 million.
• Securities increased $20.7 million, or 4.2%, to $516.7 million at June 30, 2015, compared to $496.0 million at June 30, 2014. On a sequential-quarter basis, securities were relatively flat at June 30, 2015, compared to $515.2 million at March 31, 2015.
• Net interest and dividend income increased $78,000 to $7.8 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2015 compared to $7.7 million for the comparable 2014 period. On a sequential-quarter basis, net interest and dividend income increased $189,000 for the quarter ended June 30, 2015, compared to the quarter ended March 31, 2015.
• The bank prepaid $10 million in Federal Home Loan Bank borrowings with a weighted average rate of 2.77% and incurred a pre-payment expense of $278,000 in the second quarter of 2015 in order to eliminate a higher-cost liability. Net gains on the sales of securities of $276,000 were used to partially offset the pre-payment expense.
• Non-interest expense increased $334,000 to $6.9 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2015 compared to the second quarter of 2014. On a sequential-quarter basis, non-interest expense increased by $154,000 for the quarter ended June 30, 2015, compared to $6.7 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2015. The efficiency ratio, excluding non-core items, was 76.1% for the second quarter of 2015, compared to 78.1% for the quarter ended March 31, 2015.
“Over the past twelve months, we have seen significant momentum in our efforts to grow both the loan portfolio and our deposit base. With loans increasing 10.7% year over year, we are demonstrating our commitment to growing our core customer franchise,” said President and CEO James Hagan. “We are also pleased to announce that Christopher Fager, assistant vice president, Commercial Lending, has recently joined Westfield Bank’s commercial team. Christopher brings more than six years of banking experience and is based in our commercial-lending office in downtown Springfield, which was established in August 2014.” Finally, Hagan noted, “we continue to see success in Westfield Bank’s recent market expansion into Northern Connecticut. Our two Connecticut offices now have over $36.6 million in deposits. The Granby, Connecticut office has been open just over two years, and Enfield, Connecticut opened in November 2014. The customer base in the Connecticut market is very receptive to our brand of banking, and our objective is to continue to develop loan and deposit relationships.”

Fallon Health Expands Services in Region

WORCESTER — Fallon Health, a not-for-profit healthcare-services organization, announced it is strengthening its commitment to the people it serves in Western Mass. Members of its NaviCare program — a Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plan and Senior Care Options program — now have access to Baycare Health Partners, a physician-hospital organization serving five Baystate Health hospitals and more than 200 medical practices in the Pioneer Valley. Fallon members enrolled in the plan’s NaviCare program are able to access Baycare’s participating facilities and physicians including Baystate Medical Center, Baystate Mary Lane Hospital, Baystate Franklin Medical Center, Baystate Noble Hospital, and Baystate Wing Hospital. “Fallon has a high regard for Baycare Health Partners’ commitment to improving the quality, safety, efficiency, and sustainability of healthcare in the community,” said Patrick Hughes, president and CEO of Fallon Health. “We’re pleased to partner with them to increase accessibility to high-quality healthcare for one of the most vulnerable populations we serve — frail elders with complex care needs.” NaviCare is a unique product for adults age 65 and over. It combines in one package all Medicare and Medicaid benefits, plus additional benefits and services designed to promote independence and quality of life. NaviCare is available to those ages 65 and over who are enrolled in MassHealth Standard. For those who qualify, NaviCare is available at a $0 premium with $0 co-payments. All healthcare is coordinated by a team of doctors, specialists, nurses, and social workers who develop a plan of care specific to each member. “For more than 25 years, Fallon has remained committed to helping older adults with complex care needs to live as independently as possible in the communities in which they are comfortable,” said Richard Burke, president of Senior Care Services and Government Programs. “Each time we expand our NaviCare network, we’re able to provide more options that can have a positive impact on the health and well-being of older adults and their families.” In addition to NaviCare, Fallon offers other products and programs for Medicare beneficiaries in Western Mass. and throughout the state, including a variety of plan choices for its Medicare Advantage product, called Fallon Senior Plan. Fallon also offers a Program of all-inclusive care for the elderly, called Summit ElderCare.

BCC, Elms Create Unique Weekend Program

Berkshire Community College (BCC) and Elms College in Chicopee have signed a memorandum of understanding allowing qualified BCC human services graduates, as well as graduates with associate degrees from other accredited institutions, to complete Elms College’s bachelor’s-degree program in social work at BCC’s main campus on West Street in Pittsfield. BCC President Ellen Kennedy and Elms College President Mary Reap originally signed an agreement regarding the off-campus program for social work in May 2013. Classes previously offered in Lee will shift to BCC’s main campus starting next month. Students will work with BCC advisors as they complete their associate degrees at BCC and then with Elms advisors as they transition into the bachelor’s-degree completion programs. “We know that students are the most successful when they have the flexibility to balance studies with work and personal commitments,” Kennedy said. “Having top-notch educators from Elms College at our campus offering weekend classes will most certainly benefit students interested in earning a bachelor’s degree in social work close to home.” Added Reap, “social work is a growing, vitally important field with expanding job opportunities for Western Massachusetts. We’re pleased to partner with Berkshire Community College to set students on the path to bachelor’s degrees leading to rewarding careers, empowering them to change lives for the better in the Berkshire community.” In addition to social work, Elms will also offer two online degree-completion programs as part of the memorandum of understanding, including a bachelor’s degree in speech language pathology assistant and a bachelor’s degree in healthcare management. Classes taught by Elms College faculty will be held at BCC on Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1 to 5 p.m. Students who complete coursework in 10 eight-week sessions over a 20-month period will be awarded a bachelor of science degree in social work. Two cohorts, consisting of new and returning students, will begin classes Aug. 29. To qualify for transfer to Elms or enrollment into the off-campus program, BCC students must have earned an associate degree and have a minimum grade-point average of 2.5. The two institutions originally signed an articulation agreement for social work majors in 2004. The first off-campus social work cohort launched in August 2013 and graduated this past May. BCC currently has approximately 50 transfer-articulation agreements with colleges and universities throughout the country, including Clarkson University, Colorado State University, Union College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Russell Sage College, Southern Vermont College, the University at Albany, the College of Saint Rose, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. BCC also has MassTransfer agreements with all Massachusetts state colleges and universities, including UMass Amherst and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. In addition to BCC, Elms College has a number off-campus agreements with institutions — including Greenfield Community College, Holyoke Community College, Mount Wachusett Community College, Quinsigamond Community College, and Springfield Technical Community College — in dozens of programs, including early care and education, management and marketing, social work, nursing, accounting, and psychology. For more information about BCC’s human-services program, visit www.berkshirecc.edu/humanservices or e-mail Audrey Ringer at [email protected]. For information about Elms College’s social work program, e-mail Maureen Holland at [email protected]. For information about Elms College’s social work degree-completion program, contact Wanda Banks at [email protected] or (413) 313-4287.

Baystate Noble Cited for Financial Improvement

WESTFIELD — Baystate Noble Hospital recently accepted the 2014 Financial Improvement Performance award at the 2015 MedAssets Healthcare Business Summit. Every year, this award is presented to a healthcare organization that achieved significant financial improvement and realized substantial cash acceleration in 2014. MedAssets is a performance-improving company that focuses on helping providers understand financial and operational gains so they can effectively serve the needs of their community. Its main focus is the healthcare industry and its core values include compassion, character, confidence, and commitment. MedAssets values people who are committed to supporting their clients in upholding their cherished healthcare missions. They have a passion to improve healthcare and find it essential to value relationships with organizations such as Baystate Noble Hospital. “This award helps to validate all the hard work we have put into it and that we are on the right track,” said Cristina Fialho, revenue coordinator at Baystate Noble Hospital.

PVRR Among Railroads to Receive Grants

WESTFIELD — MassDOT recently announced the awarding of five grants totaling more than $2 million for industrial rail projects as part of the 2015 Industrial Rail Access Program (IRAP). Among the grants awarded is $175,045 to Pioneer Valley Railroad for installation of new rail siding at Railroad Distribution Services facility in Westfield. The IRAP funding for the five projects is being matched by more than $1.7 million in private-sector funds for a total $3.7 million investment in freight-rail improvements in the third year of the IRAP program. Created as part of the 2012 Transportation Bond Bill, IRAP provides grants to railroads, rail shippers, and municipalities that identify a public benefit gained through improved rail transportation usage or economic growth that would be realized through improved access to rail assets. The five 2015 IRAP recipients represent a variety of projects meeting the program objective of improving the rail network while boosting economic growth.

People on the Move

Departments People on the Move

Local news hires, promotions, awards, and appointments August 10, 2015

Kathy Tobin

The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts announced the appointment of Kathy Tobin as its new director of Development and Marketing. In this role, she will oversee all fund-raising and marketing activities for the Food Bank, including special events, individual donor cultivation, communications, corporate relations, grants, and education outreach. She will assume her position on Aug. 31. “We’re very excited to have Kathy joining our organization,” said Food Bank Executive Director Andrew Morehouse. “She brings with her a breadth of knowledge and experience from her current role at Friends of the Homeless in Springfield — a member agency that receives food from us — as well as her career in media. We are confident that her proven track record for leadership and creativity will be a tremendous asset in forwarding the mission of the Food Bank.” Since 2009, Tobin has served as the director of Program Development for Friends of the Homeless, where she increased visibility for the nonprofit and helped more community partners learn about the critical role it plays in meeting the needs of homeless in the region. Under her direction, it established a formalized annual appeal, expanded corporate outreach, coordinated volunteer engagement, and held an annual donor event. In addition, she oversaw the establishment of the Friends of the Homeless Store, providing people with access to free personal-care items and clothing. Tobin will continue in her current position at Friends of the Homeless through the end of August. “Her talents will certainly be missed,” said Bill Miller, executive director of Friends of the Homeless. “I know I speak for our board, our staff, and our clients in acknowledging her efforts to initiate and sustain a development program for the organization. We will build upon the foundation Kathy helped us establish as we expand the support required to meet the needs of our homeless population.” Moving forward, Friends of the Homeless will be seeking someone to assume the responsibility of development and community outreach and will formalize a search process to identify someone who can continue to build on its established programs, Miller said. Prior to joining Friends of the Homeless, Tobin enjoyed a 30-year career as a television news journalist with WGGB ABC40 in Springfield, where she was honored with a number of awards for news coverage, including the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award. Among the many issues she covered during her television career were the plight of area homeless and the community campaign and planning which led to the development and construction of the Friends of the Homeless Resource Center on the organization’s Worthington Street campus. Tobin is also involved with a number of community organizations. She serves as a trustee for Elms College in Chicopee, a director of Spirit of Springfield, a director of the Women’s Commission in Springfield, and a scholarship committee member for the Valley Press Club.

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Cristina Perez

Tighe & Bond, an environmental engineering and consulting firm, recently hired Cristina Perez to lead and expand its asset-management services for the firm’s clients. A civil and environmental engineer with more than 15 years of consulting experience, she has more than nine years of experience with infrastructure asset management, capital-improvement planning, and geographic information systems (GIS). Perez will work primarily out of Tighe & Bond’s new Westwood, Mass. office. Perez has consulted with numerous public and private clients on asset-management, GIS, facilities-management, pavement-management, sustainability, and climate-change projects. She leverages her background in civil engineering for designing and architecting targeted asset-management solutions for her clients. “We are happy to welcome Cris to our growing team of experts,” said David Pinsky, president and CEO of Tighe & Bond. “Her expertise will benefit our communities and clients greatly as they become increasingly focused on asset management to prioritize and properly budget improvements within the constraints of limited funding.” Perez earned her master’s degree in civil and environmental engineering from Tufts University. She received her bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain.

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Robert Accorsi

Springfield College has named Robert Accorsi its faculty athletic representative to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Appointed by Springfield College President Mary-Beth Cooper, Accorsi is currently an associate professor of Sport Management and Recreation at the College. He succeeds immediate past Dean and Associate Professor of Exercise Science and Sports Studies Charles Redmond, who retired following this past academic year. As faculty athletic representative, Accorsi will represent the college to the NCAA, the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference, the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference, and all other athletic conferences and associations. Accorsi will oversee that academic integrity, institutional control of intercollegiate athletics, and enhancement of student-athletes’ experience are college priorities. Accorsi will also advise the college president, director of athletics, faculty, students, and other constituencies on intercollegiate athletics. Additionally, he will monitor student-athletes’ eligibility, academic progress, and graduation rates, and support their nominations for various awards. Student-athletes may discuss any aspect of their student-athlete experience with him, and he will consult with NCAA legislative services for interpretations. “I am delighted that Bob has agreed to serve in this critical position for the college. His deep understanding of sport and the needs of our student-athletes make him a perfect fit for assuming this leadership role,” Cooper said. “I look forward to working with him in this capacity. He is more than qualified to represent and advise Springfield College on intercollegiate athletics.”

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Doreen Fadus

Doreen Fadus, executive director of Community Benefit and Health at Mercy Medical Center, has been tapped to serve as president of the board for the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, a network of more than 10,000 doctors, nurses, social workers, patients, and advocates who work to eliminate homelessness by ensuring comprehensive healthcare and secure housing for all. In this role, Fadus serves as the council’s lead representative on the national stage for advocacy issues such as the Accountable Care Act, Medicaid reimbursements, and housing and health collaboration. “Doreen personifies our mission to serve as a transforming, healing presence. She is a tremendous advocate for the local homeless community, and her selection to this national position will allow her dedication and talent to benefit a greater number of individuals,” said Yvonne Boudreau, senior vice president of Mission Services for the Sisters of Providence Health System. As Mercy’s executive director of Community Benefit and Health, Fadus oversees the hospital’s community health programs, including Health Care for the Homeless, which works in partnership with the city of Springfield and Open Pantry to provide primary-care services at 23 homeless shelters, soup kitchens, job-placement sites, and transitional programs. These services are delivered to more than 2,200 people each year in Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties. She also oversees Mercy’s Vietnamese Health Project, Faith Community Nursing, High End Utilizer Program, and Community Benefit. Fadus began her career at Mercy Medical Center as director of Health Care for the Homeless in 2001, and she has an extensive background in community service. She currently serves as co-chair of the Western Mass. Network to End Homelessness; an advisory board member of the Hampden County Continuum of Care Board, the Catholic Charities Diocesan Board, and the Western Mass. Task Force on Homelessness; and a member of the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County. The founder and past president of Dress for Success Western Massachusetts, Fadus also serves on the board of Friends of the Homeless. “The National Health Care for the Homeless Council works with government agencies and private institutions to foster collaboration on the varied and complex problems associated with homelessness,” said Fadus. “These remarkable individuals have dedicated their lives to this important cause, and it is an honor to serve as their leader.”

Agenda

Agenda Departments

Valley Fest

Aug. 29: White Lion Brewing Co. announced that it will host its inaugural beer festival, called Valley Fest, at Court Square in downtown Springfield. MGM Springfield will be the presenting sponsor. The festival is poised to be White Lion’s signature annual event, introducing the young brand to craft-beer enthusiasts throughout New England and beyond. White Lion Brewing Co., the city of Springfield’s only brewery, launched in October 2014. Founder Ray Berry and brewmaster Mike Yates have released three selections under the White Lion brand and have been busy promoting their efforts in venues all over Massachusetts and other New England states. “Valley Fest will have the best of the best local, regional, and national beer and hard cider brands,” Berry said. “Even in our inaugural year, Valley Fest will be the largest one-day beer festival in Western Massachusetts. We expect to draw up to 2,000 enthusiasts from throughout New England. We are very excited to showcase the fourth-largest city in New England and all of its amenities.” Berry anticipates that more than 50 breweries and several local food vendors will converge on Court Square for two sessions. Enthusiasts will have an opportunity to sample more than 100 varieties of beer and hard cider alongside pairing selections by local chefs. A portion of Valley Fest proceeds will support the American Cancer Society and Dakin Humane Society. For more information, visit www.valleybrewfest.com.

Williamstown Film Festival Presents Wind-Up Fest

Oct. 15-18: The annual Williamstown Film Festival (WFF), now in its 17th year, welcomes big changes with new faces, a new name, and new programming focus. Slated for Oct. 15-18, WFF Presents: Wind-Up Fest is a nonfiction festival with documentary film as its backbone. Other forms of nonfiction will be in conversation with documentaries, including long-form journalism, radio podcasts, photography, and social-practice art. The event’s new artistic director, Paul Sturtz, is also the co-director at the True/False Film Fest in Columbia, Mo., and its new managing director, Sandra Thomas, is the former executive director of Images Cinema in Williamstown. “Our aim is to provide a unique, distinctive event for North Adams and Williamstown while serving as a destination festival for lovers of nonfiction. We are living in a time when nonfiction storytelling is offering one of the most vital, urgent ways forward,” Sturtz said. The festival will be curated by Sturtz, who was selected (along with his True/False co-director David Wilson) as one of 40 people in the inaugural Indiewire Influencers list, described as “visionaries that are changing the course of film.” “I’m excited to work with Paul to make his creative vision a reality,” said Thomas. “Working in partnership with the community, engaging a broad audience, and strengthening the festival’s presence are all important elements of the fest.” With the addition of Sturtz and return of Thomas, the board of directors announced the retirement of festival Executive Director Steve Lawson. “It’s been an exhilarating ride, but after 15 seasons as executive director, I felt it was time to pass the torch,” said Lawson. “This seemed like the right moment to segue to new voices and directions. Paul and Sandra have exciting plans in store for the festival which promise to build on all that we’ve achieved so far. Here’s hoping the first 16 years of WFF will prove to be the prelude to a dazzling future.” The festival has offices in North Adams and Williamstown and can reached at [email protected] or (413) 458-9700.

Noble Ball

Oct. 17: Baystate Noble Hospital is preparing for the 51st Anniversary Noble Ball co-chaired by the Queenin family: Kevin, Barbara, Jay, Janine, Jon and Lisa. “Magic of Motown – Motor City Review” will take place the MassMutual Center in Springfield. More than 800 guests are expected to attend the black-tie event, which will feature live entertainment, silent and live auctions, formal dinner, cocktails, dancing, and more. Since the first ball in 1959, the Hospital has used this signature event to raise money for operating funds, building improvements, equipment purchases, and more. Proceeds from this year’s ball will be added to last year’s funds and used to enhance Baystate Noble’s entrance and reception area to provide updated ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) access. “Our goal is to make Baystate Noble easily accessible for all,” said Allison Gearing-Kalill, vice president of Community Development. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.baystatenoblehospital.org/ball or e-mail [email protected].

Western Mass. Business Expo

Nov. 4: Comcast Business will present the fifth annual Western Mass. Business Expo at the MassMutual Center in downtown Springfield, produced by BusinessWest and the Healthcare News in partnership with Go Graphix and Rider Productions. The business-to-business show will feature more than 100 booths, seminars and Show Floor Theater presentations, breakfast and lunch programs, and a day-capping Expo Social. Details about specific events, programs, and featured speakers will be printed in future issues of BusinessWest. Current sponsors include Comcast Business, presenting sponsor; the Isenberg School of Business at UMass Amherst, education sponsor; Johnson & Hill and Health New England, director level sponsors; and 94.7 WMAS, media sponsor. Additional sponsorship opportunities are available. Exhibitor spaces are also available; booth prices start at $750. For more information on sponsorships or booth purchase, call (413) 781-8600, ext. 100.

Chamber Corners: Upcoming Events

Chamber Corners Departments

Western Massachusetts Chambers of Commerce events August 10, 2015

AFFILIATED CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE OF GREATER SPRINGFIELD

www.myonlinechamber.com
(413) 787-1555

• Sept. 2: ACCGS September Business@Breakfast, 7:15-9 a.m., at the Sheraton Springfield, One Monarch Place. The program will be “Vision 2017 Dream Big: The Future of Springfield,” featuring Kevin Kennedy, Springfield’s chief development officer. Commuters traveling via high-speed rail … fans packing a baseball stadium … sunbathers lounging at the urban beachfront. Can you dream that big? For more information, call Sarah Mazzaferro at (413) 755-1313. Cost: $20 for members in advance, $25 for members at the door, $30 for non-members.

• Sept. 16: ACCGS September 2015 Speed Networking, 3:30-5 p.m. at Loomis Lakeside at Reeds Landing, 807 Wilbraham Road, Springfield. Network in a fast-paced, round-robin format, then stay for the After 5. Speed Networking admission includes admission to the After 5. For more information, call Sarah Mazzaferro at (413) 755-1313. Cost: $20 for members in advance), $25 for members at the door, $25 for non-members.

• Sept. 16: ACCGS September 2015 After 5, 5-7 p.m., at Loomis Lakeside at Reeds Landing, 807 Wilbraham Road, Springfield. Say goodbye to summer at the lake. For more information, call Sarah Mazzaferro at (413) 755-1313. Cost: $5 for members, $10 for non-members.

• Sept. 22: ACCGS September 2015 Pastries, Politics, and Policies, 8-9 a.m., at the TD Bank Conference Center, 1441 Main St., Springfield. Featuring state Sen. Benjamin Downing, chair of the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy. For more information, call Sarah Mazzaferro at (413) 755-1313. Cost: $15 for members, $25 for non-members.

AMHERST AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.amherstarea.com
(413) 253-0700

• August 12: Chamber After 5 Lady Bea Riverboat Cruise, 5-7 p.m., at Brunelle’s Marina, 1 Alvord St., South Hadley. Come take a cruise on the Lady Bea Riverboat at our August After 5 networking event. The Lady Bea features both inside seating and outside sun decks that attendees can explore while spending an evening on the Connecticut River. Sponsored by Alden Credit Union. Cost: $25 for members, $30 for guests.

GREATER CHICOPEE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.chicopeechamber.org
(413) 594-2101

• August 20: Mornings with The Mayor, 8-9 a.m., at Porter & Chester Institute, 134 Dulong Circle, Chicopee. Coffee and light refreshments will be served while Mayor Richard Kos provides updates about what’s happening in Chicopee and other topics that impact the Greater Chicopee area. If there’s a particular issue on which you’d like the mayor to speak, submit your questions by Aug. 17 to [email protected]. This event is for chamber members only and is free, but registration is required so that the host business knows how many will be attending.

• Sept. 10: Auction/Beer & Wine Tasting, 6-9 p.m., at the Delaney House, 3 Country Club Road, Holyoke.

• Sept. 16: September Salute Breakfast, 7:15-9 a.m., at LifePoint Baptist Church, 603 New Ludlow Road, Chicopee.

GREATER EASTHAMPTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.easthamptonchamber.org
(413) 527-9414

• August 10: Monday Morning with the Mayor, 8-9 a.m., at A-Z Storage & Properties, 165 Northampton Street, Easthampton. This is your opportunity to bring your questions to Mayor Karen Cadieux for casual conversation and direct answers. This event is free and open to the public.

• August 13: Networking by Night, 5-7 p.m., at Freedom Credit Union, 422B Main St., Easthampton. Join us along with our hosts, Freedom Credit Union & Wireless Zone of Easthampton, for a night of networking and meeting new friends. Cost: $10 for members, $15 for non-members.

GREATER HOLYOKE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.holycham.com
(413) 534-3376

• Sept. 16: Annual Clambake 2015, 5-7 p.m., at Holyoke Country Club, One Country Club Road. Treat your client to golf or make this your employee appreciation dinner. Purchase Clambake tickets in advance and play golf (with cart) for $15. Jazz on the patio by Simmer Music. Prize packages auction; win a chance to enter a hole-in-one putting contest to win $1,000. Cost: $35 per ticket, with a 10% discount for seven or more tickets.

• Sept. 17: Leadership Holyoke 2015-16, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., city tour. Meet at Holyoke Community College, and tour the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center. Get an overview of community demographics and history, and meet community leaders. A series of seven days comprise Leadership Holyoke 2015-16. Faculty members from HCC will participate as instructors and facilitators. Community leaders will participate as speakers and discussion leaders. Program locations subject to change. Objectives include developing a pool of emerging leaders, supporting individuals to increase their potential by acquiring new skills, and networking with community and business leaders. The program will teach participants to apply skills in an organizational setting, expand the individual’s problem-solving methods, skills, and strategies for achieving change; explore leadership styles that are critical to the effective service of potential volunteers; and give participants an in-depth look at the community’s resources, assets, challenges, and opportunities. For business people learning to become community leaders, tuition is $595, due at the start of the course. The fee also covers continental breakfasts, the graduation luncheon, and a trip to the State House in Boston.

GREATER NORTHAMPTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.explorenorthampton.com
(413) 584-1900

• Sept. 9: Northampton Chamber Monthly Arrive@5, 5-7 p.m., at the Academy of Music. Arrive when you can, stay as long as you can. A casual mix and mingle with your colleagues and friends. Sponsored by Thornes Marketplace, Johnson & Hill Staffing Service, and BusinessWest. Cost: $10 for members.

• Sept. 15: 2015 Workshop: “Spicing up Your PowerPoint Presentations,” 9-11 a.m., at the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce, 99 Pleasant St., Northampton. Presented by Pioneer Training. This workshop will focus on using PowerPoint features to take a presentation beyond a simple set of bulleted slides. You’ll learn to how to change slide layouts and designs easily and how to add tables, Smart Art, graphic effects, sound effects, and video to your presentation. You’ll also learn to work with master slides to make global changes to a presentation easily. The workshop will also focus on adding animations to text and objects on slides, as well as adding transitions between slides. You’ll learn how to rehearse the presentation and keep track of timing, how to annotate slides during a presentation, and a variety of handy shortcuts to use while giving a presentation. The workshop will also cover the options for printing a presentation, including how to print notes pages for the presenter and workshop participants. You’ll also learn how to add charts to a presentation, as well as a series of do’s and don’ts for effective presentation design. Participants are encouraged, but not required, to bring laptops and follow along with the instructor. Cost: $20 for members, $30 for non-members. RSVP is required, and space is limited. To register, e-mail [email protected]

GREATER WESTFIELD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.westfieldbiz.org
(413) 568-1618

• Sept. 9: September After 5 Connection, 5-7 p.m., at Tekoa Country Club, 459 Russell Road, Westfield. Refreshments will be served. Bring your business cards and make connections. To register, call Pam at the chamber office at (413) 568-1618. Cost: $10 for members, $15 cash for non-members.

• Sept. 14: Mayor’s Coffee Hour, 8-9 a.m. Join us for our monthly Mayor’s Coffee Hour with Westfield Mayor Dan Knapik, hosted by Mestek. This event is free and open to the public. Call Pam at the chamber office at (413) 568-1618 to register for this event so we may give our host a head count.

• Sept. 18: September Chamber Breakfast, 7-9 a.m., at the 104th Fighter Wing ANG, 175 Falcon Dr., Westfield. Platinum sponsor: Baystate Noble Hospital. Gold sponsor: United Bank. Silver sponsor: United Way of Pioneer Valley. For more information or to donate a raffle item, call Pam at the chamber at (413) 568-1618.

WEST OF THE RIVER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.ourwrc.com
(413) 426-3880

• August 17: West of the River Chamber of Commerce Annual Golf Tournament at the Ranch Golf Course, Southwick. Schedule: 11:30 a.m.: registration; noon: lunch; 1p.m.: shotgun start/scramble format. Cost: golf and dinner, $125. For more information and tickets, call the chamber office at (413) 426-3880, or e-mail [email protected]

• Sept. 2: Wicked Wednesday, 5:30-7:30 p.m., at Cutting Edge Salon, Feeding Hills. Wicked Wednesdays are monthly social events, hosted by various businesses and restaurants. These events bring members and non-members together to network in a laid-back atmosphere. For more information and tickets, contact the chamber office at (413) 426-3880, or e-mail [email protected]

• Sept. 17: Networking Lunch, noon to 1:30 p.m., at Crestview Country Club in Agawam. Must be a member or guest of a member to attend. Enjoy a sit-down lunch while networking with fellow chamber members. Each attendee will get a chance to offer a brief sales pitch. The only cost to attend is the cost of lunch. Attendees will order off the menu and pay separately the day of the event. Please note, we cannot invoice you for these events. For more information, call the chamber office at (413) 426-3880, or e-mail [email protected]

• Sept. 24: Breakfast Seminar, 7-9 a.m., at Oakridge Country Club, Feeding Hills. Admission: $25 for chamber members, $30 for non-members. For more information and tickets, call the chamber office at (413) 426-3880, or e-mail [email protected].

Court Dockets

Court Dockets Departments

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

CHICOPEE DISTRICT COURT

James Sikora v. Leisure Getaways Inc. and Timeshare Trade-Ins, LLC
Allegation: Breach of timeshare sales contract: $15,175
Filed: 5/14/15

Merz Aesthetics Inc. v. Allure Med-Spa, LLC, f/d/b/a Devlin Dermal, LLC
Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $11,346.09
Filed: 5/26/15

The Law Offices of Michael D. Facchini v. Karyn Wesch and Premier Fighting Championship, LLC
Allegation: Breach of contract and failure to perform four MMA fights within an allotted timeframe: $2,000
Filed: 7/10/15

FRANKLIN SUPERIOR COURT

Donald Fugere v. Urban Power USA Inc. and Mark Maynard
Allegation: Breach of wind-turbine and installation agreement: $158,974.75
Filed: 6/23/15

HAMPDEN SUPERIOR COURT

Kamco Supply Corp. of New England v. Allen & Burke Construction, LLC and John Burke
Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $25,525.46
Filed: 7/10/15

Owen McLaughlin v. O’Donnell Paving & Landscaping Inc.
Allegation: Breach of contract for installation of asphalt driveway: $64,072.89
Filed: 6/30/15

PNC Equipment Finance, LLC v. Accountable Care Associates Inc.
Allegation: Non-payment of services, labor, and materials: $66,765.48
Filed: 7/15/15

SPRINGFIELD DISTRICT COURT

James A. McEwan v. Elmcrest Country Club
Allegation: Non-payment of legal services provided: $13,797.25
Filed: 6/4/15

Latasha Summers v. J.D. Byrider of Springfield
Allegation: Concealing and failing to disclose vehicle accident history: $5,328.24
Filed: 5/11/15

Western Mass. Electric Co. v. GEG Construction Inc.
Allegation: Negligent installation of drainage pipe causing damage: $16,509.50
Filed: 6/25/15

Picture This

Departments Picture This

Send photos with a caption and contact information to: ‘Picture This’ c/o BusinessWest Magazine, 1441 Main Street, Springfield, MA 01103 or to [email protected]

Open for Business

MedExpressOpening MedExpress Urgent Care opened a new office in Chicopee on July 14. The facility, located at 1505 Memorial Dr., offers a wide range of medical services, including X-rays, minor surgery, occupational health, physicals, immunizations, medical evaluations, and treatment of colds, flu, infections, breaks, sprains, cuts, allergic reactions, and other conditions. On hand for the ceremonial ribbon-cutting ceremonies were Chicopee Mayor Rich Kos and Greater Chicopee Chamber of Commerce Director Eileen Drumm (center); Elizabeth Toner, aide to state Sen. Jim Welch; Ernesto Cruz, aide to state Rep. Jose Tosado; and Richard Kosiaka from Citizens Bank, as well as a host of MedExpress employees, including Becca Deleporte, Viktoriya Gladysh, Angela Faulkner, Amy Biela, Ashleigh Ouimette, Mindi Richardson, Sandy Cyr, Zuleyka Dube, Kristine Laurin, Sarah Moses, Kristina Hawley, Ed Casaldi, and Dr. Dheeraj Taranath.

Banking on College Success

2015-CSB-Scholarship The Chicopee Savings Bank Charitable Foundation recently announced its ninth annual scholarship award program. This program replaced the Chicopee Savings Bank Medallion Scholarship Program, which was established in 1976 in conjunction with the nation’s bicentennial celebration. This year, the Chicopee Savings Bank Charitable Foundation Scholarship Program awarded seven scholarships, each in the amount of $3,000, to graduating seniors from high schools within the bank’s market area. Pictured here with William Wagner, president of Chicopee Savings Bank Charitable Foundation, at the presentation ceremonies on July 23 are, from left, Juliana Vadnais, Ware Junior/Senior High School; Emily Doiron, Chicopee Comprehensive High School; Taylor Guertin, South Hadley High School; Krystian Jurkowski, Chicopee High School; Samantha Cross, Cathedral High School; Emily Sevigne, Ludlow High School; and Mihaela Sousa, Ware Junior/Senior High School.

TommyCar Auto Group Donates Used Vehicle for Fire-rescue Training

NORTHAMPTON — Country Hyundai and Northampton Volkswagen recently provided a used vehicle to the Northampton Fire Department for rescue training.

Firefighters spend countless hours training and honing their skills to ensure they are prepared for any emergency. The vehicle will be put to work in upcoming training exercises in which firefighters will utilize their extrication equipment on the vehicles, also known as the Hurst Tool or the Jaws of Life.

“Ensuring firefighters have the latest training is critical to the safety of this community,” said Carla Cosenzi, president of Country Hyundai and Northampton Volkswagen, two dealerships in the TommyCar Auto Group chain. “We’re proud to be able to help in such a meaningful way, knowing so many people will ultimately benefit.”

Added Bill Schuetze, captain and training officer for the Northampton Fire Department, “we really want to thank Country Hyundai and Northampton Volkswagen for the generous contribution. We will get a lot of use out of this car to train our firefighters on rescue efforts.”

Country Hyundai and Northampton Volkswagen hope to have an ongoing relationship with the Northampton Fire Department and be able to offer more vehicles in the future.

Springfield Falcons Announce Front-office Promotions

SPRINGFIELD — Springfield Falcons President Sarah Pompea recently announced five front-office staff promotions.

The organization has promoted Chris Thompson to senior vice president, Cortney Hersom to vice president, Andy Zilch to manager of Communications/Broadcasting, Marija Ward to manager of Ticket Operations, and Luke Pawlak to manager of Game Operations/Creative Services.

Thompson will continue to oversee the team’s corporate sales with an expanded focus on driving ticket sales. In his new role, he will be working closely with Pompea in the day-to-day operations of the organization.

Hersom is currently responsible for all Falcons financials and human resources. In addition, she will take a stronger lead in the daily operations of the office.

Zilch, the Falcons’ play-by-play broadcaster, also has responsibilities in ticket and corporate sales. He will oversee the team’s communications and community-relations efforts and act as the primary media contact for the Falcons.

Ward oversees all aspects of the organization’s ticket operations and serves as the box-office liaison. She has been tasked with streamlining the ticket department, increasing efficiency, and enhancing the fan experience.

Pawlak spearheads all creative aspects for the organization and will also be able to utilize new technology this season to enhance the fan experience. He has cultivated a positive leadership role with the team’s game-night staff.

Cynthia Squires Joins HUB International New England

EAST LONGMEADOW — HUB International New England, a division of HUB International Limited, a leading global insurance-brokerage, risk-advisory, and employee-benefits firm, announced that Cynthia Squires has joined HUB International New England as manager of Select Business for small to medium-sized business accounts in the Commercial Lines department.

Squires will be responsible for the day-to-day management and servicing of small-business accounts, providing oversight and direction to commercial-lines staff, leading quality-control and product-analysis processes, managing departmental retention and acquiring new-business goals, keeping abreast of the latest industry changes and trends, while providing the highest level of service standards and value to clients. She will be based in the East Longmeadow office.

Most recently, Cynthia served as a Commercial Lines account executive for Goss & McLain Insurance Agency, where she had worked for almost 30 years. She started her career in the Personal Lines department as a customer-service representative, then worked her way up the ranks to Personal Lines manager and Marketing manager. She then switched over to the Commercial Lines department, where she worked for five years on small and medium-sized accounts.

“HUB International New England is dedicated to building a team of experts with local market specialization and industry experience,” said Timm Marini, president of HUB International New England, formerly FieldEddy. “Cynthia brings a wealth of insurance knowledge with her, which will synergize well with our Commercial Lines team. Her extensive knowledge of the insurance industry and leadership skills will provide our clients with value-added solutions and innovative products that are specific to this market.”

Paragus IT Acquires Applied Software Technologies

HADLEY — Paragus IT has continued its pattern of active growth with its first acquisition: West Springfield-based Applied Software Technologies. Prior to the acquisition, AST provided IT services to businesses in the region and beyond for more than 20 years.

“We are very happy to welcome the staff and clients of Applied Software Technologies into the Paragus family,” says Paragus CEO Delcie Bean. “They are a great company, and we’re excited that we will be able to give their clients the opportunity to maintain their relationships with the people they know while also having access to the resources we are able to offer as the largest IT provider in Western Massachusetts.”

The acquisition of AST is the latest in a strong trend of growth for Paragus. Since CEO Delcie Bean founded the company at age 13, Paragus has grown from a one-man operation to a regional leader in business computer service, consulting, and information-technology support.

Inc. Magazine has ranked Paragus as one of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the U.S. for four years running. With a 650% growth rate over seven years, Paragus is the second-fastest-growing outsourced IT firm in New England.

“We have every intention of acquiring more businesses as we continue to expand our market and services, but it has to be the right deal,” Bean said. “What matters to us is that the customers, both our current ones and the ones being acquired, are always benefited by the transaction. We refuse to compromise on quality and service. Second-best just isn’t good enough.”

Foundation for TJO Animals Hosts ‘Ride Like an Animal’ Event

By BusinessWest Staff August 10, 2015

SPRINGFIELD — The Foundation for TJO Animals will host the seventh annual “Ride Like an Animal” Motorcycle Ride and Poker Run to benefit the animals at the Thomas J. O’Connor Animal Control & Adoption Center. All proceeds from this event will provide much-needed medical care and training to the many animals that call the adoption center their temporary home.

The event takes place Saturday, Aug. 15, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Pre-registration and kick off festivities — at the Thomas J. O’Connor Animal Control and Adoption Center, 627 Cottage St., Springfield — will include special guests Jonathan Hall and his famous cat, Toto the Tornado Kitten.

Registration opens at 8 a.m., with kickstands up at 10:15 a.m. and the ride leaving at 10:30 a.m. About 300 bikes are expected to depart the shelter for a scenic ride through Western Mass., ending at the Ludlow Elks Lodge, 69 Chapin St., Ludlow. Riders and guests will enjoy a post-ride party featuring food, live music by the Varlets, raffles, and more.

Registration is $25 per adult rider and free for children under 7. For those individuals who would like to attend the after party only, post-ride party tickets are available for $15 per person.

The event is sponsored by Chicopee Savings Bank, Colonial Tire and Brake Center, Columbia Gas of Massachusetts, Florence Bank, Freedom Credit Union, Performance Kars Unlimited, Southampton Harley Davidson, Teddy Bear Pools and Spas, Thrivent Financial, Wizard Auto Body, and the Foundation for TJO Animals board of directors. Special thanks to the members of the Iron Order International Motorcycle Club for their help organizing this event.

The Foundation for TJO Animals is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that supports and enhances medical services and enrichment programs for the animals at Thomas J. O’Connor Animal Control & Adoption Center. For more information about the foundation, call (413) 306-5161 or e-mail [email protected].

Kingdom Master Jewelers Opens in Holyoke

By BusinessWest Staff August 10, 2015

HOLYOKE — Kingdom Master Jewelers, is a family-run business operated by Gabriel Serrano and Idoel Ortiz Jr., opened its doors today at 2020 Northampton St. in Holyoke.

Previously a Hadley-based business since 2012, Serrano and Ortiz have become specialists in buying precious metals such as gold, diamonds, and silver, and have more tham 25 years of experience in custom-making one-of-a-kind pieces of jewelry. Kingdom Master Jewelers formally ran jewelry gallery repair shops for Kay, Hannoush, Jared, and many other jewelers in the area.

Business hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Monson Savings Bank Announces New ‘Back to Banking’ Program

By BusinessWest Staff August 10, 2015