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Sections Technology
How to Manage the Minefield of Electronically Stored Information

Amy Royal

Amy Royal

“They say I’m old-fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast!” — The Lorax, Dr. Seuss

We live and work in a digital age. More than 89 billion corporate e-mails are sent and received each year, and more than 300,000 pages of text can be stored on one computer alone.
Electronically stored information (ESI) comes in a multitude of different file types and formats, including, but not limited to, e-files or electronic documents that exist on a user’s hard drive, a network drive, or a document management system; word-processing documents, such as Word or RTF; PowerPoint presentations and Excel spreadsheets; graphic files, such as PDFs, TIFs, or JPEGs; web pages or web-based data; video or sound files; server or web based e-mail; and Outlook/Exchange. ESI may be stored duplicatively as well; for example, an e-mail may be stored in Outlook and on that same user’s BlackBerry or iPhone.
The volume of ESI continues to grow and multiply rapidly just in the course of ordinary business operations. Because of the sheer and ever-expanding volume of ESI, storing and managing it can be extremely overwhelming, costly, and burdensome for businesses. Yet, not properly storing and maintaining certain ESI may present legal liabilities.
To ensure that necessary ESI is being maintained and that unnecessary ESI is being purged, companies should implement a comprehensive document retention-and-destruction policy that specifically addresses ESI. Presently, many companies may not even have a formalized written plan that describes how and where their paper documents will be stored and when they will be destroyed, let alone addresses the storage and destruction of ESI. In fact, since having such a policy is not mandatory, for many companies, less-formalized standards, which have not been memorialized in writing, have evolved over time as a matter of practice.
Establishing a written comprehensive document retention-and-destruction policy is a best practice for two primary reasons: legal compliance and legal defense. In our digital age, because many documents are electronically stored, establishing such a policy that also specifically addresses the storage, retention, and destruction of ESI is crucial. Indeed, ESI presents unique challenges because of its volume and the difficulty in accessing and retrieving it.
From a legal-compliance standpoint, there are myriad laws that mandate the types of documents that must be retained, the ways in which they must be stored, and the length of time they must be kept. For example, wage-and-hour laws require businesses to maintain certain payroll records containing information such as the employee’s name, address, Social Security number, and job title and the hours worked and amount paid to that employee for each pay period. In an increasingly digital workplace, this type of payroll information may only be stored electronically.
Accessing and retrieving that information, and otherwise ensuring its preservation, is critical to demonstrate compliance should a company face a federal or state governmental audit. Furthermore, privacy laws require that businesses reasonably and adequately safeguard confidential or private information whether it is stored in paper or electronic form. Thus, a formalized written policy should account for these as well as a variety of other issues and detail the ways in which the company intends to comply.
From a litigation-defense standpoint, companies have a legal obligation to preserve all relevant documents if litigation arises or if litigation is threatened. In other words, once a lawsuit is filed or anticipated, companies cannot lose or inadvertently destroy documents that are germane to litigation. Therefore, not having a document retention and destruction policy that specifically addresses ESI when faced with litigation or the possibility of litigation can have devastating consequences.
For example, if a former employee’s attorney requests relevant ESI that cannot be accessed or retrieved, or was otherwise deleted, a court may determine that there was a failure to preserve such relevant information and impose severe penalties and sanctions against the company.
To minimize the risk of inadvertent deletion of ESI, a company’s document retention-and-destruction policy should contain two essential provisions: a litigation-hold provision and a departing-employee provision. A litigation-hold procedure ensures that the requisite steps are taken to preserve relevant documents.  A carefully crafted litigation-hold section will identify the triggers for a hold on documents, the steps to be taken once a hold has been initiated, the types of records and data that must be preserved, and the forms in which such records and data must be preserved, the consequences for failure to preserve such data, and the name of the person at the company who can be contacted with questions or for technical assistance.
Procedures regarding the length of the retention of a departing employee’s ESI should also be included in a document retention-and-destruction policy, even when litigation is not anticipated. Too often, an unexpected lawsuit ensues, and it is discovered too late that a former employee had created ESI pertinent to the company’s defense. Indeed, oftentimes, within days after the employee’s departure, IT has reset the former employee’s computer so that another employee can use it. Thus, creating a policy that includes a set time period for the deletion of a departing employee’s ESI when litigation is not anticipated is very important.
Having a set time period can otherwise be beneficial, especially for those companies that tend to retain anything and everything. Consider, for example, a snarky e-mail that has been kept too long and now surfaces in litigation that otherwise was not expected or anticipated. If the company had a document retention-and-destruction policy that included a specific time period for deletion, such an e-mail would have been long since gone.
A carefully crafted document retention-and-destruction policy can otherwise be advantageous to companies insofar as it helps to reduce costs, eliminates the retention of redundant or unnecessary documents, maximizes computer-server storage space; and provides organized and streamlined systems for maintaining and managing documents.
Keeping paper documents organized and maintained is relatively easy; however, as noted throughout, the same is not true for ESI. Preserving ESI is very complicated and requires extraordinary coordination between upper management, human resources, legal counsel, and IT.
To minimize your company’s legal risks, you should act now by creating a formalized document retention-and-destruction policy that incorporates standards for safeguarding and disposing of ESI.
At implementation, you should train your staff to ensure they understand the policy and their relation to it. After implementation, you should periodically audit your company’s overall compliance with the policy.

Amy B. Royal, Esq. specializes exclusively in management-side labor and employment law at Royal LLP, a woman-owned, SOMWBA-certified, boutique, management-side labor and employment law firm; (413) 586-2288; [email protected]

Sections Technology
The Effect of ‘Bring Your Own Device’ on Today’s Businesses

By CHARLIE TZOUMAS

Charlie Tzoumas

Charlie Tzoumas

Gartner Inc. recently reported that ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) programs, which allow users to conduct their daily business activities with their smartphones and tablets, are the “most radical shift in enterprise client computing.”
But despite the potential cost savings in not having to purchase and maintain expensive computer equipment, this new shift to BYOD does bring serious concerns about both network performance and security.

In the Beginning
When portable technology first made its foray into the business world, it was typically through the use of company-provided laptops and cell phones, which were intended solely for professional purposes. While these were difficult to maintain and expensive to purchase, they provided each IT department with almost full control over which devices could access a given company’s network.
With the dawning of these devices for personal use, however, employees were reluctant to sacrifice their iPhones, iPads, and Android devices while at the office, which led to the push for BYOD.
As time has gone on, more and more businesses have accepted that their employees will use at least one — and sometimes two, three, or more — personal devices while in the office. It’s easy to imagine that at least one of your colleagues uses a laptop for day-to-day business activities, an iPad to take notes during a meeting, and/or a smartphone while sitting in traffic en route to the office.
On the bright side, this means that IT departments do not need to conduct as much training as they may have once needed to, but this also means that there are increasing security risks and more bandwidth congestion on these networks, which can be far worse of an inconvenience if not handled correctly.

Keeping Tabs on Network Performance
Gartner also stated that 80% of recently installed corporate wireless networks will become obsolete by 2015 due to poor infrastructure planning, and this is largely because of the growth of BYOD and the impact that this influx of devices can have on a network’s performance.
As more and more devices are added to a network, that network logically slows down. If there are enough devices, it can get overwhelmed. An overwhelmed network dramatically affects productivity, causes unnecessary anxiety for everyone involved, and, at the most severe level, can completely shut down an entire company until the situation is resolved.
How can this be fixed? Businesses must ensure that their internal wireless networks can handle these influxes of devices while still delivering the same speed and performance that their employees need to get their jobs done. Cable operators and other service providers carry a majority of the bandwidth responsibility, so choose a communications partner that has a high-capacity backbone that can be easily scaled up or down to mirror whatever needs your business may have. And make sure your provider can do this quickly, as waiting around for weeks to upgrade your bandwidth can have dramatic effects on your bottom line.

Identifying and Eliminating
Security Risks
Since the devices now being brought into today’s office environments are not company-owned, the IT department does not have full control over them, which means that accidental malware downloads or computer viruses are not only commonplace, but can easily spread to an entire company’s network in a matter of seconds.
If these devices do not have the proper security safeguards in place to protect them, they can potentially allow unknown users to access sensitive company data, which puts the entire organization at risk.
How have IT departments been addressing these concerns? They’ve focused on finding ways to limit access to critical data or to verify employee identities when accessing certain devices and applications, data, or other company resources. Software is consistently being introduced to the market — some of it coming from places as unexpected as the cable company, like Comcast’s recently introduced Upware platform — to allow software administrators to set controls so that users cannot access certain programs without prior authorization.
It may seem minor, but these small changes can help to protect your network from a number of security risks, many of which you may not even know you have.

BYOD Is Here to Stay
At the end of the day, the ability for employees to access corporate networks from their personal devices 24/7 does improve productivity and can drive business growth — and when that also translates to less cost, training, and support required on the IT department’s part, it’s unlikely that it will be going away anytime soon.
And that’s good, because Jupiter Research recently predicted that the number of BYOD devices would double by 2014, which means that enterprises really don’t have a choice, since the number of devices already in the hands of their employees makes it relatively impossible for businesses to ignore them. In fact, a large percentage of supporters for BYOD are C-level company executives themselves, who ultimately oversee IT management and push for BYOD programs to be implemented because they, too, want to use their own devices.
This means that IT departments need to invest in a reliable network infrastructure that has the capacity and bandwidth to support this growing trend, and that offers the scalability and security features to accommodate the ever-changing needs of their employees. Doing this will not only make their lives much easier and less anxiety-ridden, but will also help to improve the ultimate longevity of their company.

Charlie Tzoumas is regional vice president of Comcast Business; [email protected]

Mind Body Spirit Sections
Westfield’s Genesis Center Helps Guests Create New Beginnings

Liz Walz

Liz Walz says Genesis has been a place of hope and healing for those who have found it, and one of the goals moving forward is to increase the size of that constituency.

Liz Walz had already talked about the Genesis Spiritual Life and Conference Center for some time, putting a wide array of words and phrases to use to explain its mission and methods for carrying it out, when she came upon some terminology that she thought summed it all up best.
“What we’re offering are excuses to get still,” said Walz, who five months ago became the first lay director of this facility, a sponsored ministry of the Sisters of Providence, created on the bucolic Crane estate on Mill Street in Westfield. “And that’s difficult for many people; it’s a challenge to shift out of our ‘what can I accomplish? What’s my to-do list? What’s my schedule?’ mode and to just really allow ourselves to have space.”
Elaborating, Walz said Genesis (that name translates to ‘new beginning’) has, as its primary mission, the goal of helping people reduce or eliminate, at least temporarily, the stress that is impacting so many lives today. And it does that by providing a place where people can focus (that’s another word she used often) and reflect, through everything from meditation to walks along the so-called ‘Compassionate Curve Pathway’; from creative expression (there are art studios in the facility’s Carriage House) to interaction with the facility’s resident cats, Gracie and Tasha, or the small family of chickens now residing there.
“Some people just need some space,” said Walz, adding that many of the center’s guests — roughly 2,000 a year attend programs and retreats of varying lengths or visit for an afternoon or a week or more — come at times of change or turmoil in their lives, such as illness, a death in the family, divorce, or a career crossroads, while others visit when they simply need a break from the pressures of their lives. “We help people get to a place where that inner urgency, the ‘I-have-to-do-something’ mentality … that goes on mute, and people can just abide, watch the flowers bloom, and feel good.”
But, as the name suggests, Genesis is much more than a retreat, where one can sabbatical for several days or several months. It is also a conference center that has hosted groups of various sizes and purposes, including a number of area nonprofits for meetings that last a few hours or a few days.
It also puts on a number of programs, many of them spiritual in nature, but others focused on the many aspects of emotional health and well-being. These have titles that include: “Rejuvenate Your Life Through Laughter,” “Spring Renewal Yoga,” “Journey Back to Self,” “The Butterfly Effect: Living a Life of Purpose,” and “Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream.”
Overall, Genesis has been a place of hope and healing for those who have found it, said Walz, adding that one of its goals moving forward is to increase the size of that constituency.
Indeed, the facility has recently started marketing itself more aggressively, said Walz, noting that it is also working to establish more and stronger relationships with area healthcare providers, with the goal of increasing visitation and revenues.
For this issue, BusinessWest paid a visit to Genesis to learn more about this mission of helping people ‘get still,’ and how the facility’s staff carries that out.

Quiet, Please
Genesis BuildingTracing the history of Genesis, Walz said the property was originally home to one of the owners of the Crane Brothers Paper facility, which operated just a few blocks away on the Little River. The site eventually became home to the Holy Child Guild, administered by the Sisters of Providence from 1933 to 1975, when work was initiated to convert the property into a spiritual life and conference center, which formally opened a year later.
In 1990, the 7,000-square-foot carriage house, circa 1899, underwent extensive renovations, and today includes meeting and convention facilities on the first floor and an art space, a small ecology library, and a meditation room on the second floor.
Over the past 37 years, it has hosted countless programs, retreats, and individual guests on sabbatical, said Walz, adding that, while the subject matter may vary, the goal is universal. “We help people quiet down, reflect on their lives, become inspired, and learn new techniques for thriving in the world.”
And while there has always been a need for its services and environment, they are seemingly in greater demand given recent societal and economic trends and developments.
Indeed, workplace-induced stress has been mounting, she explained, noting that many individuals are being asked or told to work longer and harder as their employers, still coping with the aftereffects of the Great Recession, try to do more with fewer people. Meanwhile, the economy has also taken its toll on individuals, producing varying levels of stress.
To help people put this stress on the shelf for at least a while and give individuals methods to keep it at bay, Genesis provides a quiet, restful environment that certainly wouldn’t be confused with a five-star resort in the Berkshires or a cruise ship — as reflected in the rates: generally $68 per night, which includes three meals — but provides guests with what they need.
There are 30 guest rooms on site, most of them small and simple (the walls are cinderblock), individualized with art created by guests, and without a television set, said Walz, adding that people don’t come here to watch American Idol. (There are a few sets in the lounges if one really needs to tune in to something).
They do come to focus and reflect, and they can accomplish this in a number of ways, including meditation, reading, artistic expression, massage, Reiki, time with the cats or chickens, gardening, and more.
There is also the Compassionate Curve Pathway, a walkway that winds through the property’s 19 acres. Along the way are markers with reflective questions. “There are so many ways that people can tap into nature as inspiration,” said Walz.
And while there are what would be considered organized activities at Genesis, more of the stress-reduction work is self-directed.
“When we design programs, we really try to leave a leave a lot of space,” she explained, “so we can offer people a gem for reflection or a question or thought, but really leave it to the individual to dig down.
“Most people have all these life experiences from childhood, adolescence, college, or whatever happened after high school, to work and families,” she went on. “The opportunity to just reflect on the common themes of our lives … we don’t really do that; we stay in motion, we stay in action, and one of the gifts of Genesis is to say, ‘be a human being, not a human doing.’”
People come to Genesis for different reasons and at different (often difficult) times in their lives, such as after the death of a loved one or during or after a divorce, she continued, noting that most of the guests are women.
“We’ve had women who have been in leadership positions in their organizations, some of whom come at a turning point, when that role is completed, when they’re retiring, for example, and closing down that chapter,” Walz explained. “Others just come to have a break; they’re going to go back to that role and those same responsibilities and economic challenges.
“People can choose to come here whether they’re having a life transition or not,” she went on. “Many times, though, it’s a divorce or the death of a parent, other family member, or friend that will cause someone to stop and say, ‘wow, I need some space.’ And sometimes, people just need to be in a safe space to let the tears flow and let the grieving process unfold.”
As the Boston Marathon bombing story unfolded last month, she told BusinessWest, some people who had lost loved ones years before realized they had some unresolved grief, and the bombing triggered those thoughts, prompting visits to Genesis for reflection and spiritual guidance.
One of the priorities for the center moving forward is to build awareness of its facilities and the many ways it can help guests find that space they’re seeking, said Walz, adding that Genesis is too much of a best-kept secret at the moment.
“We’ve learned that there are people who know Genesis, that use us a lot and love us, but there are many people who don’t know about Genesis, even here in Westfield,” she explained. “We do get a tremendous response once people are aware, so we view our job now as spreading the news that we’re here and able to provide that break people need; they don’t have to travel long distances or spend thousands of dollars. We’re right in their backyard.”
To build awareness of all aspects of the center’s operations, including its ability to host meetings and conventions, the facility has revamped its website and, overall, become more aggressive in its marketing, said Walz, adding that the goal is to achieve continued, controlled growth.

Rest of the Story
Most of the facility’s marketing vehicles feature the Genesis logo, a tree, chosen to reflect the belief that “creation is ongoing and that each person always has the possibility of new beginnings,” said Walz.
Creating them generally starts with becoming still, even if it’s just for a few hours or a few days, she went on, adding that, by doing so, people find it much easier to then move forward.
Helping people with that assignment has always been the focus at Genesis, she said concluded, adding that this mission is more vital today than ever before.

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

Mind Body Spirit Sections
Monastery Heights Caters to the Mind, Body, and Spirit

Monastery Heights resident Arlene Welsh

Monastery Heights resident Arlene Welsh relaxes during a Reiki session conducted by practitioner Michelle Noel Plante.

A peaceful oasis sits high on a hill in West Springfield, surrounded by 18 acres of grounds that are punctuated by walking paths and a beautiful grotto with a gazebo.
For more than 75 years, the historic stone building on the site was home to Passionate priests and brothers, and when a retreat center was added, people who visited Our Lady of Sorrows Monastery found hope and healing there.
Today, the well-known property is still a place that tends to the emotional, spiritual, social, and physical well-being of people. However, it has been transformed into a senior-living community known as Landmark at Monastery Heights, which caters to elders at all stages of life, from those in independent-living and assisted-living apartments to individuals in its Morningstar memory-care neighborhood, which offers 24-hour supervision and a full schedule of activities in a secure setting.
Residents who live on the independent- and assisted-living floors are housed side by side, which makes it easy for them and their families to add additional care when needed. It also makes moving unnecessary, and no one receiving extra assistance is ever identified as living within a particular unit.
But the hallmark of this senior community is the philosophy behind it —  a holistic approach to life and the concern paid to the total well-being of each resident, which has been enhanced by a plethora of new offerings this year that range from pet therapy to massage therapy to Reiki.
“We’ve added new programs that incorporate people’s mind, body, and spirit as we want to promote optimal well-being and health,” said Marketing Director Mary-Anne DiBlasio. “People want their parents cared for from a medical perspective, but also want them to live in a place where they are loved and respected, and that has a home-like setting.
“Everyone wants a beautiful location, but what really matters most is how the residents feel,” she continued. “This is a whole new way of community-based living that promotes the independence some people may have lost. Pride and dignity are very important to us.”
Residents have input into what happens, and as their interests are varied, they are encouraged to attend resident council meetings. Some have started their own programs, which include cribbage and Scrabble groups, while a close affiliation with the West Springfield Senior Center has allowed others to institute programs there such as a Seder service started by a Jewish resident.
“We try to give them as much say as possible,” said Regional Marketing Director Sharon Beaudry, adding that the facility recently met a request to add an extra day to the schedule of the hairdresser who works at Monastery Heights.
There is also a lot of interaction with the community, and the Monastery is home to family events as well as programs open to the public, such as a Fall Festival with a farmer’s market on the lawn, which features horse-drawn carriage rides and a vendor fair that includes a booth where Monastery residents sell crafts, photography, and artwork they take pride in. “It really brings out their creativity. The more engaged they become and motivated they are, the higher their level of self-satisfaction and self-worth, which is reflected in better health and wellness,” DiBlasio said.
The West Springfield Parks and Recreation Department holds its summer concert series at Monastery Heights, and residents join the public for relaxing evenings on the lawn. “It’s a way to continually keep ties between the community and what is happening here,” Beaudry said.
DiBlasio said choosing a new home for oneself or a parent can be difficult. “When people come to us, they are overwhelmed. But even if Landmark Heights is not appropriate, we take the time to listen and will make referrals,” she told BusinessWest. “Although we are always making improvements to the property, our focus is always on people.”

Renovating History

Mary-Anne DiBlasio, right, says developing a strong sense of community is a key to growing a successful facility.

Mary-Anne DiBlasio, right, says developing a strong sense of community is a key to growing a successful facility.

Beaudry said that, when the building’s interior was gutted by developer Simsbury Associates after it purchased the property in 1996, the company took care to maintain its historical charm.
“Whenever possible, they left exposed wood and marble as well as the brothers’ chanting chapel,” she said. Thought was also put into what is now the Morningstar neighborhood for people with dementia, which has its own courtyard and garden area.
And since the property opened as Landmark at Monastery Heights, elements such as bird feeders have been added outside and benches placed so people can enjoy nature whenever they venture outdoors.
But creating a strong sense of community is even more important than the surroundings, DiBlasio noted. “This is a new beginning for people, and we have modified our programs in the last year,” she said as she talked about meditation, reflexology, aromatherapy, and extras added to promote health and relaxation. For example, after each yoga class, a licensed reflexologist gives each (willing) participant a hand massage using essential oils.
Art therapy also proves soothing to the spirit, while a wide range of exercise classes that include tai chi, strength training and weekly yoga offer physical benefits.
Monastery Heights also boasts a walking club, and many residents, such as DiBlasio’s mother, Rosemarie Fernandes, enjoy walking the grounds.
Other physical needs are addressed by three full-time nurses, who are in charge of a range of programs and services that include balance assessments and laboratory and pharmacy services.
The former Passionate chapel, with its vaulted, carved ceiling, is a place where peace is almost tangible, and since Monastery Heights is interdenominational, both Catholic masses and Christian services are held there.
Residents also enjoy activities and performances at the West Springfield Senior Center, as well as on-site baking classes that people in independent living, assisted living, and the Morningstar neighborhood participate in. “There is no ‘us’ and ‘them’ here, and our residents with memory impairment are always co-mingling,” Beaudry said.
However, she noted that the number of people seeking independent-living apartments at Monastery is on the rise.
“People come here because they are isolated at home. Even if their children live locally, it is very difficult for them to manage their care, and it doesn’t solve the problem of their isolation,” Beaudry explained, adding that many can no longer drive.
“Living here gives them a level of independence again,” she continued, adding that residents are age 62 and older. “We take them to the grocery store, to do their banking, and to doctor’s appointments.”
A podiatrist visits the facility, and physical and occupational therapy are also administered on site, due to collaboration with a local agency. In addition, everyone who moves in is given a free physical evaluation to determine special needs, such as a raised toilet seat or having fluorescent tape put at the edge of a shower stall and grab bars to help those with poor vision.
“Someone with a walker may also be walking with it incorrectly,” Beaudry said. “We do things to help increase strength, agility, and core balance, and really keep a watchful eye on people. All of our staff is very mindful of that.”
Monastery Heights has its own store, which is stocked with items residents tend to run out of. “We want to be able to accommodate people and maximize their stay. This is their home, and we want to make sure they are completely happy. We always think about them as if they were our own mom or dad,” Beaudry said.
And there are two resident cats, as research shows that pets improve the overall quality of life. Residents can also bring their own small dogs to live there. “Studies have shown that having pets around brings health and happiness to people,” DiBlasio said, adding that the facility recently hosted a dog show.

Dementia Program
Three certified nursing assistants provide care to residents who live in 18 apartments in the Morningstar program, created for residents with dementia. “We invest equally in them as well as in our staff,” said Beaudry. “It all fits into the holistic aspect of our community.”
When residents in this area of the building — or any other — are experiencing anxiety, which can occur for people with dementia at sundown, specially trained staff members are able to give them hand massages or administer Reiki.
“They talk to them while quiet music plays,” Beaudry said. “We also have pet therapy. A woman comes in once a week with her dog, and you can see the residents’ demeanor change.”
In addition, Monastery staff members work with the Alzheimer’s Assoc. to determine the best way to engage residents in meaningful activities and help them express their feelings, since their verbal capacity is diminished.
Beaudry said the facility has adopted the association’s ‘Memories in the Making’ program, which uses artwork ranging from drawing to sculpture and cutting paper, then organizing it, as a creative outlet. “We frame their art and put it on display once a year. It makes the residents feel proud and very special,” she told BusinessWest.
There are also monthly outings to places such as vegetable stands or to take a cruise on the Connecticut River, as well as weekly trips to get ice cream.
“When people have memory loss, they still know who they are as a person and remember their history,” Beaudry said. “We find out what they used to enjoy doing and capitalize on that so our residents feel purposeful and proud.”
For example, a special area was set up for a man who enjoyed workworking, while those who loved to garden can do so in the Morningstar courtyard. Some residents help set the tables for meals, while others enjoy folding laundry.
“They love the tactile feeling, and it makes them feel useful,” Beaudry said. “We promote as much independence as possible, and knowing that they still have the ability to perform simple tasks gives them self-satisfaction, confidence, and a feeling of purpose. We focus on what they still can do.”
Thought is also given to the menu. “Research shows that diet is extremely important to the body and mind, so we work with nutritionists to create food that is reminiscent of what our residents grew up with, and we use organic, local vegetables whenever possible,” she noted.

Rounded Approach
DiBlasio said the facility’s low vacancy rate is the result of a community-based, comprehensive approach to senior living. “Our success comes from the respect and friendship we earn from our residents.
“We are committed to enhancing each resident’s sense of well-being and fulfillment,” she added, “by understanding and meeting their physical, social, and emotional needs on a daily basis.”
Which is, indeed, a truly holistic approach.

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]

Drive Time

BaliseRibbonCutBaliseLadiesAn official ribbon cutting marked the opening of the new, 27,000-square-foot Balise Ford of Wilbraham on the corner of Boston Road and Stony Hill Road, pictured below. After an eight-month construction effort, the dealership moved from its temporary setting a quarter-mile east. The new facility will offer a state-of-the-art sales and service department. Top, Jeb Balise (fourth from the left), president and CEO of Balise Motor Sales, officially cuts the ribbon, flanked on the left by Eric Fuller, member of Wilbraham Planning Board; Phil Podgorny, regional manager of New England for Ford; and Bob Russell, Wilbraham selectman; and on the right by Jason Perez, general manager of Balise Ford of Wilbraham; and Dick Butler, member of the Wilbraham Planning Board. Bottom, the Balise marketing team poses on the back of a 2013 Ford F-150. From left are Kristin Garini, digital marketing manager; Megan Boshuyzen, graphic designer; Dale MacDonald, media manager; and Crystal Childs, social media specialist.

Who Done It?

GrayHouseCastNine area ‘celebrities’ recently volunteered their time and talent to portray various suspects in a second annual murder mystery dinner titled Quicker Than The Eye. The interactive evening benefited the Gray House Inc., a nonprofit that provides food, clothing, and educational services to nearly 8,000 Springfield-area residents each year. Featured players included (from left) Chris Buendo, co-publisher, Reminder Publications; Ellen Freyman, attorney, Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin, P.C.; Korri Piper, development and communications director, Greater Springfield Habitat for Humanity; Karen Boyd, the Zito & Karen Morning Show, Mix 93.1; Anthony Cignoli, president of A.L. Cignoli Co.; Jill Monson, owner, Inspired Marketing; Brady Chianciola, assistant vice president and regional manager, PeoplesBank; Elizabeth Taras, staff writer, BusinessWest and the Healthcare News; and Kimberly Robinson William, diversity consultant, the Office of Diversity & Inclusion at Baystate Health.

Airing His Opinions

YPSmeetingYPSexcelDryerDenis Gagnon, president of Excel Dryer in East Longmeadow, and inventor of the XLERATOR hand dryer, spoke to members of the Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield for the May CEO Luncheon. After a tour of the manufacturing facility, Gagnon and son Bill, vice president of Marketing and Key Accounts, explained how the family’s investments in new products, especially the XLERATOR, which is now the industry standard, has enabled the company to grow exponentially since it was purchased in 1997. Pictured in the Excel plant, bottom, with Denis Gagnon (third from left), are YPS board members (from left) Jeremy Casey, assistant vice president and commercial service officer, Westfield Bank; Jack Toner, sales, Sumner & Toner Insurance Agency; Nick Gelfand, owner, NRG Real Estate Inc.; Sharon Czarnecki, assistant vice president and commercial loan officer/Small Business Development, Westfield Bank; and Bill Gagnon.

Dave and Dinosaurs

Dave Ratner at schoolDavid Ratner, CEO of Dave’s Soda and Pet City of Agawam and Hadley, recently read to students at the James Clark School in Agawam as part of the Link to Libraries Business Book Link program. Ratner shared a story about dinosaurs with the first-grade class of teacher Kathy Planzo, at right.

Building Permits Departments

The following building permits were issued during the month of May 2013.

AGAWAM

Joseph Walz, DMD
302 Suffield St.
$3,000 — Siding repair on south side of building

RHM Realty
207 Bowles Road
$10,000 — Install dock leveler in existing loading dock bay

CHICOPEE

Carlo Sarno
621 Center St.
$6,000 — Renovations at Mulligan’s

Chicopee Solar, LLC
467 Pendleton Ave.
$8,000,000 — Solar field project

Eugeniusz Wargulewski
43 Springfield St.
$20,000 — Convert three storefronts to one bar

Rushing Waters Assembly
465 Granby Road
$22,000 — Interior renovations to First Spiritualistic Church

Sweeney Brothers Inc.
2073 Westover Road
$134,000 — Strip and re-roof

GREENFIELD

Baystate Franklin Medical Center
164 High St.
$34,000 — Install fire sprinklers

Comfort Mechanical, Inc.
340 Chapman St.
$53,700 — Renovate and repair existing system

Greenfield Co-Operative Bank
277 Federal St.
$6,000 — Replace front door

Greenfield Corporate Center
101 Munson St.
$18,000 ­— Remove non-structural walls to allow construction of new courthouse location

Roman Catholic Bishop of Springfield
133 Main St.
$2,400 — Install kitchen hood suppression system

LUDLOW

Steve McDaniel, DDS
343 Winsor St.
$31,000 — Renovations

Subway
34 East St.
$49,000 — Alterations

PALMER

Raymond Recore
1219 Thorndike St.
$25,000 — Expand and remodel Enterprise Rent-a-Car

Sue A. Draper
69 Boston Road
$3,018,150 — Solar field

SOUTH HADLEY

Fontaine Brothers
2 Canal St.
$7,618,500 — Construction of a new library

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

BUCKLAND

87 State St.
Buckland, MA 01370
Amount: $265,206
Buyer: Wells Fargo Bank
Seller: Steve E. Patnode
Date: 04/22/13

41 Heath Road
Colrain, MA 01340
Amount: $177,000
Buyer: Phillip M. Baunsgard
Seller: Russell A. Barnes
Date: 05/03/13

DEERFIELD

731 Greenfield Road
Deerfield, MA 01342
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Analise F. Nimeskern
Seller: Nika Oakes
Date: 04/26/13

31 Sawmill Plain Road
Deerfield, MA 01373
Amount: $227,000
Buyer: Charles W. Laliberty
Seller: Ann M. Dionne
Date: 04/24/13

4 Sugarloaf St.
Deerfield, MA 01373
Amount: $410,000
Buyer: DKRE Sugarloaf LLC
Seller: Rotkiewicz NT
Date: 04/30/13

ERVING

19 Central St.
Erving, MA 01344
Amount: $152,500
Buyer: Christopher B. Sadler
Seller: Francis A. Pollard
Date: 04/26/13

GREENFIELD

1001 Bernardston Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $206,400
Buyer: Reed A. Baldwin
Seller: John W. Cavender
Date: 04/26/13

1200 Bernardston Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $180,075
Buyer: Michael T. Mangnuson
Seller: Walter L. Williams
Date: 04/30/13

805 Bernardston Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Greenfield Russian Evangelical
Seller: Jehovahs Witnesses Inc.
Date: 04/29/13

4 Cherry St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $272,000
Buyer: Adam M. Bouchard
Seller: Joseph A. George
Date: 04/26/13

97 Columbus Ave.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Shawn S. Wrisley
Seller: Thomas P. Morse
Date: 04/24/13

246 Davis St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Roger Matthews
Seller: James M. Bennett
Date: 05/03/13

49 Hastings St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $156,500
Buyer: Jeffrey E. Lapointe
Seller: Amy A. Gray
Date: 04/26/13

16 Jefferson Ave.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $197,400
Buyer: Linda A. Morey
Seller: Gary T. Magnan
Date: 04/24/13

17 Revere Circle
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Matthew P. Garris
Seller: Carole A. Jarivs
Date: 04/29/13

50 Smith St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $118,000
Buyer: Ovidiu Nichita
Seller: Ralph F. Jelley
Date: 04/30/13

22 Warner St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Warren W. Gray
Seller: Elena F. Sandri TR
Date: 04/22/13

133 Wisdom Way
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $158,500
Buyer: Chang-Hoyk Yu
Seller: Matthew R. Lovett
Date: 04/23/13

LEVERETT

Richardson Road
Leverett, MA 01054
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: W. D. Cowls Inc.
Seller: Allyn W. Coombs
Date: 05/01/13

MONTAGUE

25 L St.
Montague, MA 01376
Amount: $169,900
Buyer: Kimberly Cusack
Seller: Constance A. Galvis
Date: 04/26/13

NEW SALEM

2 Old County Road
New Salem, MA 01355
Amount: $201,500
Buyer: Amanda K. Piper
Seller: Scott L. McCarthy
Date: 05/01/13

NORTHFIELD

19 Hamilton Dr.
Northfield, MA 01360
Amount: $159,900
Buyer: Shelby M. Holton
Seller: Mark K. Trumbull
Date: 05/01/13

175 Main St.
Northfield, MA 01360
Amount: $272,500
Buyer: Barbara L. Jacque
Seller: Sydney C. Navarro
Date: 04/30/13

ORANGE

185 Holtshire Road
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $172,400
Buyer: Pauline C. Bixby
Seller: Aprilee K. Howe
Date: 05/03/13

ROWE

306 Zoar Road
Rowe, MA 01367
Amount: $216,129
Buyer: Citimortgage Inc.
Seller: Philip E. Black
Date: 05/01/13

SHELBURNE

5 Mechanic St.
Shelburne, MA 01370
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Franklin Landtrust Inc.
Seller: Michael Cohen
Date: 05/02/13

SUNDERLAND

2 Ledgewood Dr.
Sunderland, MA 01375
Amount: $227,000
Buyer: Stacy B. Dennie
Seller: Tyler G. Boone
Date: 04/30/13

68 South Plain Road
Sunderland, MA 01375
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Kathleen M. Keroack RET
Seller: Creek RT
Date: 04/25/13

WARWICK

95 Shepardson Road
Warwick, MA 01378
Amount: $127,521
Buyer: McLaine L. Schillemat
Seller: FNMA
Date: 04/26/13

HAMPDEN COUNTY

AGAWAM

11 Albert St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Callie A. Rapa
Seller: Anne M. Iellamo
Date: 05/03/13

45 Allison Lane
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $327,500
Buyer: Miriam L. Andrews
Seller: Daniel A. Tully
Date: 05/01/13

26 Anthony St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Ian C. Mulanouskus
Seller: Amy L. Bishop
Date: 04/30/13

102 Coronet Circle
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $138,200
Buyer: Michael Osowski
Seller: Gerard R. Boucher
Date: 04/22/13

79 Cosgrove Ave.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $168,000
Buyer: Travis L. Trout
Seller: Miriam L. Andrews
Date: 05/01/13

204 Lancaster Dr.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $340,000
Buyer: Daniel R. Torres
Seller: Christopher D. Rooney
Date: 04/29/13

475 Meadow St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $313,000
Buyer: Matthew S. Hubbard
Seller: Rudolph J. Gay
Date: 04/29/13

22 Ralph St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Frank J. Bond
Seller: Roy F. Cavallon
Date: 04/30/13

427 Southwick St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Thomas E. Cascio
Seller: David R. Tackley
Date: 05/02/13

91 Sylvan Lane
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Ronald P. Daignault
Seller: Mary L. Daignault
Date: 04/24/13

BRIMFIELD

37 6th St.
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Earl K. Wonderlie
Seller: Stuart, Raymond E., (Estate)
Date: 05/03/13

CHESTER

36 Lyon Hill Road
Chester, MA 01011
Amount: $243,900
Buyer: Nicole A. Peters
Seller: Pamela M. Sanborn
Date: 04/30/13

CHICOPEE

87 Acrebrook Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $168,000
Buyer: Lisa H. Robbins
Seller: Joseph M. McNerney
Date: 04/29/13

84 Austin St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $189,000
Buyer: Doreen E. Nelson
Seller: Kevin T. Burke
Date: 04/29/13

122 Beauregard Terrace
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $144,329
Buyer: Alejandro A. Olavarria
Seller: Joseph A. Braica
Date: 04/23/13

41 Belvidere St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Peter Braun
Seller: Richard Kraus
Date: 05/03/13

9 Bill St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $143,000
Buyer: William J. Bell
Seller: Stephen P. Pettengill
Date: 04/26/13

79 Casey Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $218,000
Buyer: Brenda L. Kroeber
Seller: Janet L. Morgan
Date: 04/30/13

170 Clarendon Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $115,450
Buyer: USA VA
Seller: David T. Marchacos
Date: 04/22/13

237 Dale St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $118,000
Buyer: Brian M. Pouliot
Seller: Ivan N. Trombley
Date: 04/23/13

615 Front St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: 615 Front Street RT
Seller: 615 STP LLC
Date: 04/30/13

230 Grattan St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: FKC RT
Seller: Paul A. Smith
Date: 04/30/13

62 Jamrog Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $121,500
Buyer: Daniel Stamborski
Seller: Lester J. Zawada
Date: 04/29/13

70 Labelle Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Verber L. Ealum
Seller: Kusek, Joseph J., (Estate)
Date: 05/02/13

34 Langevin St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $118,000
Buyer: Jared C. Robert
Seller: Robert S. Miller
Date: 05/03/13

13 Louise Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $133,000
Buyer: Joseph B. Lavato
Seller: Barbara E. Gregory
Date: 04/22/13

128 Manning St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $147,350
Buyer: Allen S. Lesik
Seller: Maurice J. Cotton
Date: 04/30/13

40 Maplewood Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $119,900
Buyer: Christopher G. Morin
Seller: Jon Goudreault
Date: 04/26/13

620 McKinstry Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Ngoeun Chhoun
Seller: D&D Chicopee Realty 3 LLC
Date: 05/02/13

117 Melvin St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $117,000
Buyer: Luis E. Encarnacion-Lopez
Seller: Cindy A. Fiorillo
Date: 04/25/13

163 Monroe St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $237,400
Buyer: Daniel R. Ernst
Seller: Joseph A. Perez
Date: 05/02/13

34 Nonotuck Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: Andrea Ronghi
Seller: Thomas F. Benson
Date: 04/26/13

34 Oxford St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $152,000
Buyer: Dermerica LLC
Seller: Gale H. French
Date: 04/30/13

14 Parkwood Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $149,900
Buyer: James L. Arnold
Seller: Walter J. Mika
Date: 04/26/13

45 Plainfield St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $1,050,000
Buyer: SDI LLC
Seller: RHD Realty LLC
Date: 04/26/13

61 South Winthrop St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $193,000
Buyer: Joshua T. McKenna
Seller: Joyce B. Hogan
Date: 04/24/13

435 Springfield St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: JGAR LLC
Seller: Harvey J. Lafleche
Date: 04/29/13

54 Victoria Park
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Hector M. Morales
Seller: Adam M. Carmody
Date: 04/26/13

EAST LONGMEADOW

311 Kibbe Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: PHV RT
Seller: Charles D. Lipp
Date: 05/01/13

15 Murray Court
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $142,000
Buyer: Michael Robert
Seller: Mary J. Couchon
Date: 05/02/13

60 Old Farm Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $580,000
Buyer: Francis J. Pokigo
Seller: Kermit M. Stuart
Date: 04/26/13

178 Patterson Ave.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $157,500
Buyer: Laurie Kimball
Seller: John Arel
Date: 04/30/13

284 Pease Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Michael E. Johnson
Seller: Sean P. Duffy
Date: 04/26/13

47 Windsor Lane
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $454,558
Buyer: Ralph L. Santaniello
Seller: Dan Roulier & Assocs. Inc.
Date: 05/02/13

HAMPDEN

4 Andrew Circle
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $375,000
Buyer: Sean P. Duffy
Seller: Cheryl A. McCarthy
Date: 04/26/13

59 Baldwin Dr.
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $159,900
Buyer: Allen E. Warren
Seller: Mikaelian, Edward A., (Estate)
Date: 05/03/13

290 Bennett Road
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $152,000
Buyer: Christopher R. Przybyl
Seller: UB Propertiess LLC
Date: 04/29/13

18 Cedar Oak Lane
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $156,000
Buyer: Rebecca L. Hildreth
Seller: Diane L. Hildreth
Date: 04/26/13

HOLLAND

47 Kimball Hill Road
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $218,500
Buyer: Sara V. Vankeuren
Seller: Paquette Builders LLC
Date: 04/26/13

39 Shore Dr.
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $310,000
Buyer: P. S. Roman
Seller: Clarissa M. Allanach
Date: 04/29/13

HOLYOKE

367 Apremont Hwy.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $144,300
Buyer: Gary D. Loomis
Seller: Eileen M. Gilhooley
Date: 04/26/13

35 Franks Dr.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $159,900
Buyer: Reina I. Lorenzi
Seller: Angel M. Perez
Date: 04/30/13

5 Greenwood Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $187,000
Buyer: Margaret E. Dugal
Seller: Lucy A. Dunham
Date: 04/30/13

341 Hillside Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: Cynthia C. Schroeder
Seller: Helen Weiner
Date: 04/26/13

152 Homestead Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $157,000
Buyer: Robert A. Hoeppner
Seller: Goodchild, Margaret A., (Estate)
Date: 05/01/13

810 Homestead Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: John T. O’Donnell
Date: 05/03/13

183 Madison Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: Amy C. McDonough
Seller: Dolores D. Dean
Date: 05/01/13

33 Old Jarvis Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $223,900
Buyer: Cheryl A. McCarthy
Seller: Daniel E. Fried
Date: 04/26/13

17 Vadnais St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: UMass Five College FCU
Seller: Frederick P. Barrett
Date: 04/30/13

LONGMEADOW

108 Edgewood Ave.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $259,900
Buyer: Michael T. Jordan
Seller: Eric E. Tracy
Date: 04/29/13

623 Frank Smith Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $380,000
Buyer: Dennis C. Rogan
Seller: Robert Stirton NT
Date: 04/26/13

100 Normandy Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $734,600
Buyer: Daniel P. Murphy
Seller: Katharine P. Costello
Date: 04/26/13

102 Pinewood Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $480,000
Buyer: Katharine A. Pacella
Seller: Victor J. Steele
Date: 04/26/13

LUDLOW

67 Americo St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: James D. Deshaies
Seller: Robert A. Tardiff
Date: 04/30/13

31 Cady St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $143,750
Buyer: Timothy J. Fitzgerald
Seller: Carvalho, Henrique J., (Estate)
Date: 05/01/13

178 Howard St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $124,000
Buyer: David W. Rogers
Seller: John P. Vautrain
Date: 05/03/13

24 Lazarz St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $147,500
Buyer: Joseph W. Comi
Seller: Julie A. Felton
Date: 04/30/13

14 North Arthur St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Joaquim L. Santos
Seller: TD Bank NA

55 Power Ave.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Mary E. McGuinness
Seller: Otis J. Roberts
Date: 04/25/13

MONSON

Boston Road West
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Antonio Fernandes
Seller: Tyler F. Washburn
Date: 04/26/13

7 Fountain St.
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $199,644
Buyer: Wells Fargo Bank NA
Seller: Jessy D. Shea
Date: 05/01/13

4 Hilltop Dr.
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Stephen G. Farr
Seller: Hazel V. Kline
Date: 04/26/13

13 Pinnacle Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Laura K. Clark
Seller: Greater Springfield Credit Union
Date: 05/03/13

PALMER

2027 Calkins Road
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $178,200
Buyer: Jarid R. Provost
Seller: Anthony J. Kempesty
Date: 04/23/13

9 Kelley St.
Palmer, MA 01080
Amount: $276,000
Buyer: James Baldyga
Seller: William D. Bacyk
Date: 04/25/13

72 Laurel Road
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: William R. Mueller
Seller: James D. Malloy
Date: 05/01/13

17 Robinson Road
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Christopher A. Wystepek
Seller: Sandra L. Olson
Date: 04/26/13

Thorndike St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $199,000
Buyer: Richard E. Laviolette
Seller: M Jackson Construction
Date: 04/30/13

SPRINGFIELD

200 Abbott St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Kimberly Phillips
Seller: Jason M. Ferrero
Date: 05/03/13

235 Berkshire Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Cantalini Holdings Inc.
Seller: Thibodeau Realty LLC
Date: 05/03/13

28 Biltmore St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $163,000
Buyer: Leesann A. Weekes
Seller: Jessica M. Rivera
Date: 05/02/13

791 Carew St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $178,026
Buyer: US Bank NA
Seller: Joel Fernandez
Date: 05/01/13

104 Catalpa Terrace
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $128,000
Buyer: William Flores
Seller: Clancy, Karen A., (Estate)
Date: 04/30/13

18 Claremont St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $124,392
Buyer: GMAC Mortgage LLC
Seller: Rafael Rivera
Date: 05/03/13

273 Dorset St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Anthony M. Martone
Seller: Robert A. Soderstrom
Date: 05/01/13

111 Elijah St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $118,000
Buyer: Rose M. Soto
Seller: Anatoliy Stuzhuk
Date: 04/29/13

121 Elijah St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $174,000
Buyer: Victor A. Sanchez
Seller: K&N Properties LLC
Date: 04/30/13

351 Forest Hills Road
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $237,000
Buyer: Ashley L. Brogan
Seller: Michael E. Johnson
Date: 04/26/13

384 Forest Hills Road
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Molly L. Dill
Seller: Geri L. Cramer
Date: 04/30/13

36 Fountain St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Jose A. Andrade
Seller: NSP Residential LLC
Date: 04/30/13

172 Gardens Dr.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $147,500
Buyer: Omari H. Murray
Seller: Julie Walko
Date: 04/30/13

230 Keddy St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: LAG Capital LLC
Seller: William T. Raleigh
Date: 04/29/13

36 Kenway Dr.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: Rebecca D. Stout
Seller: Ralph F. Esempio
Date: 04/23/13

180 Lake Dr.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Norma L. Ramos-Rivera
Seller: Jason L. Lovett
Date: 04/26/13

468 Liberty St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Dionne Real Estate LLC
Seller: 468 Liberty RT
Date: 05/03/13

36 Lloyd Ave.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Hector O. Marrero
Seller: Samuel Diaz
Date: 04/30/13

12 Longview St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $144,900
Buyer: Vidal Cardona
Seller: James B. Morrissey
Date: 04/24/13

191 Mazarin St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $187,800
Buyer: Sandra Munier
Seller: Lisa G. Urban
Date: 05/01/13

45 Mountainview St.
Amount: $134,000
Buyer: Steven Jiminez
Seller: James W. Rocca
Date: 04/26/13

107 Naismith St. #83
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Neidy Cruz
Seller: Courtside Of Springfield
Date: 04/25/13

213 Morton St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $177,423
Buyer: Everbank
Seller: Rena Brown
Date: 05/03/13

1917 Parker St.
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $144,000
Buyer: Kirstyn N. Anair
Seller: Theresa A. Lindsey
Date: 04/25/13

28 Pasco Road
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $162,000
Buyer: Bernardo Merced
Seller: Laura J. Mallett
Date: 04/30/13

62 Pear St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: James C. Lee
Seller: Daniel P. Stamborski
Date: 04/30/13

13 Quincy St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: Monica L. Frater
Seller: Greater Springfield Habitat for Humanity
Date: 04/26/13

167 Redlands St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $139,900
Buyer: Yamaira Rivera
Seller: Donna Schoolcraft
Date: 04/26/13

115 Saint James Circle
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $1,770,000
Buyer: Jacob I. Martinez
Seller: Allison M. Torres
Date: 04/29/13

1566 State St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: New HB Acquisition
Seller: IBC Sales Corp.
Date: 04/23/13

168 Sunrise Terrace
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $147,500
Buyer: Sarah L. Stein
Seller: Douglas Senecal
Date: 04/26/13

21 Texel Dr.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $167,500
Buyer: Vonn Tanabe
Seller: Burnham Realty LLC
Date: 04/26/13

2020 Wilbraham Road
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $163,000
Buyer: Richard C. Lovely
Seller: Cardinal Home Investors
Date: 04/23/13

SOUTHWICK

29 Berkshire Ave.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $189,900
Buyer: David W. Smith
Seller: Shannon L. Stone
Date: 04/23/13

48 Fernwood Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $173,500
Buyer: Joan M. McLaughlin
Seller: Maria P. Scott-Smith
Date: 05/01/13

29 Lauren Lane
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Aube Homes LLC
Seller: Pine Knoll Inc.
Date: 05/03/13

134 Mort Vining Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $377,000
Buyer: Mitchell G. Cain
Seller: B&B Construction
Date: 05/01/13

385 North Loomis St.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $229,189
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Donald R. Elton
Date: 04/24/13

107 Point Grove Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $450,000
Buyer: Paul E. Lewis
Seller: Michael Diotalevi
Date: 05/01/13

76 Sunnyside Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $410,000
Buyer: Kudlic Brothers Inc.
Seller: Lawrence Bannish
Date: 04/26/13

TOLLAND

64 Woodchuck Hollow
Tolland, MA 01034
Amount: $355,000
Buyer: Craig Serin
Seller: Margaret Dayharsh
Date: 05/03/13

WALES

199 Stafford Road
Wales, MA 01081
Amount: $1,312,500
Buyer: Wales Village LLC
Seller: Wales Brookside Village
Date: 04/22/13

41 Stafford Road
Wales, MA 01081
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Serge P. Arel
Seller: Edmund H. Beaulieu
Date: 04/24/13

WEST SPRINGFIELD

48 Abigaile Lane
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $394,900
Buyer: Richard S. Sullivan
Seller: Cardinal Homes Inc.
Date: 04/23/13

83 Armstrong St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $137,206
Buyer: MetLife Home Loans
Seller: Earl F. Camp
Date: 05/02/13

158 Bosworth St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $149,900
Buyer: Brianna L. McLaughlin
Seller: Jeffrey Sutter
Date: 05/01/13

119 Boulevard Place
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $194,000
Buyer: Franky M. Sanchez
Seller: Michael J. Trudeau
Date: 04/25/13

15 Butternut Hollow Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Robert J. Napoli
Seller: Shirley F. Soule
Date: 04/25/13

80 Forris St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Dalia Rivera-Lafreniere
Seller: Western Mass. Electric Co.
Date: 05/01/13

410 Dewey St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $144,300
Buyer: Matthew B. Gray
Seller: Anna Caron
Date: 04/26/13

113 Havenhurst Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $242,000
Buyer: Jeffrey M. Bouyea
Seller: Olga F. McCarthy
Date: 04/26/13

36 Houston Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Catherine A. Moretti
Seller: Katherine A. Caron
Date: 04/30/13

60 Labelle St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $138,586
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Rogelio Marquez
Date: 05/03/13

349 Massachusetts Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Scott Ackley
Seller: Gerald J. Carney
Date: 04/30/13

489 Morgan Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Anthony C. Rousseau
Seller: Stephen R. Friese
Date: 04/24/13

258 Ohio Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $310,000
Buyer: Michael J. Trudeau
Seller: Paul R. Breveleri
Date: 04/25/13

54 Pebble Path Lane
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $184,000
Buyer: James E. Reay
Seller: Dolores M. Hickson
Date: 04/26/13

WESTFIELD

12 Deepwoods Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $242,000
Buyer: Crystal J. Childs
Seller: Natalie C. Avery
Date: 04/23/13

360 Elm St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Westfield Museum Inc.
Seller: 360 Elm Street Realty LLC
Date: 05/01/13

53 Fairview St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $227,500
Buyer: Donald E. Griffin
Seller: George W. Cordes
Date: 04/25/13

110 Foch Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Christopher L. Belair
Seller: Steven J. Brozoska
Date: 04/30/13

129 Glenwood Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $285,000
Buyer: Thomas W. Scott-Smith
Seller: Seth J. Eaton
Date: 05/01/13

58 Knollwood Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Tracy M. Larose
Seller: Richard E. Osienski
Date: 04/29/13

153 Main St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $138,000
Buyer: Steven E. Rovithis
Seller: Cindy L. Campbell
Date: 04/30/13

257 Montgomery Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $321,400
Buyer: Joshua J. Bennett
Seller: Bent Tree Dev. LLC
Date: 04/25/13

82 Pontoosic Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Buyer: J&C Property Services Inc.
Seller: Antoni Lech
Date: 04/29/13

21 Princeton St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $189,957
Buyer: Provident Funding Assocs.
Seller: FHLM
Date: 04/29/13

276 Shaker Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $175,000
Seller: Pamela S. Pettengill
Date: 04/26/13

70 Vadnais St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Timothy P. Ayers
Seller: Paula York
Date: 05/03/13

50 Valley View Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $148,000
Buyer: Donald M. Wurster
Seller: H. D. Wurster
Date: 04/24/13

259 Valley View Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $132,000
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Joanne Cerveny
Date: 04/24/13

33 Violet Circle
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $408,000
Buyer: Kenneth L. Ridley
Seller: Kopatz Construction Inc.
Date: 04/30/13

8 Walker Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $223,000
Buyer: John E. Bak
Seller: Donald E. Dumas
Date: 04/29/13

128 Westwood Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $254,000
Buyer: Richard L. Sanborn
Seller: Watson, Helen A., (Estate)
Date: 04/30/13

41 Wildflower Circle
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Joseph D. Albano
Seller: Robert J. Parenteau
Date: 04/24/13

WILBRAHAM

20 Decorie Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Alexander Hernan
Seller: Kristin M. Miller
Date: 04/26/13

44 Decorie Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $257,500
Buyer: Huanyu Wei
Seller: FNMA
Date: 04/25/13

84 Monson Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Garrett S. Lacasse
Seller: James Trimble
Date: 04/24/13

54 Mountain Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $120,750
Buyer: Kevin Czaplicki
Seller: US Bank NA
Date: 04/22/13

6 Pease St.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $277,000
Buyer: Douglas M. Senecal
Seller: Scott A. Lynch
Date: 04/26/13

1 Weston St.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $177,750
Buyer: James Charles
Seller: SDMCMD LLC
Date: 04/26/13

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY

AMHERST

140 Middle St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $325,000
Buyer: Eugene A. Goffredo
Seller: Charles E. Lehane
Date: 05/01/13

1641 S. East St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $790,000
Buyer: Rogert Booth
Seller: John F. Nigriny
Date: 04/30/13

379 Strong St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Frank A. Hein
Seller: Dragan Curcija
Date: 04/30/13

West St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Peter R. Heronemus
Seller: Dorothy Lashway
Date: 05/02/13

BELCHERTOWN

383 Bardwell St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Jesse A. Ritter
Seller: William J. Lebrun RET
Date: 04/26/13

10 Fox Run Dr.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $292,000
Buyer: Peter Sfediuk
Seller: Darren M. Gainer
Date: 05/01/13

581 George Hannum Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $271,900
Seller: Brian S. Bell
Date: 04/30/13

24 Holyoke St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Lisa M. Gove
Seller: Arthur L. Dostal
Date: 04/26/13

19 Oakwood Dr.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $174,000
Buyer: Vincent Cardona
Seller: Steven R. Schneider
Date: 05/03/13

59 Springfield Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Benjamin A. Graham
Seller: Timothy M. Nale
Date: 05/02/13

20 Underwood Ave.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $157,600
Buyer: US Bank NA
Seller: Hubert Hyman
Date: 04/22/13

EASTHAMPTON

526 East St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: James B. Finn
Seller: Cynthia J. Duby
Date: 05/03/13

15 Groveland St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Ryan N. Huxley
Seller: Daniel B. Campbell
Date: 04/29/13

175 Main St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $168,500
Buyer: Autumn Properties LLC
Seller: New Berlin Group Corp.
Date: 05/01/13

233 Park St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $190,500
Buyer: Emily Gaylord
Seller: Andrew R. Marquis
Date: 04/30/13

GRANBY

55 Barton St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $360,000
Buyer: Ralph H. Squires
Seller: Pamela A. Green
Date: 04/29/13

413 East State St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: John F. Guimond
Seller: David R. Benedetti
Date: 04/22/13

114 South St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $224,000
Buyer: Todd M. Chamberlin
Seller: Paul, George, (Estate)
Date: 04/30/13

HADLEY

3 Algonquin Dr.
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Donna R. Falcetti
Seller: Philip M. Marrama
Date: 04/25/13

HATFIELD

115 Main St.
Hatfield, MA 01038
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Andrew D. Endris
Seller: Eugene F. Proulx
Date: 05/01/13

HUNTINGTON

161 Worthington Road
Huntington, MA 01050
Amount: $142,000
Buyer: Rayman M. Koivisto
Seller: Lori A. Cesan
Date: 04/30/13

NORTHAMPTON

21 Bliss St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Ian D. Premo
Seller: Thomas F. Kelly
Date: 05/01/13

20 Bridge Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $511,493
Buyer: Marilyn Ludolph
Seller: Bridge Road LLC
Date: 04/30/13

414 Chesterfield Road
Northampton, MA 01053
Amount: $305,900
Buyer: Robert W. Carter
Seller: Nancy Y. McNulty
Date: 05/01/13

154 Cooke Ave.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $325,000
Buyer: Sandra Ciach
Seller: Keith A. Smith
Date: 04/25/13

384 Florence Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $610,000
Buyer: Paramjit Kaur
Seller: Jim R. Boyle
Date: 04/30/13

17 Hawthorne Terrace
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $500,000
Buyer: Mark W. Jankowkse
Seller: Julie Rosten
Date: 04/26/13

311 Haydenville Road
Northampton, MA 01053
Amount: $650,000
Buyer: Zoe Senior Retirement Community
Date: 04/26/13

14 Hubbard Ave.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $155,200
Buyer: Karen A. Normand
Seller: Mark D. Normand
Date: 04/24/13

623 Kennedy Road
Northampton, MA 01053
Amount: $368,000
Buyer: Elizabeth A. Fogle
Seller: Kathleen B. Bowers FT
Date: 04/26/13

101 Milton St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $237,500
Buyer: James W. Stokes-Buckles
Seller: Birch Hill LLC
Date: 04/29/13

679 Park Hill Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $430,000
Buyer: Alex Altamirano
Seller: Cynthia J. Haskell
Date: 04/30/13

49 Pine Brook Curve
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Christine Grimaldi
Seller: Denise J. Isernhagen
Date: 05/01/13

47 Round Hill Road
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $4,800,000
Buyer: Historic Round Hill Summit
Seller: Clarke School
Date: 04/26/13

SOUTH HADLEY

512 Amherst Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Luke D. Showalter
Seller: Adam Quenneville
Date: 05/01/13

46 Carew St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $134,000
Buyer: Sara Macon
Seller: Michael Murdza
Date: 05/03/13

10 North St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Jennifer Saltis
Seller: Vitaly Dzhenzherukha
Date: 05/03/13

775 New Ludlow Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $4,300,000
Buyer: Store Master Funding 3
Seller: Depetrillo Mass Realty LLC
Date: 04/23/13

244 Pearl St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Robert G. Gray
Seller: Champagne, William M., (Estate)
Date: 04/24/13

5 Ralph Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $118,900
Buyer: Adam M. Paradysz
Seller: Annette L. Menard
Date: 05/03/13

23 Ranger St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Thomas Griffin
Seller: Kathleen M. Hamel
Date: 04/26/13

14 Saybrook Circle
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $143,500
Buyer: Christopher Roy
Seller: Shirley H. Wilhelmi
Date: 04/26/13

28 Saybrook Circle
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Stacy E. Desforges
Seller: Rene W. Langlosi IRT
Date: 04/26/13

SOUTHAMPTON

32 Bissonnette Circle
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: G&F Custom Built Homes
Seller: JS Sampson Dev. LLC
Date: 04/24/13

18 Camp Jahn Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $223,500
Buyer: Matthew P. Giguere
Seller: John F. Guimond
Date: 04/22/13

4 Hillside Meadows Dr.
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Thomas K. Hanrahan
Seller: Robert T. Clayton
Date: 04/30/13

WARE

126 Eagle St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $157,000
Buyer: Sarah L. Bouthellier
Seller: Ruby Ann M. Nugent
Date: 04/30/13

184 Greenwich Plains Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $222,000
Buyer: Michelle N. Normand
Seller: Pioneer Valley Redevelopment
Date: 04/26/13

62 Old Gilbertville Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $179,000
Buyer: Marie A. Rathermacher-Reo
Seller: Sharon C. Matthews
Date: 04/30/13

159 Osborne Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $192,889
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Kenneth J. Walrath
Date: 04/22/13

WILLIAMSBURG

6 Chesterfield Road
Williamsburg, MA 01096
Amount: $214,300
Buyer: Dennis R. Bothamley
Seller: Richard L. Ames
Date: 04/30/13

Bankruptcies Departments

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

Adams, Samuel K.
1019 Pleasant St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/25/13

Baez, Jorge Luis
Baez, Bernadette
89 Brightwood Ave.
Springfield, MA 01107
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 04/22/13

Bednarz, Vicki M.
a/k/a Feary, Vicki M.
122 Adams St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/29/13

Benvenutti, Antonia
a/k/a Rivera, Antonia
27 Federal St. #E1
Springfield, MA 01105
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/26/13

Bou, Angel R.
20 View St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/26/13

Bradley, Donald E.
Bradley, Johanna L.
a/k/a Tatro, Johanna L.
149 Wilshire Dr.
Cheshire, MA 01225
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/23/13

Brisson, James P.
31 Meadowview Terrace
Greenfield, MA 01301
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/22/13

Brisson, Lorie Ann
7 G St., Apt 3
Turners Falls, MA 01376
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/22/13

Carney, John B
95 Davis St., Apt. 5
Greenfield, MA 01301
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/30/13

Chalupa, Richard P.
Chalupa, Sabine
191 Bartlett Ave.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/29/13

Cheo, Emmanuel N.
46 Orange St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 04/26/13

Clini, Robert P.
Clini, Alyce E.
98 Barna St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/26/13

Curran, Jereme Robert
33 Brice Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/26/13

Czupta, Erik M.
Czupta, Renee D.
35 Ley St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 04/18/13

Decker, David H.
P.O. Box 526
Lee, MA 01238-0526
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/24/13

Desmarais, George E.
Desmarais, Marlene M.
117 Louis Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/23/13

Dugas, Donald J.
77 Nash St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/19/13

Dunford, Marie Elizabeth
a/k/a Gauthier, Marie
16 Main St., 2nd Fl.
Shelburne Falls, MA 01370
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/22/13

Fijal, Frederick V.
175 High St.
Gilbertville, MA 01031
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 04/22/13

Foley, Amy J.
105 Bradley St.
North Adams, MA 01247
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/16/13

Freitas, Michelle
252 West St., Unit 10
Amherst, MA 01002
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/30/13

Furey, Fonda M.
166 Madison Ave.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 04/26/13

Gedney, Ralph C.
P.O. Box 853
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/23/13

Ghidinelli, Daniel J.
7 Old Belchertown Road
Ware, MA 01082
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/19/13

Green River Builders, LLC
Calderara, John P.
41 Melrose St.
Adams, MA 01220
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/26/13

Greenwald, Igor
64 Boylston St.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/30/13

Hale, Brian A.
Hale, Suzanne M.
6 Warner St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/24/13

Hayes, Mary Alma
20 Fallston St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/25/13

Huckle, Timothy J.
323 Beaver St.
North Adams, MA 01247
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/23/13

Hutchinson, Marita M.
261 Briar Way
Greenfield, MA 01301-3861
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/29/13

Jackson, Allen E.
61 North St.
Shelburne Falls, MA 01370
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/22/13

Johnson, Brian A.
31 Ames Ave., 1st Left
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/26/13

Jones, Edward W.
Jones, Lisa Marie
617 Allen St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/30/13

Kayzakian, Julia T.
3 Cranberry Dr.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 04/16/13

Kestyn, Lynda M.
17 I St.
Turners Falls, MA 01376
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 04/24/13

Knightly, Ralph E.
21 Woodland Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/30/13

Landrie, Crystal J.
19 Howard St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/19/13

Lavertue, Justin T.
Lavertue, Nikki
34 Paul Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/26/13

LeBlanc, Noella M.
355 Moxon St.
Indian Orchard, MA 01151
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/18/13

Lemelin, Jaclyn R.
62 Marcia Haas Circle
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/29/13

Lorion, Kelly Marie
68 Barre Paxton Road
Rutland, MA 01543
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/29/13

Makrianis, Barbara M.
179 Greenwood Terrace
Chicopee, MA 01022
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/29/13

Martinez, Jacqueline
a/k/a Pantoja, Jacqueline
a/k/a Herrera, Jacqueline
29 Coleman St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/19/13

Martone, Daniel J.
Martone, Elaine M.
49 Dogwood Road N.
Hubbardston, MA 01452
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 04/26/13

Mercier, Richard C.
89 Beacon Ave
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/30/13

Meyrick, Melonie T.
34 Eden St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/23/13

Mizula, Russell P.
172 S. Maple St.
Hadley, MA 01035
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/19/13

Ortiz, Luz S.
34 Gerard Way, Apt. I
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/19/13

Pandell, Larry T.
Pandell, Noelle M.
47 Orchard St.
Adams, MA 01220
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/30/13

Paul, Richard A.
Paul, Patricia M.
34 Grouse Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/19/13

Pearsons, Lyle W.
10 Riviera Dr.
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/23/13

Proulx, Julianne L.
48 Donbray Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 04/24/13

Rattelle, Diana L.
52 Hyde Ave.
Springfield, MA 01107
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/29/13

Riley, John E.
200 Lambert Terrace, Unit 39
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/24/13

Romero, Eve J.
65 Franklin St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/23/13

Sanchez, Aris M.
160 Mildred Ave.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/29/13

Santanella, Phyllis Mary
310 Pochassic Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/26/13

Santiago, Freddy L.
462 Liberty St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/29/13

Sears, Jammie M.
Sears, Melissa A.
1396 West Housatonic St.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/25/13

Servantez, Stanley A.
24 Norman Terrace Ext.
Feeding Hills, MA 01030
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/23/13

Silva, Andrea
300 Winsor St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/18/13

Silvagni, Michael J.
Silvagni, Robin L.
a/k/a Pearce, Robin
14 Brierwood Lane
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/25/13

Spencer, Kingsley David
157 Seymour Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/30/13

Sticco, Andrea M.
177 Regency Park Dr.
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/26/13

Stracuzzi, Kathleen A.
73 Stratford Ave.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/19/13

Sullivan, Peggy Louise
95 Balis St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/22/13

Thompson, Shawn N.
Thompson, Kristina M.
15 Victor St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/26/13

Vona, Teresa M.
71 South Silver Lane
Sunderland, MA 01375
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/19/13

Weber, Dawn M.
a/k/a Garabedian-Weber, Dawn M.
21 Valleyview Circle
Rutland, MA 01543
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/18/13

Wilson, Walter L.
206 Homestead Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 04/26/13

Wolf, Alysa Michelle
26 Cottage Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/25/13

DBA Certificates Departments

The following Business Certificates and Trade Names were issued or renewed during the month of and May 2013.

CHICOPEE

1 Person Courier Service
12 Coolidge Road
JoAnne Gilbert

Beyond Builders
117 Sunny Meade Ave.
Gene Borowski Jr.

Quality Inn
463 Memorial Dr.
Jaimin Melaviyn

GREENFIELD

A Custom Touch
29 Mill St.
Anthony Tucker

Community Substance Abuse Center
177 Shelburne Road
Matthew Davis

Hess
245 Federal St.
Richard J. Lawlor

Martin Craft
91 Norwood St.
Joshua A. Martin

Taylor Skin Care
42 Revere Circle
Jenelle Taylor

The Home Depot
264 Mohawk Trail
The Home Depot USA Inc.

HOLYOKE

Borinquen Mini Market
31 Essex St.
Marisol Millayes

Nick’s Nest
1597 Northampton St.
Jennifer E. Chateauneuf

King Mart
494 Westfield Road
Sanjay Patel

Ron’s Auto Care
150 Suffolk St.
Ronald Poirier

Victoria’s Unisex Salon
330 High St.
Gaddiel M. Paneu

Where House
109 Lyman St.
Jame A. Curran

LUDLOW

Bill’s Yogurt
116 East St.
William Dias

Chameleon Painting
58 Chapin Circle
Brian Foster

Holiday Inn Express
321 Center St.
Kishore Parmar

Ludlow Excavating Service
368 Lyon St.
Donald Roberts

M.A. Café
343 Winsor St.
Steve McDaniel

Taco Bell
343 Center St.
George Fellows

PALMER

Burgundy Brook Café
3090 Palmer Road
Keith Gordon

Crane Exterior Design
70 Bourne St.
Dale Crane

House Mouse Cleaning
23 Temple St.
Whitney Valle

HXC Floor Covering
15 Charles St.
Shane Hestad

The Tangled Grapevine
119 Boston Road
Stacy Mimoso

SPRINGFIELD

A.R.M. Carpentry Company
137 Webber St.
Richard P. Ottani

Aileen’s Daycare
87 Wilbraham Ave.
Ana Rivas

AN2KH Trucking & Delivery
31 Clarendon St.
Andre O. Alleyne

Annie Mae and Cecilia
799 Sumner Ave.
Jacqieline Simmons

Bay St. Beauty Supply
19 St. James Ave.
Musa Dakuray

Before & After
686 Belmont Ave.
Rebeca Ruiz

Christina’s Paw Spaw
1211 Parker St.
Christina Janet

Coastline Automotive, LLC
501 St. James Ave.
Beris F. Gouldbourne

Crossfit Journey
576 St. James Ave.
Stefan C. Ralph

Cutting Edge Pizza, LLC
1962 Boston Road
James L. Banister

Dennie’s Daughters
134 Catherine St.
Jimmie R. James

Edwin Ortiz – Hammerhead
65 Gilbert Ave.
Edwin Ortiz

Elite Nails
886 Sumner Ave.
Nguyet T. Nguyen

Family Mini Store
11 Dorset St.
Nathilda Ramirez

Freedom of Life Society
114 Carver St.
Jaunita Maldalena

Friendly Ridge Transportation
44 Upton St.
Rene A. Romero

Gabriel’s Property Maintenance
139 Patricia Circle
Michael Rodriguez

Game Hunters
511 Belmont Ave.
Vien Nguyen

Goodchild Renovations
16 Churchill St.
Matthew Kent

Heavens Best Cleaning Services
155 Breckwood Blvd.
Amanda Marcella

HTMD Inc.
494 Central St.
Luat Pham

Imperio Musical
2460 Main St.
Maria Rijo

Innovative Web Design
27 Highland St.
Sa Nguyen

J & G Enterprises
48 Clarendon St.
Geraldine L. Gardiner

J.N.I. Signs
904 Carew St.
Daniel Lugo Jr.

Jim’s Auto Trim Specials
1576 State St.

JMS Candyman Wholesale
88 Cleveland St.
Julia I. Correa

The Green Team
198 East Allen Ridge Road
James A. Bazinet

The Law Offices of Michael T. Kogut
75 Market Place
Michael T. Kogut

The Northernaires
370 Abbott St.
Charles E. Fryar

Video Game Giants
85 Oakland St.
Luis A. Lopez

Vintage Fresh
27 Lyman St.
Clarence B. Finch III

Wayne Poyser
49 Albermarle St.
Wayne Poyser

WESTFIELD

EJ Ventures
52 Scenic Road
Esther Hermele

Linda Z. Gallo
45 Meadow St.
Linda Zomek-Gallo

Kings Cleaner
282 Southampton Road
Nham S. Yi

SI-MAP
71 Steiger Dr.
Sean M. Fitzgerald

Stanton Contracting
147 Tannery Road
Richard H. Stanton III

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Ben’s & Viktor’s Tile
44 Riverdale St.
Ben Shokov

Choice Consultants, LLC
4 Shady Brook
Karen Sikora-Bernard

Corner Pantry
723 Main St.
Iqbal Murtaza

Fishtik Plumbing
191 North Blvd.
Grigoriy Fishtik

Heinovbeatz.com
51 Van Deene Ave.
Charles Melvin

L.A. Nails
634 Kings Highway
Ninh Lu

Needham Electric Supply Company
91 B & C Union St.
John A. O’Connell

Rise Construction Company
99 Pine St.
Timothy Atamansky

Shows4You Productions, LLC
32 Gregory Lane
Steven Midura

Departments Incorporations

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

BRIMFIELD

Friends of the Brimfield Windmill Inc., 59 East Hill Road, Brimfield, MA 01010. Lee Santella, 19 Devils Hill Lane, Brimfield, MA 01010. Non-profit organization developed to preserve the historic and architectural character of the community through the reconstruction, restoration and preservation of a 19th-century windmill structure.

CHICOPEE

Fine Designs Inc., 1044 Chicopee St., Chicopee, MA 01013. Irina Podolyanchuk, same. Imprinting sportswear.

EAST LONGMEADOW

Chicopee Convenience Inc., 46 Center Square, East Longmeadow, MA 01028. Meroof Ahmad, same. Convenience store.

GREAT BARRINGTON

Cawing Crow Inc., 9 St., Great Barrington MA. 01230. Anthony Chojnowski, 17 Colt Road, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Clothing, footwear and related accessories retail store

GREENFIELD

Chic Therapy & Skincare Mobile Spa Inc., 14 Carol Lane, Greenfield, MA 01301. Michelle Allenby, same. Mobile spa.

Friends of Greenfield Dance Inc., 401 Chapman St., Greenfield, MA 01301. Val Labelle, 106 Allison Lane, Vernon, CT 05354. Non-profit organization offers educational programs designed to promote and support the development of cultural programs of music and dance.

HOLYOKE

D Hotel & Suites Inc., 500 Easthampton Road, Holyoke, MA 01040. Peter Rosskothen, same. Hotel.

Fly Kicks Inc., 354 High St., Holyoke, MA 01040. Donghyun Yoo, same. Retail shoe store.

INDIAN ORCHARD

DLK Co., 565 Main St., Indian Orchard, MA 01151. Dilek Oncu, same. Pizza shop.

PITTSFIELD

Get Away Clean Inc., 154 Stoddard Ave., Pittsfield, MA 01201. Christopher Kittle, same. Residential and commercial cleaning and maintenance.

SOUTH HADLEY

DJ Mix Inc., 52 Boynton Ave., South Hadley, MA 01075. Jane Janovsky, same. General food and restaurant business.

SPRINGFIELD

Emmanuel Market Corp., 344 Orange St., Springfield, MA 01108. Eddy Filpo Batista, same. Grocery store.

Gax Insurance Education Foundation Inc., 1500 Main St., Suite 2316, Springfield, MA 01115-5727. Richard St. Jean, 62 Barton’s Way, Concord, MA 01742.

WARE

Gauthier Home Services Inc., 31 High Street, Ware, MA 01082. Lee Gauthier, same. Property preservation for banks and other entities.

Briefcase Departments

Tighe & Bond Publishes 2012 Water, Sewer Rates
WESTFIELD — Tighe & Bond recently published the results of its 2012 water and sewer rate surveys for communities in Massachusetts. The results from these latest surveys indicate that residential users in Massachusetts pay approximately $498 and $646 annually for water and sewer, respectively. This represents increases of 6% and 8.2% above the 2010 averages. For more than a decade, Tighe & Bond has gathered and reported data on water and sewer rates service in Massachusetts. Using rate information that survey participants provide, we have calculated the annual average homeowner’s cost for water and sewer service based on the consumption of 90,000 gallons or 120 hundred cubic feet of water. The survey, which includes typical annual homeowner water costs for each community in Massachusetts, also provides information regarding rate structures and billing cycles. Tighe & Bond’s water and sewer rate surveys offer municipalities and private suppliers a benchmarking tool for comparing their rates against other suppliers in the state. This can be particularly useful information when suppliers are considering adjustments to their current rates or rate structures.  The survey results are available to the public online at rates.tighebond.com. Founded in 1911, Tighe & Bond provides engineering and environmental services for clients in the government, industry, healthcare, education, real-estate, energy, and water/wastewater markets.

Massachusetts Economy Expected to Keep Growing
BOSTON — The Massachusetts economy is expected to grow slowly before accelerating in early 2014, benefiting from a boost in manufacturing, according to an economic forecast issued by a group of regional economists. According to the Boston Globe, although Massachusetts is in the midst of a slowdown in hiring, the five-year forecast by the New England Economic Partnership shows the state’s economy adding jobs at a significant pace beginning next year. Employers are expected to add about 30,000 jobs this year, and more than double that number in 2015. The state’s unemployment rate, 6.4% in April, is expected to decline to 5.2% by the end of 2017, the report said. Consumer confidence is getting a boost from improvements in the job market, stock market, and housing market. On the latter front, Massachusetts home prices were up by 5.3% in February from a year earlier, while residential building permits increased 24%. The forecast predicted continued improvement in housing and more jobs in construction. Manufacturing, which has experienced large job losses in recent decades, is expected to expand over the next few years because of global demand for advanced products made regionally, including medical devices, specialized materials, and semiconductors. Meanwhile, the report by the New England Economic Partnership raised questions about whether there will be enough skilled workers in the state to meet employers’ demands as Baby Boomers retire and leave the workforce. As many as 100,000 job vacancies in the manufacturing sector across New England will be created by retirements, the report said, but there may not be enough student interest in vocational education to fill those jobs or enough capacity in the educational system to train so many workers.

Unemployment Persists in Springfield, Regionwide
SPRINGFIELD — The city’s unemployment rate was 10.7% in April, the same as it was in March but higher than the 9.8% unemployment rate recorded a year ago. As a region, Greater Springfield had an unemployment rate of 7.5% in April, down from 8% in March, but again higher than the 7.2% rate recorded in April 2012, according to statistics from the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development and the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to state employment numbers figured by using a survey of businesses, Greater Springfield added 5,200 jobs in from March to April. But the region is still down 2,200 jobs, or about 0.8%, on the year. Statewide, jobs are up 48,100 on the year for a 1.5% increase. The state added 45,200 jobs in April, an increase of about 1.4%. Statewide unemployment was 6.3 percent, unadjusted for seasonal changes in the state economy. Adjusted for seasonal changes, Massachusetts’ total unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.4%, lower than the national average of 7.5%. However, when people who have stopped looking for work and those working part-time who would rather be working full-time are added to the calculation, Massachusetts’ unemployment rate rises to an average of 12.8% over the last six months, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Company Notebook Departments

Country Bank Donation Upgrades Radiography at Baystate Mary Lane
WARE — Country Bank recently pledged $100,000 to Baystate Mary Lane Hospital (BMLH) to help upgrade the general radiography unit located in the radiology department. The current unit is being replaced with a Phillips Easy Diagnost Elva, which provides vastly superior images, stores them electronically, and allows for easy electronic file sharing. The new technology will also reduce the use of actual film and related disposal costs. “This technology is designed to increase staff interaction with the patient at the point of care and make it easier for the patient during their procedure,” said BMLH President Chuck Gijanto. “It will also ensure easy access of the critical diagnostic images for any consulting provider, at BMLH or elsewhere. In addition to the purchase of the Phillips Easy Diagnost Evela, the current Radiology Department is undergoing other renovations, said Gijanto, adding that they are expected to be completed next month.

Noble Earns ‘A’ Rating in Hospital Safety Score from Leapfrog Group
WESTFIELD — Noble Hospital was recognized with an ‘A’ Hospital Safety Score by the Leapfrog Group, an independent national nonprofit run by employers and other large purchasers of health benefits. The score was compiled under the guidance of the nation’s leading experts on patient safety. The first and only hospital safety rating to be peer-reviewed in the Journal of Patient Safety (April 2013), the Hospital Safety Score is designed to give the public information they can use to protect themselves and their families. “Noble Hospital is very proud of our patient-safety record. It reflects a commitment to care that is shared by everyone,” said Allison Gearing-Kalill, vice president of Marketing. “This represents our dedication to the community and to providing the best patient care possible.”

PET/CT Imaging Services to Begin at Berkshire Medical Center
PITTSFIELD — Berkshire Health Systems has announced that it is partnering with Baystate MRI and Imaging and Shields Health Care Group in launching PET/CT (positron-emission tomography/computed tomography) imaging services at Berkshire Medical Center. This sophisticated, state-of-the-art imaging service will be provided as part of the new BMC Cancer Program. PET/CT Imaging at BMC combines a PET scanner and a CT scanner into one system. The mobile unit will be at BMC once a week, on Fridays, and will initially be located at the main hospital. It will move to the Hillcrest Campus of BMC in 2014 after additional construction work is completed at that location. The PET/CT service at BMC began operations on May 3. PET/CT had been provided for the past several years at Berkshire Hematology/Oncology at its offices on Conte Drive with a mobile unit, which is being replaced by this service at BMC. PET/CT is one of the most advanced medical imaging techniques available today. It combines PET’s ability to detect increases in cell activity with the fine structural detail that CT scans provide. This revolutionary technology enables physicians to detect the presence of disease earlier and pinpoint its location with much greater accuracy than PET or CT scans alone. The PET/CT information will also feed into the treatment planning technology for radiation oncology to aid in the identification of appropriate field sizes. PET/CT scans are used primarily for the diagnosis and staging of cancer. The technology can also be used for differentiating Alzheimer’s disease from other forms of dementia.

Departments People on the Move

Berkshire Bank recently recognized Tara Kimberley, Assistant Branch Manager in Sheffield, and Teddi Averin, a Teller in Westfield, for outstanding community service and awarded them Berkshire Bank’s Volunteer of the Year Awards. The annual awards celebrate employees who have made outstanding contributions to their communities.
•••••
The members and board of the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Co. (MMWEC), the nonprofit joint action agency for public power in Massachusetts, elected directors and officers of the organization on May 9:
Paul Robbins, a gubernatorial appointee to the MMWEC Board of Directors, was re-elected by the board to a one-year term as Chairman; and
Peter Dion, General Manager of the Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department, was re-elected to his fifth one-year term as President.
Representatives of MMWEC’s 21-member municipal utilities also re-elected three directors to three-year terms on the board, including Mansfield Municipal Electric Department Director Gary Babin; Chicopee Electric Light Manager Jeffrey Cady; and Sterling Municipal Light Department General Manager Sean Hamilton.
Additional elected MMWEC officers include:
Ronald DeCurzio, Chief Executive Officer and Secretary;
Stephen Smith, Assistant Treasurer;
Alan Menard, Assistant Treasurer;
Nancy Brown, Assistant Secretary; and
Nicholas Scobbo Jr., General Counsel.
Other MMWEC directors, elected previously by the membership, are:
James Lavelle, Holyoke Gas & Electric Department Manager;
Kevin Kelly, Groton Electric Light Department Manager;
Philip Sweeney, Marblehead Municipal Light Department Commissioner;
Jonathan Fitch, West Boylston Municipal Light Plant Manager;
Michael Flynn of Wilbraham, a gubernatorial appointee to the MMWEC
board who represents the town of Wilbraham;
Luis Vitorino, who represents the town of Ludlow; and
Cornelius Flynn, appointed to represent the town of Hampden on the board.
•••••
Amherst-based Oasis Law recently announced that Attorney Seunghee Cha has joined the Board of Directors of United Arc. United Arc works with individuals and families and provides advocacy and support services to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in and around Hampshire and Franklin counties.
•••••
Park Square Realty recently announced the addition of Donna Duval-Bruskiewicz as a Sales Associate in the firm’s Feeding Hills office in Agawam. With more than 18 years of realty experience, Duval-Bruskiewicz specializes in resident listings, and previously owned and operated her own brokerage, the Duval Realty Group. As a licensed Mass. real-estate broker, she holds a certified buyer representative designation and closed more than $2 million in real estate sales in 2012.
•••••
TommyCar Auto Group announced the recent addition of Rob Madrid as its Director of Marketing and Internet. Madrid will oversee all aspects of marketing for TommyCar Auto Group’s four dealerships: Country Nissan in Hadley, Country Hyundai in Greenfield, Northampton Volkswagen in Northampton, and Patriot Buick GMC in Charlton. Madrid most recently served as the Director of Sales and Service for Weed Man Lawn Care in West Springfield and as District Sales Manager for General Motors OnStar. He holds an MBA from Western New England University and a BS from Springfield College.
•••••
UMass Five College Federal Credit Union recently announced the selection of Sean Capaloff-Jones by the Massachusetts Credit Union League as one of the industry’s Rising Stars of 2013, joining 12 other credit-union professionals from around the state. Capaloff-Jones has been with the credit union for three years, the past two as Manager of Member Outreach, and is responsible for all financial-literacy programs. He recently developed and presented three successful personal-finance workshops geared toward college students.
•••••
Noble Hospital announced that Janette Lough-Guilmette, has been selected as this year’s recipient of the Brian R. Johnson Outstanding Business Award by the Business Education Alliance. She earned this recognition for her many years mentoring Southwick High School seniors who are placed at Noble Hospital’s Sports and Rehabilitation Center by the Business Education Alliance. Lough-Guilmette also garnered special recognition from the state Senate and House of Representatives, both of whom voted to approve special citations acknowledging her award and her years fostering the future of healthcare.

Chamber Corners Departments

ACCGS
www.myonlinechamber.com
(413) 787-1555

• June 5: ACCGS June Business@Breakfast, 7:15-9 a.m., at the Richard B. Flynn Campus Union at Springfield College, 263 Alden St., Springfield. Guest speaker will be Kirk Smith, president and CEO of the YMCA of Greater Springfield, speaking on “A New Way of Doing the Business of a Nonprofit: The Importance of Being VIVID!” Salute to Richard Flynn for his service as president of Springfield College as he leaves the college after 14 years to enjoy retirement. Also to be saluted will be O&G Industries, celebrating 90 years in business. Chief Greeter: John Doleva, president and CEO of Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Season Pass Sponsor: Freedom Credit Union; Season Sign Sponsor: FastSigns; Speaker Sponsor: Jewish Geriatric Services; Coffee Bar Sponsor: Skoler, Abbott & Presser, P.C.; Table Sponsor: La Quinta Inn and Suites. Cost is $20 for members, $30 general admission. Tickets are available at www.myonlinechamber.com or by e-mailing Cecile Larose at [email protected].
• June 7: “Small Business and the Affordable Care Act — What’s Coming?” noon-1:30 p.m., at Ludlow Country Club, 1 Tony Lema Dr., Ludlow. A panel of experts will discuss the impact of the Affordable Care Act on the regional business community and economy at the East of the River Five Town Chamber of Commerce (ERC5) Annual Meeting. Panelists will include Rick Lord, president of Associated Industries of Massachusetts; Peter Straley, president of Health New England; Steven Bradley, vice president of Government, Community Relations, and Public Affairs for Baystate Health; and David Leslie, controller for Glenmeadow Retirement Community. Cost is $20 for members, $30 general admission. Tickets are available at www.myonlinechamber.com or by e-mailing Cecile Larose at [email protected].
• June 12: Viva Las Chamber!, the June After-5, 5-7 p.m., at Chez Josef, 176 Shoemaker Lane, Agawam. Cost is $5 for members, $10 general admission. Tickets are available at www.myonlinechamber.com or by e-mailing Cecile Larose at [email protected].
• June 26: ACCGS Annual Meeting, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., at the Sheraton Springfield, 1 Monarch Place, Springfield. Featured speaker will be James T. Brett, president and CEO of the New England Council, New England’s voice of business on Capitol Hill. The chamber will also announce this year’s Richard J. Moriarty Citizen of the Year. Cost is $40 for members, $60 general admission. Tickets are available at www.myonlinechamber.com or by e-mailing Cecile Larose at [email protected].

CHICOPEE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.chicopeechamber.org
(413) 594-2101

• June 5: Annual Golf Tournament, 10 a.m. start, at Chicopee Country Club. Cost is $125 per golfer; $100 for tee sponsorship. Hole-in-one sponsors: Curry Honda-Curry Nissan and Teddy Bear Pools & Spas. Cart sponsor: Pilgrim Interiors Inc.

FRANKLIN COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.franklincc.org
(413) 773-5463

• June 21: 94th Annual Meeting and Legislative Breakfast, 7:30-9 a.m. at Eaglebrook School in Deerfield. State representatives and senators have been invited to speak. Cost is $12 for FCCC members, $15 for non-members.

GREATER EASTHAMPTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.easthamptonchamber.org
(413) 527-9414

• June 13: Networking By Night Business Card Exchange, 5-7 p.m. Hosted by Freedom Credit Union and Wireless Zone, 422 Main St., Easthampton. Enjoy hors d’ouevres, host beer and wine, and door prizes. Tickets are $5 for members, $15 for future members.
• July 26: 29th Annual Golf Tournament, starting at 9 a.m., at Southampton Country Club. Reserve now before the event sells out. Cost is $400 per team. Tee sponsorships available for $75 and $125. Contact the chamber to sign up a team or arrange a tee sponsor, a raffle prize, or gift donation.

GREATER HOLYOKE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.holycham.com
(413) 534-3376
.
• June 19: Chamber Business Connections, 5-7 p.m., Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center, 100 Bigelow St., Holyoke. Sponsored by Northeast IT Systems and Westfield Bank. If you are in the IT/computer equipment, software, or sales industry, please attend as the chamber’s guest. Cost is $10 for chamber members, $15 for non-members. Join your friends and colleagues for this informal evening of networking.
• June 20: Ask a Chamber Expert Series: Blueprint Reading, 8:30-10 a.m., Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce Conference Room, 177 High St., Holyoke. Cost: $10 for members, $25 for the public, includes a continental breakfast. Call the chamber at (413) 534-3376 to sign up, or register at holyokechamber.com.
• June 26: Summer Recognition Breakfast, 7:30-9 a.m., Yankee Pedlar, 1866 Northampton St., Holyoke. Cost: $20 for members, $25 for the public. Call the chamber at (413) 534-3376 to sign up, or register at holyokechamber.com.

MASSACHUSETTS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
massachusettschamberofcommerce.com
(413) 525-2506

• June 26: Manufacturing Matters Lunch Meeting, at Storrowton Tavern, West Springfield. Tickets are $30 for members, $40 for non-members. For more information on ticket sales, call (413) 525-2506 or e-mail [email protected].
• July 22: Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce Golf Tournament, at Tekoa Country Club, Westfield. Shotgun start at 11 a.m. Cost is $100 per golfer. For more information on registration and sponsorship opportunities, call (413) 525-2506 or e-mail [email protected].
• Nov. 12: Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting & Awards Luncheon, 9 a.m., at the Double Tree, Westborough. For more information on ticket sales and sponsorship opportunities, contact the chamber office at (413) 525-2506 or e-mail [email protected]

GREATER NORTHAMPTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.explorenorthampton.com
(413) 584-1900
• June 6: June Arrive @ 5, 5-7 p.m. Hosted and Sponsored by Florence Savings Bank, 85 Main St., Florence. Help us celebrate Florence Savings Bank’s 140th anniversary. Cost is $10 for members. RSVP at [email protected].

NORTHAMPTON AREA YOUNG PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY
www.thenayp.com
(413) 584-1900
• June 12: Nonprofit Board Fair, 5 p.m., at the  Smith College Conference Center. Part of NAYP’s mission is to promote leadership and volunteerism in the next generation of community leaders. The Nonprofit Board Fair will feature more than 20 organizations that are actively seeking the next generation of leaders, and provide opportunities to showcase board, committee, and volunteering opportunities that exist at their nonprofits. The fair offers attendees a chance to hold discussions with more than 20 local nonprofits in one location. Sponsored by Gage-Wiley & Co. Inc. This free event will take the place of NAYP’s June Networking Social, and is open to all community members.

PROFESSIONAL WOMEN’S CHAMBER
www.professionalwomenschamber.com
(413) 755-1310
• June 6: Women of the Year Celebration Banquet, 5:30-8 p.m., at the Cedars Banquet Hall, 375 Island Pond Road, Springfield. Celebrate the accomplishments of Jean Deliso, president and owner of Deliso Financial and Insurance Services. Cost is $55 per person. For tickets, visit www.myonlinechamber.com or e-mail Cecile Larose at [email protected].

WEST OF THE RIVER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.ourwrc.com
413-426-3880
• June 5: Wicked Wednesday, 5-7 p.m., at Lattitude. Wicked Wednesdays are monthly social events hosted by various businesses and restaurants. These events bring members and non-members together to socially network in a laid-back atmosphere. Free for vhamber members, $10 for non-members. This event is open to the public. Guests must pay at the door if they are non-members. For more information, contact the chamber office at (413) 426-3880 or e-mail [email protected].
• June 20: West of the River Chamber of Commerce Annual Breakfast Meeting, 7-9 a.m. at Chez Josef in Agawam. Tickets are $25 for members, $30 for non-members. Featured speaker: Mark Darren Gregor, business and career coach. Presenting sponsor: Hard Rock Hotel and Casino of New England. For more information on registration and sponsorship opportunities contact the chamber office at (413) 426-3880 or [email protected].
• August 19: West of the River Chamber of Commerce 10th Annual Golf Tournament, at Springfield Country Club, West Springfield. Cost is $125 per golfer. Presenting sponsor: Hard Rock Hotel and Casino of New England. For more information on registration and sponsorship opportunities, contact the chamber office at (413) 426-3880 or email [email protected].

GREATER WESTFIELD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.westfieldbiz.org
(413) 568-1618
• June 10: Mayor’s Coffee Hour, 8-9 p.m., at the Arbors, 40 Court St., Westfield. Mayor Knapik will speak about all that is happening around Westfield and field questions. The event is free and open to the pubic. To register, call Pam Bussell at the chamber office at (413) 568-1618 or e-mail [email protected]
• June 12: June WestNet Connection, 5-7 p.m. Hosted by Westfield Bank of Southwick, 462 College Highway, Southwick. An evening of networking; don’t forget your business cards. Complimentary hors d’oeuvres and cocktails. Walk-ins are welcome. Tickets: $10 for members, $15 cash for non-members.  To register, call Pam Bussell at the chamber office at (413) 568-1618 or e-mail [email protected].
• June 14: June 2013 Chamber Breakfast, 7:15-9 a.m., at Shaker Farms Country Club, 866 Shaker Road, Westfield. Platinum Sponsor: First Niagara. Guest speaker: Steven Grossman, treasurer and receiver general. Anniversary salutes: the Carson Center, 50th; East Mountain Country Club, 50th. Tickets: $25 for members, $30 for non-members. To register, call Pam Bussell at the chamber office at (413) 568-1618 or email [email protected].

Agenda Departments

Wistariahurst Exhibition
June-August: Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke has unveiled its Summer Gallery Exhibition, “Behind the Scenery: Sketches to Cityscapes.” Local artist Caleb Colon gives an intimate look at the artist’s process of selection, direction, and creation, featuring displays of the works as paintings begin, progress, and finally reach completion. Works shown in the exhibition are inspired by local scenes and sites along the Connecticut River. Studies, sketches, and photos are also on view, showing another layer of the process. Works are on view through August. Gallery admission is $3.

Golf Tournament

June 18: The Agawam Small Business Assistance Center will hold its annual 9-Hole Golf Tournament at the Agawam Country Club, 128 Southwick Street, Feeding Hills, with a noon shotgun start. The cost is $200 for a foursome or $50 per player, including dinner and prizes. The cost for dinner only is $25. Download the flyer and registration form at www.asbac.net.
40 Under Forty
June 20: BusinessWest will present its seventh class of regional rising stars at the annual 40 Under Forty gala at the Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House in Holyoke. The event will feature music, lavish food stations, and introductions of the winners, who were profiled at length in the April 22 issue. Look for event details in upcoming issues of BusinessWest, or call (413) 781-8600, ext. 100 for more information.

Yidstock 2013
July 18-21: Yidstock 2013: The Festival of New Yiddish Music will bring the top names in klezmer to the stage at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst. The Klezmer Conservatory Band will kick off Yidstock on July 18, and the festival will continue with Klezperanto and Margot Leverett & the Klezmer Mountain Boys; Brass Khazones: Steven Bernstein and Frank London; the Wholesale Klezmer Band; Golem; and the Yidstock All-Stars. The weekend will conclude with a massive jam, featuring a Yidstock All-Stars band with players from the weekend’s bands, under the musical directorship of Frank London. Among those all-stars are two of the greatest clarinetists in klezmer, Ilene Stahl of Klezperanto and Margot Leverett of the Klezmer Mountain Boys. A series of workshops and talks is also on the schedule, including a Yiddish folk-dance workshop led by internationally renowned Steve Weintraub; a lecture by Hankus Netsky, a founder of the Klezmer Conservatory Band; an instrumental klezmer workshop; and a talk by author and music critic Seth Rogovoy. Back by popular demand, Yosi’s Kosher Falafel Tent will once again be serving an assortment of great food. For more information and to purchase tickets and festival passes (a limited number of passes are available and sell out quickly), visit yiddishbookcenter.org/yidstock or call (413) 256-4900.

Western Mass. Business Expo 2013
Nov. 6: Planning is underway for the Western Mass. Business Expo 2013, a day-long business-to-business event to take place at the MassMutual Center in downtown Springfield. This fall’s show, the third edition of the Expo, which is again being produced by BusinessWest, will feature more than 100 exhibitors, seminars on timely issues of the day, special Show Floor Theater presentations, breakfast and lunch programs, and the wrap-up Expo social, which has become a not-to-be-missed networking event. Details of the specific programming will be printed in upcoming editions of BusinessWest and can also be seen online at www.wmbexpo.com or www.businesswest.com. For more information on the event or to reserve booth space, call (413) 781-8600, ext. 100.

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.

GREENFIELD DISTRICT COURT
Teresa L. Williams-Fortson v. Circle K Massachusetts, LLC and Irving Oil Corp.
Allegation: Negligence in property maintenance causing slip and fall: $5,583.34
Filed: 3/5/13

HAMPDEN SUPERIOR COURT
Agustin Felix v. J. New and Used Tire, Nissan Motor Co., LTD, and Bridgestone American Inc.
Allegation: Product liability and defective design and manufacture of tire causing a blowout and resulting in severe and permanent injuries: $506,148.43
Filed: 4/17/13

David M. Baker v. Built Inc., Harry F. Angevine, and Manchem Limited Partnership
Allegation: Breach of contract: $47,321.98
Filed: 4/8/13
Nuvo Bank & Trust Co. v. McLaughlin Gourmet Inc. and Gail McLaughlin-Toti
Allegation: Failure to pay secured loans: $29,407.51
Filed: 4/17/13

SPRINGFIELD DISTRICT COURT
Typrowicz Home Improvement Inc. v. Tomorrow Meadows
Allegation: Non-payment of services rendered: $11,875.64
Filed: 4/5/13

WESTFIELD DISTRICT COURT
Capital One Bank, N.A. v. Laurie A. Fay d/b/a Angelic Grave Groomers
Allegation: Monies owed for credit advanced: $6,215.49
Filed: 4/16/13

Mill Rock Realty Corp. v. Kevin Williams d/b/a Broken Edge Deburring
Allegation: Breach of lease agreement, unpaid rent, damage to premises, and cleaning: $8,632.91
Filed: 4/24/13

Features
For a Half-century, Gary McCarthy Has Been True to the Boys & Girls Club Mission

McCarthyBoysClubGary McCarthy was asked how the City of Homes and the institution known now as the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Springfield have changed since he first started hanging out there almost 60 years ago.
He leaned back in his chair, looked skyward, and gave a slight sigh as if to indicate that this exercise was going to test his memory. As things turned out, it didn’t. The memories, and the perspective, seemed to flow.
And he started with some history/geography lessons, specifically in the form of a fond look back at what was known as the Chestnut Street Club — the precursor to the facility on Carew Street where he’s served as executive director for the past 26 years and in some capacity for more than four decades — and the neighborhood around it.
“The front door would be in the middle of what is now Liberty Street Extension,” he said of the old club, which was one of dozens of buildings leveled in the mid- to late ’60s as part of a sweeping urban-renewal effort that forever changed the city’s North End. “There are a lot of people with some very special memories of that place; I’m one of them.
“That whole area was residential — there were a lot of apartment buildings,” he said of the blocks to the west of Chestnut Street, while flashing back five decades or more. “There were a lot of kids from that area that came to the club.”
As for the city itself, McCarthy, who grew up in Hungry Hill, said Springfield’s neighborhoods were much more “ethnically defined,” as he put it. “When I lived on the Hill, it was still the white, Irish, Catholic neighborhood; the North End had a large African-American population. A lot of the kids came to the club together because they lived on the same street.”

Gary McCarthy

Gary McCarthy has been associated with the Springfield Boys & Girls Club in some capacity for close to 60 years.

And the Boys & Girls Club? Some things have changed there, too, he said, noting, for example, that what is now the computer lab was, for decades, a wood shop. And at one time the organization netted $200,000 annually from bingo, between the game it ran in the gym on Monday nights and the one operated in the club on Sunday nights by a local synagogue, which paid a generous rental fee. Bans on smoking in public places, coupled with the expansive Massachusetts lottery and casinos in Connecticut, closed the bingo gold mine, leaving the club to find new and different ways to fund its budget, from a golf tournament to the hugely successful Festival of Trees, to more aggressive grant-writing efforts.
But after all that talk about what has changed, McCarthy wanted to focus most of his time and energy on what hasn’t — the simple fact that young people in Springfield still need a place to go after school, on Saturdays, and in the summer — a place that’s safe, accessible, affordable, and can help shape their lives in the right ways.
Despite some considerable fiscal challenges, the Springfield club has always been all those things, he said, adding that, as he looks back on his career, this is the achievement to which he attaches the most satisfaction.
“We’re obviously very proud of how we protected that mission of being a drop-in center, an open door,” he explained. “If a kid needed his or her Boys & Girls Club, they came in, they gave us a little information, if they had a dollar, we’d take it, and if they didn’t, we didn’t care. They came in, and they really earned their membership by being a good citizen — a good Boys & Girls Club citizen, and trying to understand what this organization stood for.
“Kids need a safe place to have fun — it’s that simple,” he continued, knocking the organization’s reason for being down to just a handful of words. “Some nonprofits, and even ones like ours, are starting to think this is something you don’t want to say and shouldn’t be saying. But I happen to think that’s still a big part of why we’re here; young people still need a place where they can work with good, responsible, caring adults, and have a place where they can enjoy their lives.”
For this issue, BusinessWest took the opportunity to talk with McCarthy just weeks from his scheduled retirement. It was a learning experience served up by someone for whom the club has generated a lifetime of memories — quite literally.

Mission: Statement
There was a small fire at the Chestnut Street Club in the 1960s, started, according to local legend, when a popcorn maker was left on inadvertently.
McCarthy laughed off some jokes — at least he thinks they’re jokes — from current club staffers (probably preparing material for an elaborate retirement party on June 8) who believe he might have been the one responsible for the calamity. But he admits he was there, on concessions duty, that night.
Of course, he’s been there, handling some manner of duties, almost every day since he was 15 years old — with the notable exception of a six-year run as director of the Westfield club in the early and mid-’80s. He started as a CIT (counselor in training) at the club’s summer camp, but took on a number of jobs through high school and beyond, from handling concessions to working in the game room; from running the projector on ‘movie night’ to running the second-floor gym at the old club.
And as he moved from the old Technical High School, where he was in what amounted to a college-prep program, to American International College, where he majored in sociology, he essentially made the decision that the Boys Club (‘& Girls’ was added officially in the mid-’80s) was going to be more than a place where he earned a paycheck; it was going to be a career.
When asked how and why he came to that conclusion and became what’s known within the organization as a ‘Boys Club guy,’ he said that, through all those years of being a member and then serving members in all those capacities, he had simply become enamored not only with the mission, but the prospect of leading a team that carried it out.
“The club was a very important part of my life; while I had some nice teachers in the public school system and had some fine role models, the club was the place that really shaped my life,” he said, noting that the phrase has many meanings; he met his wife, Eileen, there while she was teaching economics. “And we think we still do that today; people just reached out, they accepted you, they nurtured you, they were friendly to you, although they made you toe the mark — if you screwed up, you paid.
“The club was instrumental in helping me gain discipline and character,” he continued. “I have a family, and I’d like to think that I’m a good husband and a real good dad, and the club had a lot to do with that. You lived it every day; they made you live it every day. And when the job experiences came along, and that demand was there to set the standard for the younger people, that was very rewarding.”
Fast-forwarding through all the lines on McCarthy’s résumé — it’s fairly easy, because he’s never drawn a paycheck from an organization other than the Boys & Girls Club — one sees that he moved up the ranks fairly quickly, eventually serving as program director at the club and its summer camp and then as assistant director under longtime director Mike Pagos.
Having gone as far as he could, other than the corner office, in Springfield, and with Pagos still years from retirement, McCarthy made what he considered a necessary career move by taking the helm of the much smaller Westfield club. There, he gained important administrative experience (while also calling more bingo), and made himself the logical successor to Pagos when he stepped down in 1988.
“In those days, it was very hard for a person to move on to the next step at a club this size without having received some administrative experience elsewhere,” he noted. “I was fortunate to have that great learning experience in Westfield.”
And once he returned to Springfield, he knew he’d be in that position for as long as the board wanted him there. “I never seriously thought about leaving; this was the club that developed me, and it’s always had a great reputation for serving people. I never wanted to be anywhere else.”

Time Passages
The door to the closet in McCarthy’s office was ajar — just enough to bring the Santa suit hanging there into view.
He’s played that part for many years during the Festival of Trees, and it has become just one of many lines, official and unofficial, on his job description. Others have included everything from bingo caller — he did a lot of that when the game was the club’s principal fund-raiser — to acting as a spotter for one of the closest-to-the-pin competitions at the annual golf tournament, which he was preparing for as he talked with BusinessWest, with tee-sponsorship signs scattered about his office.
But mostly, his job has been to set a tone for this organization, and in many respects it hasn’t been difficult, because it was the same one he encountered when he first walked into the Chestnut Street Club in the early ’50s.
It’s all about meeting that mission of what amounts to being a safe haven for young people, he said, a place where they can learn, forge friendships, and build character.

 The old Chestnut Street Club, where Gary McCarthy was first introduced to the Boys Club mission as a member.

The old Chestnut Street Club, where Gary McCarthy was first introduced to the Boys Club mission as a member.

But carrying out that mission is in many ways more challenging than it was two or four decades ago, said McCarthy, who will invariably use the word ‘we’ in such discussions, referring to the team handling this assignment, which includes both staff and board members. He noted that, while need has been constant — and in many ways has escalated — meeting the club’s $1.5 million annual budget has become more daunting.
The Springfield club still charges only $10 a year for membership ($25 for year-round activities) in an effort to remain accessible for families, many of whom live at or below the poverty line, he said, adding that the process of closing the gap between the cost of programs and operations and what memberships generate in revenue has become more difficult.
“You could run a club for a lot less years ago — just look at health insurance,” he said with laugh, citing just one example. “In those days, a lot of your people were young and single, and medical insurance would cost you $300 per person; now, it’s $16,000 for someone with a family.
“Those types of expenses — utilities, insurance, all those things — escalated dramatically,” he went on. “And that’s why we’re proud that we’ve been able to maintain the foundations of our club and be that safe place to go.”
As he mentioned, fund-raising has changed dramatically from the days when a large disbursement from the United Way, supplemented by bingo revenues, pretty much covered expenses. Today, the club relies much more on fund-raisers such as the golf tournament and the Festival of Trees, as well as its endowment and direct solicitations.
But while many fiscal issues have changed over the years, young people, by and large, have not, said McCarthy, noting that, while technology provides more distractions, and there are more things to do than when he was an adolescent, the same basic needs exist, and it is more important than ever to meet them.
“When you’re talking about gangs and other issues like that, any time you can give kids an alternative that’s easy to get to and that can get them engaged quickly, that’s critical,” he said. “And it’s as important, if not more important, than when I was a kid.”
When asked what he’ll miss most when he turns off his office light for the last time, he said it will be the kids — generations of them who were instructed to use ‘Gary’ and never ‘Mr. McCarthy’ when addressing him.
“One of the most fun parts of my job, even though I’m tucked back here most of the day, is when I get antsy and take a walk along the halls while the kids are here,” he explained. “Hearing them say ‘hey, Gary’ or ‘hi, Gary’ and moving on their way … I’m going to miss that a lot.”

Life’s Work
When asked if, and in what ways, he would be involved with the Boys & Girls Club after August, McCarthy, who probably can’t remember a day when he wasn’t associated with this organization in some way, paused for a moment before using humor to say that he really will be moving on.
“When you’ve hung around this long, you start wondering, with all these new fads and ways of doing things, if you’re getting to be a dinosaur,” he said. “And besides, I didn’t have some senior old timer looking over my shoulder, and whoever comes next doesn’t need me doing that, either.”
Maybe not, but whoever the next leader of this organization is, he or she could do a lot worse than getting counsel from someone who has made the club his life’s work — in every way that phrase can be used.

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

Features
West Springfield Aims to Grow, Casino or Not

WestSpringfldCommunityProfilesMAPWest Springfield Mayor Greg Neffinger says his city doesn’t need a casino.
But that doesn’t mean he and other municipal and economic-development leaders aren’t excited about the bid put forth by Hard Rock International to site a destination casino on the Eastern States Exposition grounds.
When asked what that would mean, however, Neffinger paused for a moment before bringing up a favorite topic.
“I’ve just lowered taxes for the second time in my budget,” he said, noting that the town, recently saddled with the fifth-highest commercial tax rate in the state, now ranks around 16th, and the mayor would like to drop it further in an effort to attract more companies. “So I feel that West Springfield doesn’t need a casino for its economic vitality.”
Instead, he makes a regional argument for a casino, one that would benefit surrounding communities, including Holyoke, Chicopee, Westfield, and Agawam. “I think the casino in West Springfield should be a regional benefit, and the money that’s generated by the casino should be seen as a benefit to all the communities around us. We’re hoping to partner with all our adjacent communities to see how everyone can see the various benefits from the casino.”
But, just as Springfield officials across the Connecticut River have vowed not to stop growing organically even while they promote a casino bid by MGM Resorts International, Neffinger said his town’s economic growth will not be dependent on a gaming resort.
“We are now developing plans that we feel will be beneficial to West Springfield whether a casino is sited here or not,” he said, noting that a small army of consultants, planners, engineers, and attorneys are discussing the potential of the Big E site.
For instance, “there’s a large, undeveloped industrial area adjacent to the casino site, going from the Big E all the way to the power plant along the Westfield River. We hired a planner, Sasaki Associates out of Watertown, to look at those adjacent properties and see what type of commercial, entertainment, or recreation potential they have — either to enhance the entertainment-destination theme, or things that could be done without a casino.”
Memorial Avenue is only one course on Neffinger’s plate these days. To boost growth across the city, particularly in key areas like Memorial, Riverdale Road, and Westfield Street, he has created new positions for a planning and development director (Doug Mattoon) and an economic development director (currently vacant since Michele Cabral resigned earlier this year), and made efforts to streamline the permitting process and make the town more business-friendly.
The growing West of the River Chamber of Commerce, which encompasses West Springfield and Agawam, has taken notice, said Debra Boronski, president of the Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce, which manages the West of the River chamber.
“The mayor has been very active, making sure he is present at every event we have, and I think that speaks volumes in regard to him wanting to be connected to the business community,” she said. “He has embraced our quarterly coffee hour with the mayor, and he is always available for those forums as well. He is quite candid about how he feels about West Springfield being a great place to live, work, and do business.”

Architect of Change

Mayor Greg Neffinger

Mayor Greg Neffinger says the properties bordering the proposed casino have great potential whether or not West Springfield wins the bid.

Neffinger, a former architect, noted that each of West Side’s major commercial centers has its own character and set of needs. “Westfield Street is more neighborhood businesses, while Riverdale Road has a life of its own; it’s a very popular location, and restaurants, retail, and car dealerships seem to do well there because of all the traffic going through. Places like CVS, Home Depot, and Costco also do well there.”
He conceded, though, that most of the buzz on Riverdale occurs south of Interstate 91, while the northern stretch of the thoroughfare, between the highway and the Holyoke Mall area, could use more development. A number of chain restaurants — Outback, On the Border, Hooters, and Five Guys, to name a few — have succeeded there, and a tenant is looking to move into the former Piccadilly Pub location. “We think that part of Riverdale Road has lots of potential.”
Armed with a larger planning and development team than past administrations have enjoyed, Neffinger expects progress on other fronts as well. Further development of Agawam Avenue Extension is a key goal in a 2005 report on the Merrick-Memorial section of the city — one of many recommendations he wants to set into action.
“We’re doing a whole rezoning of the Merrick section. That was part of the Merrick-Memorial study,” he told BusinessWest. “When we brought in planners to begin looking at it, they found that virtually 100% of the Merrick section was non-conforming, and [developers] would have to go for a special permit, and it’s questionable whether they’d do that. As an architect, I felt that builders, developers, and entrepreneurs would be more attracted to areas of town that were conforming.”
As a result, a new zoning structure for the area should be completed by June, and virtually all the parcels will be conforming, said Neffinger, who said full development of the area could add $1 million to the tax base.
The mayor repeatedly stressed the importance of a robust planning and economic-development staff, and said the town wants to fill Cabral’s position with someone savvy in 21st-century communication.
“We spoke with a number of retired economic-development directors, and I think the way of reaching out to business is changing, with social media and websites,” he explained, “and so we’re hoping that we can get someone with more of a marketing background who can reach out to businesses and let existing businesses know we’re here and we care about them doing business in West Springfield.”
In addition, he and various planning officials are talking about ways they can improve the process by which businesses locate in town. “One of those is electronic permitting, and hopefully, that’ll be in place next month.”
Neffinger said the Town Council is also discussing exempting businesses from taxes on equipment up to $10,000 in value. “We don’t make much on it, and our administrative costs are almost equal to the money that comes in. There’s a lot of paperwork involved for small businesses, so they’ll save some money and time.”

Rolling the Dice
Of course, it’s hard to ignore the prospect of one decidedly large business — that’s Hard Rock — that wants to call West Springfield home.
Boronski noted that the West of the River Chamber surveyed members and non-members alike about their desire for a casino, and based on the results, just last week, the chamber officially endorsed the $800 million Hard Rock proposal.
“Around the state and locally, no chambers of commerce have come out publicly to support a specific casino,” she said. “For the West of the River Chamber board of directors to do this shows that they are willing to put themselves out there and take a position that’s right for economic development.”
Michael Beaudry, who chairs the chamber, said members “are excited about the potential of the Hard Rock project for its impact to our regional economy and to small business in particular. The job creation and payroll will reverberate throughout the area, alongside new tax revenues for property owners and local government.”
He noted that Hard Rock is committed to a buy-local approach to the project. To strengthen ties between a casino and the business community, the chamber is pursuing:
• Development of a small-business network to identify area businesses that may provide goods and services to the casino resort;
• Coordination on a series of vendor fairs to facilitate additional information and communication on goods and services for the gaming facility;
• Affinity programs for casino employees, by which Hard Rock will offer chamber members the opportunity to directly market their services to the anticipated 2,000-plus casino workers; and
• Promotion by Hard Rock of regional destinations, attractions, shopping districts, and hospitality venues. Those efforts might include cooperative group sales, local training for resort personnel, and marketing and advertising.
That emphasis on making sure small businesses benefit from a casino is a theme that hits home with Neffinger.
“I think small businesses are the backbone of all communities,” he said. “We’re fortunate to have some pretty large companies in West Springfield, but for our economy, employment, and the general well-being of the town, I think small businesses are the lifeblood of the community.”

Natural Appeal
Still, the mayor added, “the casino coming in to the Memorial Avenue area would bring in a whole new dynamic.” One of his missions is to make sure the town’s traditional appeals are not lost in the gaming hype.
“I think, when businesses think of relocating in Western Mass., they’re interested in what the quality of life is, what’s the education system like, what the recreation possibilities are,” he said. “We in West Springfield are surrounded by natural beauty — the Connecticut River, the Westfield River, the Holyoke mountain range, Bear Hole Reservoir … we’re pretty much surrounded by natural resources, and I’m really hoping to capitalize on those.”
To that end, “we’ve already begun to do work on Mittineague Park to fix it up, and we took tons of trash out of Bear Hole Reservoir and put a ranger up there. We want that to be a natural resource for the residents of West Springfield.”
Neffinger also considers education a key part of making West Springfield an attractive destination for businesses and families. The construction of a new, $107 million high school, set to open in 2014, is a big part of that. “We’re also working on improving our MCAS scores and our graduation rate,” he told BusinessWest. “These things are very important for people, especially young families, who are thinking of relocating.”
In addition, he said, “we’re not far from skiing, hiking, beaches, Boston, New York … we’re in a very good location.”
In other words, West Springfield has plenty to offer — whether or not Hard Rock gets the chance to light up Memorial Avenue.

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Opinion
Investments in the Future

EditorialBWlogoThere probably hadn’t been this much excitement about a demolition project in Springfield since the city finally took down the old York Street Jail nearly a decade ago. Or since the crumbling Hotel Charles, located next to Union Station, was put out of its misery in the late’90s.
There was Mayor Domenic Sarno with his hardhat and ceremonial sledgehammer taking a few solid whacks at the old River Inn on State Street. When the pomp was over, the bulldozers moved in, taking down a property that had become much more than an eyesore in recent years — although it was certainly that.
Indeed, the long-vacant property had become an impediment to progress — not only on that specific parcel, but across that section of the so-called State Street corridor. Recognizing this, DevelopSpringfield acquired the property at a foreclosure auction in January, with an eye toward demolition and then movement toward redevelopment. As economic-development initiatives go, this wasn’t exactly front-page news (though close), but it constitutes an important step forward for that neighborhood and the city as a whole.
And creating such initial steps — while also stimulating the ones that will follow — is the unofficial mission statement for DevelopSpringfield, the public-private partnership created to stimulate development activity in the city, especially in the wake of the tornado that tore through several neighborhoods nearly two years ago.
The agency is taking a multi-pronged approach to that assignment, but generally, it is currently engaged in identifying development opportunities and facilitating them through what the agency’s president and CEO, Jay Minkarah, calls “strategic investments.” And the River Inn project is a perfect example.
“This place held back the development of the entire neighborhood,” Minkarah told the local press. “It’s good that it’s going to be gone.”
Good, because if it was still there — and it probably would be, because it’s highly unlikely that a private developer would pay the cost of acquiring the property, demolishing it, and settling back taxes totaling $80,000 — then this large slice of State Street would remain undeveloped for the foreseeable future.
The same could likely be said for some of the other properties the agency has acquired recently. These include the historic building at 83 Maple St., known as the Ansel Phelps House (Springfield’s fourth mayor lived in it for some time), which had fallen into a state of disrepair and placement on the Springfield Preservation Trust’s list of endangered historic properties in the city, as well as the historic Gunn Block at the corner of Walnut and State streets, another threatened property said to be city’s oldest commercial building.
Neither is likely to be redeveloped soon, but their acquisition signals the start of movement that will likely remove that ‘threatened’ designation and, more importantly, trigger the kind of development that generates momentum in a specific neighborhood.
There is no way of knowing when and how the River Inn property, or any of the others acquired by DevelopSpringfield, will be transformed for future use. After all, the Hotel Charles acreage and the York Street Jail parcel are still vacant lots. And the same is true, more or less, for the site of the old Steigers building on Main Street. It was to be “a little park for a little while,” said city officials when it came down. That was 18 years ago.
But it’s safe to say that these investments will eventually stimulate movement within the development community and generate real progress with the challenging assignment of revitalizing struggling neighborhoods. Thus, they are solid investments in the city’s future.

Opinion
It’s Time to Raise the Mayor’s Salary

The Springfield Chamber of Commerce is advocating for an increase in the salary for the position of mayor of Springfield from $95,000 — the level it has been since 1997 — to one that better reflects the importance of the position today, $135,000.
While proposals such as this often become politically charged, an informed debate on its merits is long overdue. The chamber is hopeful that, after this debate, our elected officials will support our proposal.
An increase in the mayor’s salary has been proposed at various points over the past 16 years. Most recently, in 2009, as the Financial Control Board was being phased out from managing Springfield, a task force of the chamber met to examine several governance issues within the city, to ensure that the city would never again be forced into having a control board manage its affairs. At that time, the chamber put forth three objectives it felt were integral to proper management of the city. They were:
• Establishment of a chief administrative and financial officer (CAFO), whose contract would not be concurrent with the mayor in order to establish some autonomy, and who would report not only to the mayor but also to the full City Council;
• Moving from a two-year term for the mayor to a four-year term to allow for better long-term planning and afford a mayor time to make difficult decisions without the immediate threat of a political opponent; and
• Establishing a fair salary level for the mayor that would better reflect the duties and responsibilities of the mayor of the third-largest city in Massachusetts and to help attract candidates with the skills to oversee administration of the community.
The first two goals have been accomplished. Before the Finance Control Board departed, the position of CAFO was established, and from all accounts has been performing extremely well since then. Lengthening the term of the mayor of Springfield to four years was put on the citywide ballot in 2009, and voters adopted this change, with 69% voting in favor. Now the third goal remains.
In 2011, a task force was set up by the City Council to look into increasing the mayor’s salary. The chamber had a member serve on that panel, and while the recommendation came out to increase the salary to a figure of around $110,000 and then index it to inflation, the recommendation never made it to the council for a full vote.
The chamber has compiled a great deal of data. Several cities in our area with populations and budgets around one-fifth of those of Springfield have mayoral salaries of only $10,000 less than Springfield’s. One city, Westfield, recently acknowledged the requirements of the job and increased the salary for that city’s mayor to a level above Springfield’s.
When looking at similar-sized cities, here are the results:

• Springfield: $95,000
• Hartford, Conn.: $146,779
• Providence, R.I.: $131,000
• New Haven, Conn.: $127,070
• Stamford, Conn.: $150,000

There will be those who will look at a salary figure and equate it to a particular mayor, past or present, and judge this proposal upon whether he or she was or is worth the figure. That not only misses the point, but is also shortsighted in determining what is best for this city moving forward. The salary is a reflection of the job. The mayor oversees a city with 6,000 employees and a budget in excess of $550 million.
At present, 113 city employees earn more than the mayor, who is on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week to not only plan and oversee operations, but to be able to react to all that can and does go wrong in major urban areas. The mayor makes countless decisions, oftentimes difficult and unpopular. A mayor is also in the best position to develop a strategic vision for our city and lead the effort to fulfill that vision.
Let’s try to put politics aside for this vote and set the salary for the position of mayor of Springfield at a level that reflects the duties of the job and encourages those with the skills necessary to run for the position.

Jeffrey Ciuffreda is executive director of the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield.

Cover Story Sections Travel and Tourism
Holyoke’s Happiness Machine Marks a Milestone

CoverBW-0513bThe Holyoke Merry-Go-Round marks 20 years in operation at Heritage Park this December.
Thus, this is a time of reflection and celebration in Holyoke, concerning both the remarkable story of how residents and businesses in the city rallied to keep the attraction within the community, and the success enjoyed since: more than 1 million riders, hundreds of events staged at the facility, restoration of nearly half the ride’s hand-crafted wooden horses, and the creation of untold memories for generations of area residents.
There will be many opportunities to rejoice and look back this year, with the highlight being a huge fund-raising gala at the Log Cabin Banquet and Meeting House on Sept. 19, an event that is expected to severely test the facility’s fire-code capacity.
But for those most closely involved with this landmark, known to them as PTC 80 (the 80th carousel built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Co.), this is a time for much more than celebrating — although they will do plenty of that. It’s an occasion to do some strategic planning and take important steps that will ensure there are many more anniversaries to celebrate down the road.
And it’s a time, said Angela Wright, to do some difficult, yet very necessary, succession planning when it comes to management of what those in the city call the ‘happiness machine.’

HolyokeMerryGoRound

Friends of PTC 80, as it’s called, will mark its milestone anniversary with an eye toward ensuring that there are more of these celebrations for decades to come.

Difficult, noted Wright, who was co-chair of the group that raised the money to keep the carousel in Holyoke and has been its volunteer director since it opened, because that’s the only word to describe what it will be like to “let go.”
“We’re reluctant to give up something that is close to all of us, and something that we worked so hard at —  it’s been a labor of love for all of us,” she said, referring to a strong corps of volunteers that has been with this project from the beginning and seen some of their ranks pass away in recent years. “We don’t want to let go of this, but it’s something we know we have to do.”
Elaborating, she said the Friends of the Holyoke Merry-Go-Round, as this group is called, is engaging in discussions about hiring a full-time executive director for the facility, an individual who will assume many duties currently carried out by those volunteers, from fund-raising to marketing, while also taking on the primary assignment — maintaining the relationships that have enabled this city treasure to survive and thrive, and creating new ones.
Hiring a director is one of many suggestions forwarded during strategic planning sessions staged recently with a consultant, Jeff Hayden, former city development director and current director of the Kittredge Center, said Maureen Costello, administrative manager of PTC 80.
Others include everything from recruiting additional board members to developing and implementing a marketing plan; from multi-faceted efforts to increase visitation to a host of initiatives to increase revenues, especially the scheduling of more birthday parties and other events.
These steps are in various, but mostly early, stages of implementation, said Costello, noting that one important step — a doubling of the price of a ride to $2 after more than 18 years — was undertaken in 2012.
“That was a difficult decision for us, because we had prided ourselves on keeping the ticket price at a dollar since we opened in 1993,” she explaned. “But it’s been very well-received by our visitors; many people said, ‘it’s about time you did this.’”
There will be more difficult and far-reaching steps taken in the months and years to come, said Jim Jackowski, business liaison and customer service and credit manager for Holyoke Gas & Electric and current president of the Friends board. He noted that, while the attraction’s first two decades in operation could be deemed an unqualified success, these are tenuous times for independently operated carousels like this one.
The challenges are many, and include everything from the high cost of insurance (carousels have historically had high mishap rates, although this one hasn’t recorded any) to the escalating competition for the time of young children (the ride’s lifeblood) and their parents.
“There are just a lot more things for kids and families to do today,” said Jackowski. “We have to respond to that by promoting ourselves and doing what we’ve always done — providing a truly unique experience.”
Wright agreed. “Many carousels are closing — hardly a week goes that we don’t hear of one of them shutting down,” she said, noting that she and others read about such casualties in industry publications like the Carousel News & Trader and Merry-Go-Round Roundup. “These things are becoming very expensive … our liability insurance is extremely high. Between insurance, staffing, maintenance, upkeep, promotions, and marketing, they’re becoming simply too expensive for many operators to run.”
For this issue and its focus on travel and tourism, BusinessWest takes a quick look back at how PTC 80 remained a Holyoke institution, but a more comprehensive glance ahead to the challenge of making sure the happiness machine will be there to create memories for future generations of area residents.

Turns for the Better

‘Middle horse #5’

‘Middle horse #5’ is next in line for a complete restoration. To date, nearly half of the horses on the carousel have been refurbished.

It’s known simply as ‘middle horse #5.’ And that says it all — if you know this carousel.
It has three rows of horses (there are 28 in all, both ‘standers’ and ‘jumpers,’ with two chariots), with the largest animals on the outside and the smallest on the inside. This particular specimen is fifth in a sequence known only to those intimately involved with this attraction. And it is showing some definite signs of wear and tear, much of it caused by the buckle on the stirrup, which has knocked off badly faded paint in several areas.
As a result, it is next in line for restoration work that will make it look like the much shinier and newer ‘middle horse #4’ just ahead. This work, to be carried out at the New England Carousel Museum in Bristol, Conn., will cost roughly $5,000, said Costello. To help pay that cost, the merry-go-round is staging a raffle this summer, with the winner gaining the right to give the horse a real name — like ‘Lancelot,’ ‘Flower Power,’ and others that have been assigned to other animals on PTC 80.
Restoring horses, staging raffles, and giving names to the stars of this attraction have been some of the many aspects of that labor of love which Wright described, made possible by the truly inspiring story of how Holyoke came together to keep its carousel a quarter-century ago.
Most in this region are now at least somewhat familiar with the saga, which began with Mountain Park owner Jay Collins’ decision to shut down the popular tourist attraction after the 1987 season ended.
After unsuccessful efforts to sell the park, the 300 acres it sat on, and all the equipment and inventory as one package (asking price: $4 million), Collins opted to start selling off the pieces. He had some attractive offers (up to $2 million, according to some accounts) for PTC 80, which was in extremely good condition. And while he was considering them, John Hickey, then manager of Holyoke’s Water Department, approached him with a plan to keep the carousel in the city.
The two agreed on a price of $875,000, and Collins gave Hickey one year to raise the money.
The rest, is, well, history.
An elaborate ‘save the merry-go-round’ campaign was launched, complete with a request for pledges with rhetorical calls to action that included ‘stop them from riding off with Holyoke’s mane attraction’ and ‘if you care about Holyoke’s future, put some money down on her past.’
In the end, residents, business owners, and schoolchildren heeded those calls, raising enough money to buy the carousel and build it a new home in Heritage State Park. Thus, PTC 80’s second life began in December 1993.
To say that it’s been a smooth ride since then would oversimplify things, said Wright, who noted that there have been many challenges over the first two decades, from getting people to come to downtown Holyoke to attracting revenue-generating events, such as birthday parties and weddings, to overcoming the loss several years ago of the four-day Celebrate Holyoke event that gave the carousel much-needed exposure and ridership.
“The real business challenge for us has been to replace the revenue from the Celebrate Holyoke festival, which was probably 10% to 15% of our annual revenue,” said Jackowski. “We’ve done it largely through the promotion of the birthday parties, the private functions, and the corporate functions, and spreading the word through an extended Pioneer Valley area.”
The attraction has managed to remain in the black throughout and meet its annual budget of roughly $100,000, he noted, largely through perseverance, imagination, and resourcefulness.
But if PTC 80, one of only 100 antique classic wooden merry-rounds still operating in North America, is to keep its Holyoke address, it must continue to act as a small business would, and that means strategic planning and, as Wright and Costello said, succession planning.

Round Numbers
That later assignment is a difficult one for many small businesses to even acknowledge, let alone address, said Wright, adding that it’s the same with the merry-go-round, where this exercise takes a number of forms.
For starters, it means active recruiting of younger professionals within the community to join the board and become involved with the carousel, she said, adding that a new generation of leadership must eventually take the reins — literally and figuratively — from the group that waged the campaign to save PTC 80 a quarter-century ago.
Succession planning also means developing and advancing a plan to hire a full-time executive director, said Costello, adding that the merry-go-round has a part-time operations manager (15 hours per week), and there are others who have held that position in the past.
Hiring a full-time manager would be a big step, one that would dramatically alter the budgetary picture, Wright told BusinessWest, but such a move is necessary given the current challenging climate. But the broad “transition,” as she called it, will nonetheless be difficult for the carousel’s older ‘friends.’
“We’ve all been here 25 years,” she said. “And we’re all somewhat reluctant to let anything happen to this merry-go-round. We all have a personal investment in this, and it’s a sizable investment.”
Succession planning is just part of the discussion when it comes to securing the long-term future of the merry-go-round, said Costello, adding that strategic planning initiatives involving the attraction, like those staged for businesses of all sizes, have focused on that acronym SWOT — strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Clearly, the 20th-anniversary celebrations fall into that third category, she said, adding that the attraction’s leadership intends to use the many events and special programs on tap this year to introduce (or re-introduce) people to the carousel, with several goals in mind. These include everything from increasing direct ridership to booking more special events involving both children and adults; from recruiting more supporters to simply raising more funds.
“The 20th anniversary is a time to reflect on the many things that we’ve accomplished here and be proud of those accomplishments,” Costello said. “But it’s also an opportunity to re-connect with our supporters and make more friends.
“We recognize that, while our merry-go-round was the crown jewel at Mountain Park, the people who remember the park are older now,” she went on. “We understand that those people are not going to be able to share their memories of Mountain Park, so we need to attract a new generation of riders and supporters, and we’re cognizant of that as we make our plans for the future.”
As it did 25 years ago, the Friends group is reaching out to the community for donations, she said, adding that donors can become members of the merry-go-round’s Ring of Honor, a collection of brass plaques that bear the names of supporters ranging from Holyoke schoolchildren to businesses across all sectors.
Beyond fund-raising, one of the main goals moving forward is to maximize other revenue resources, said Costello, adding that the increase in ticket prices resulted in a roughly 70% increase in total revenue in 2012, “which made a huge difference.”
But long-term, the merry-go-round must be more successful with scheduling events, she continued, because they are both solid revenue generators and vehicles for generating future ridership and more get-togethers.
Overall, the ongoing assignment for the merry-go-round’s leadership team is to make the attraction — and downtown Holyoke in general — more of a true destination for families with children, said Jackowski, adding that there are many developments that are moving the city closer to that designation.
“We hope, by keeping this building as attractive as it is, and this park as attractive as it is, that the future looks bright,” he told BusinessWest. “We have our new neighbor, the computing center, we’re hopeful that the canal walk comes to fruition in the next five years, and there is more development down here that creates optimism. We want to be the focal point of all that.”

The Ride Stuff
John Hickey, who passed away in 2008, once wrote of carousels, “man, and high tech, has not yet devised a better way to illuminate the faces of children and parents with pure joy. The lights, the music, the kids dashing for the right horse, the clang of the starting bell, and the motion … you don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave every time around … and their parent will wave back. It never fails … it never will.”
PTC 80 has lived up to those words for more than eight decades, and especially in its new home in Holyoke’s downtown. Its first two decades there have been an extraordinary ride in every sense of that word.
And that’s why this anniversary will be a time to celebrate, but also a time to make sure that the ride will continue for decades to come.

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

Sections Travel and Tourism
Robert E. Barrett Fishway Offers Learning Experiences on a Grand Scale

Paul Ducheney

Paul Ducheney says the fishway was the culmination of years of study involving fish behavior, as well as considerable trial and error.

Paul Ducheney acknowledged that it’s difficult to look upon the elaborate, cutting-edge Frank E. Barrett Fishway and grasp that it was inspired by a net and a bucket.
But it was. Well, sort of.
As legend has it in Holyoke, in 1955, an Atlantic salmon was trying to make its way north on the Connecticut River, back to its birthplace to spawn, when it hit what was then a roadblock — the Holyoke Dam. The story goes that an engineer with what was then the Holyoke Water Power Co. caught the confused fish with said net, but then didn’t know what to do with it.
“So they said, ‘well, lets put it in a bucket of water and bring it up over the dam and dump it in,’” explained Ducheney, superintendent for Electric Production at the Holyoke Gas & Electric Department (HG&E), which acquired the dam in 2001. “And that was pretty much the start.”
Today’s Robert E. Barrett Fishway is the result of that ongoing story of how, through the use of exponentially more sophisticated means of fish attraction and larger buckets, HG&E has created a fishlift that has become a model for hydropower systems in this country and around the world.
The two-bucket system carries hundreds of thousands of anadromous fish — those born in fresh water (salmon, smelt, shad, striped bass, and sturgeon are common examples), and spend most of their life in the sea, but return to fresh water to spawn — over the dam each year so they continue their migratory journey north.
And while doing so, it provides powerful lessons to visitors, many of them schoolchildren on field trips, about these fish, hydropower, and how they can coexist.
This was the dream of Robert E. Barrett, former president of the Holyoke Water Power Co., whose imagination and perseverance made it reality.
The current fishway, opened in 1955, hosts more than 11,000 visitors a year between April and June, when the fish make their annual treks north, said Kate Sullivan, marketing coordinator for the HG&E, who told BusinessWest that the facility is still far too much of a best-kept secret from a tourism perspective, and that the utility is working to see that it loses that distinction.
“People are always amazed; they can’t believe this is in their own backyard,” said Sullivan. “And this was part of Robert Barrett’s mission, to make this an educational experience for kids, too.”
For this issue and its focus on travel and tourism, BusinessWest paid a visit to the fishway for an educational experience on a grand scale — in more ways than one.

Current Events

This illustration shows how the fishway

This illustration shows how the fishway enables migratory shad, Atlantic salmon, and other species to be collected, lifted in buckets over the dam, and released.
Illustration by Robert Oxenhorn

As she gave BusinessWest a tour of the facilities, Sullivan said the creation of such facilities to ferry fish over hydroelectric installations became a federal mandate for those seeking to hold licenses for such facilities decades ago, and there are many such lifts operating today.
But the fishway in Holyoke is somewhat unique because of the breadth and depth of the educational opportunities it provides and the large scale of the operation. Indeed, it is said to be most successful fishlift on the Atlantic coast in terms of the number of fish it ferries.
For visitors, it’s an opportunity to see how nature and modern technology can collaborate and create some powerful images.
Once through the entrance of the power station, visitors are led — on the right, past the giant HG&E turbines that harness the river’s power, and, on the left, past a series of historical pictures of the dam and older fish-assisting devices — out to the large outdoor observation deck. Standing high above the Connecticut River on the deck, they get a southern view of the river and the special canal, which shows the two ways fish enter the gathering area by way of a high-velocity water flow that attracts them to the main collection area just under the deck.
Visitors can then turn their attention to the north and experience the sights and sounds of water coming over a section of the dam, next to the lift structure. On the half-hour, a buzzer rings, signaling the start of the fishlift as its two large buckets begin carrying hundreds of fish and water more than 50 feet up and into an exit flume. This is the point where visitors then move inside to see the fish swim by the public viewing windows, giving them the feeling of being underwater with the fish.
Sullivan told BusinessWest that guided school-group tours take about an hour, which includes time for an activity.
“And this is very unique,” added Ducheney. “If you go to other lifts at other dams, they’re sort of separate from the powerhouse, so it’s pretty neat to see power generation integral with fish passage. It’s Holyoke’s best-kept secret.”
But that secret took some time to materialize.
Kate Sullivan

Kate Sullivan says grassroots efforts have helped increase visitorship at the fishway, which is open only a few months a year.

Dams have been built to harness hydropower for centuries, and attempts to help fish on their migratory journeys have been part and parcel to those efforts, but finding a system that works effectively has often been a frustrating matter of trial and considerable error, said Ducheney, noting that Holyoke’s history serves up some good examples.
Since 1794, several dams have been constructed at South Hadley Falls, where the river drops more than 40 feet, and in October 1849, a large ‘timber crib’ dam was constructed, preventing upstream fish migration.
In 1866, Massachusetts enacted legislation requiring the construction of devices to permit passage of shad and salmon, which resulted in the first wooden fish ladder in 1873 — a system designed to replicate nature — on the South Hadley side of the river. However, the ladder was off the beaten path of the fish’s instinctual travels, said Ducheney, and fish passage didn’t go well; in fact, not one fish used any of the early ladders.
In 1900, the current, much larger dam made from Vermont stone was built, and in 1949, HWP received a license from the Federal Power Commission for the Holyoke Hydroelectric Project. As part of the license, HWP was required to “construct, maintain, and operate fish-protection devices.”
Soon after, the aforementioned lucky Atlantic salmon was saved and lifted over the dam. The stiffer federal mandate had engineers building a different type of fish passage because others hadn’t worked. More research into fish behavior resulted in the reason why: fish needed to sense the sound and current of rushing water on their journey, where a dam now stood. The solution was to create a gathering area by way of a high-velocity water flow that attracts the fish to the main collection area just under the deck, and the first lift, using a bucket in 1955, was built under Robert Barrett’s direction — the first successful fishlift in the country.
“It’s very important for the ecosystem,” Ducheney noted. “From a regulatory basis, today we have a mandate from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to operate the dam, and part of the conditions is to provide for safe and effective fish passage.”
Today, fish can continue upstream migration (if they’re not collected for hatcheries), where fishways further upstream at the smaller Turners Falls, Vernon, and Bellows Falls hydroelectric projects also provide a means to enhance passage for migrating species through a simpler elevated step process.

Hook, Line, and Sinker
When HG&E purchased the Holyoke Dam to operate the hydroelectric facilities and the Holyoke Canal System, more improvements were made to the fishlift, Ducheney explained to BusinessWest.
“It’s automated now, so it runs without operator intervention, and it’s tripled in size, so we can accommodate many more fish,” said Ducheney. “In fact, this lift has become a model for others, including the Susquehanna River and in Japan, China, Brazil, and European countries. Holyoke is pretty well-known for fish passage.”
And the fishlift is a first for something else that’s important.
“Literally, every fish is counted,” said Sullivan, noting that the Holyoke Dam is the first that fish encounter as they move north from Long Island Sound, so keeping accurate inventory is critical to tracking what happens to fish before and after they get to the Paper City.
The counters are biology students from Holyoke Community College who click a designated counter for each species of fish in a special viewing room just past the public viewing windows; its another form of educational experience of which Barrett would be proud.
Since the official counts started in 1965, the most prolific years for fish passage were in 1985 and 1992, at more than 1 million fish. In 2012, more than 500,000, mainly shad, were lifted over the dam.
Shad, said Ducheney, is a river herring, and while that may not sound delectable, he noted that shad is actually on the menu at New York’s famous Tavern on the Green restaurant at this time of year.
But restaurants aren’t the only interested parties when it comes to shad. The annual HG&E Shad Derby, one of the region’s largest fishing events, is held on two weekends in May and offers nearly 600 anglers of all ages the opportunity to win cash prizes and write plenty of their own fish stories as they enjoy the recreational benefits of the Connecticut River.
Marketing funds are tight, Sullivan said, so getting the word out about the fishway is a struggle. But thanks to HG&E’s newsletter to 18,000 customers, as well as more comprehensive grassroots efforts over the past couple of years to increase awareness of the facility, visitation has increased.
In just a short window of six weeks, from late April to mid-June, more than 11,000 visitors came through the fishlift last year, 2,000 more than in 2011, said Sullivan, noting that many of them are students from across the region.
The fishlift is open Wednesday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., until June 16, due to the spawning season each spring. Also open on Memorial Day, the facility offers visitors of all ages a unique combination of science through tourism, and a chance to tell a real fish story about the ones that got away — or at least further upstream.

Elizabeth Taras can be reached at  [email protected]

Sections Travel and Tourism
Museums10 Adds New Brush Strokes to Its Work in Hampshire County

Jessica Niccol

Jessica Niccol says Museums10 helps raise the profile of what she calls “an extraordinary set of historical collections.”

Like a particularly striking sculpture, a museum has many intriguing sides.
The Smith College Museum of Art is a good example of that, said Jessica Niccol, its director and chief curator. The institution was established not long after the college opened in 1875 and was conceived as a teaching museum. Unlike many prominent galleries then and since, it did not launch with a gift collection waiting in the wings, but accumulated its first pieces one at a time.
“So the staff, very mindfully, built a collection with an eye toward what was being studied at Smith College,” Niccol said. By 1879, the gallery featured 27 contemporary American paintings, featuring notable lights like Winslow Homer and a number of lesser-known artists, and steadily grew from there, helped immeasurably by local businessman Winthrop Hillyer, who appreciated the growing museum and decided to fund it.
“He loved that it would be as much of a benefit to the community of Northampton as it was to Smith,” Niccol said, noting that the orientation of the current building, opening onto Main Street in front and the campus in back, reflects that dual identity. “He saw that the museum could be a resource to the community and a gateway to the campus, and you see both of those things in the way the museum has developed over the past 140 years.”
But that dual focus on education (Smith boasts a robust program of college classes, tours serving thousands of schoolchildren each year, plus college students trained to be gallery instructors) and community outreach (including family days and monthly free Friday nights, featuring gallery talks and other special events) is not exclusive to Smith, but is a common theme running through many of Hampshire County’s art and history museums.
That’s one of the reasons Museums10 makes so much sense, said Kevin Kennedy, director of Communications for the Five College Consortium, from which Museums10 sprung in 2005.
“Much of the consortium’s efforts,” Kennedy said, “are really spent bringing people from the campuses [Smith College, Hampshire College, Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, and UMass Amherst] together to share ideas, problems, solutions, things like that.”
Therefore, he continued, “it was natural for the directors of the campus museums to participate in that. It’s been going on informally for decades; it started growing organically, and then they decided to formalize it and actually create an organization.”
Kevin Kennedy

Kevin Kennedy says Museums10 acts as a lens to focus the significant energy of its members.

The art museums of the five colleges make up half Museum10’s membership, and they are joined by the Beneski Museum of Natural History, the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Historic Deerfield, the Emily Dickinson Museum, and the Yiddish Book Center. The startup money came from the Mass. Cultural Council, with the goal of raising the profile of the Pioneer Valley as a center for cultural tourism.
“Hopefully it has benefited the community by making these rather extraordinary museum resources housed within the Upper Pioneer Valley more visible to people,” Niccol said. “One of the things that awes all of us is what an extraordinary set of historical collections we have here. And, collectively, we’re able to work together to give greater visibility to these resources to try to help visitors — by suggesting multiple museum visits around a special area of interest, for instance.”
To that end, early on, Museums10 launched a series of cross-institution events, starting in 2006 with GoDutch!, which explored the art and literature of Dutch culture, past and present. “All the museums included it as some aspect of their existing collection or brought in a new exhibition,” Kennedy said. “It was a big success.”
The goal was to increase attendance at the participating museums by 5%; instead, it boosted visitation by 15% across the board, and in some venues by as much as 40%.
So, in 2007, Museums10 launched a second system-wide event, this one called BookMarks: A Celebration of the Art of the Book. That was followed in 2010 by Table for 10, with a focus on food. “That was terrific because this is such a food-rich region, and we were able to tie into agriculture, restaurants, organic food creators, wine folks, you name it.”
Eight years into its existence, the goals of Museums10, and the way the individual institutions work together and share resources, are continually evolving. For this issue’s focus on travel and tourism, BusinessWest takes a look at how the organization paints a collective picture of a vibrant cultural scene in Hampshire County.

Drawing on Expertise
Alix Kennedy, executive director of the Carle — which, with only 11 years under its belt, is the youngest of the 10 museums — said Museums10 is about far more than marketing the museums.
“It’s also about how we can leverage resources we have so we can have a greater impact in our own communities,” she told BusinessWest. “The days when organizations try to exist in silos is over. Thankfully, there’s a tremendous amount of professional rapport that everyone gets to benefit from.”
Niccol agreed, noting that, because the museums have small staffs, “there’s an incredible benefit to building this professional network within the five-college area. We’ve really developed strong ties as the curators meet each other, educators meet each other, the marketing staffs meet each other. There’s fantastic communication and support with problem solving.”
Shared resources are critical, she said, such as bringing in educators and workshops for the entire Museums10 system in specific subjects, rather than each of them sending staff members to conferences around the country.
“A lot of things happened,” Alix Kennedy said, “by taking like-minded groups and this variety of different museums, who all share this incredible passion for education, and figuring out ways to give people access to our resources.”
The 30-year-old Yiddish Book Center boasts a wide range of exhibits, lectures, conferences, and educational programs for both college students and adult learners — not to mention big events like Yidstock, an annual summer festival that brings in top names in the klezmer musical tradition and draws visitors from across the country.
“There’s no other place like it,” said Lisa Newman, the center’s director of communications. “Sometimes we refer to ourselves as the first Yiddish museum; there’s no other institution like this, with the breadth of what’s here and all the programs created to promote Yiddish culture. And it’s all rooted in the first mission of the center, which was the rescue of more than a million Yiddish books otherwise destined for the trash.”
Newman added that she has come to appreciate the collective power of Museums10 in supporting that mission.
“I think it’s a really interesting collaboration internally and externally,” she said. “It helps all of us professionally to engage with one another, but in terms of the community, it makes a strong statement that we have these 10 very unique museums — that we have tremendous resources as well as engaging, interesting, and surprising places to visit, and we’re right here in your backyard with a tremendous amount of programming going on.”
As director of marketing for Historic Deerfield, Laurie Nivison said it can be difficult to adequately communicate what such a large, multi-building facility has to offer.
“We say ‘opening doors to the past’ because we have 11 houses and an extensive museum collection for people to explore. We want to make it a destination, not just for people in the local area, but those from outside the area looking for a daycation — just looking to come and explore.”
Museums10, she said, helps get the word out by linking Historic Deerfield’s goals with those of the broader cultural community.
“This is a good group of people,” Nivison said. “As nonprofits, this sort of collective power is helpful, because something one museum might be able to do, another museum might not have the budget to do. Part of Museums10 is leveraging our power, helping us get into those markets we may not otherwise be able to reach.”

Next Phase

Alix Kennedy

Alix Kennedy

“This community is rich in artists,” Alix Kennedy said, noting that the Carle makes an effort to promote and involve the many children’s book artists living in Western Mass. In fact, several museum officials who spoke with BusinessWest brought up the ‘creative economy’ of artists living and working in the Valley.
“We’re really proud of the fact that Museums10 is an important part of the cultural economy,” Niccol said. “Why do people come here? Part of it is the incredible beauty of the landscape, but the other part is the great bookstores, restaurants, concert venues, and museums, and we see ourselves as part of that.”
From those efforts, said Kevin Kennedy, sprung the impetus for what is now known as the Hampshire County Regional Tourism Council, launched in 2012 and funded by the Mass. Office of Travel and Tourism.
“The cultural profile of Hampshire County shows what a unique area it is, and we showed how people could come together to promote that aspect of this area,” he explained.
“It’s been such a natural transition,” said Alix Kennedy, who chairs the new organization. “I think all of us living in the Valley know this is an incredibly rich community for arts and culture, and yet, we’re not confident that people outside this community know that.”
But Museums10 and the tourism council are working to change that, she continued, by bringing some collective marketing muscle to the passion that already exists among the various institutions. “I see these two efforts working in parallel and, ultimately, working in partnership.”
“To a certain degree, I think it’s taken a little pressure off Museums10 to spend all its collaborative time to promote the region,” Kevin Kennedy said, explaining that the member museums are starting to focus more on smaller collaborations involving just a few of them, instead of the system-wide events of past years. “These joint productions were terrific, but they took a lot of energy, and that didn’t leave a lot for other things.
“We’re really taking a step back,” he added, “looking more at where the natural cohesions are among the museums that could be brought to the attention of the media and the public. If a few museums happen to be doing exhibits on photography, we’ll do a press release on that. It used to be an all-for-one approach, and all 10 museums needed to be involved to make it a Museums10 event. Now, if three or four museums are working together because they have similar exhibits or similar interests, Museums10 supports them in that effort.”
It all comes back to supporting culture in the Valley and cultivating new art and history lovers, Alix Kennedy said, noting that the Carle attracts a wide range of constituents, from families and elementary-school students to graduate-level art-degree programs Simmons College operates on site — not to mention those drawn by nostalgia.
“Those books are such symbols of their childhood, and it’s really exciting and reinvigorating to come in and say, ‘they have Charlotte’s Web drawings! I love that book!’” And, like some of the other Museums10 institutions, the Carle reaches into the community with programs like visits from book illustrators to schools in Springfield and Holyoke, hopefully sparking a passion in a new generation.
“The fact that we’ve got these 10 great institutions in the Valley speaks to our culture and the wealth of history and knowledge in the Valley,” Nivison said.
Kevin Kennedy agreed. “Each museum has so much energy,” he said, “and I think Museums10 can act as a lens to focus all that energy.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Green Business Sections
Gold Circuit E-Cycling Carves Out a Unique Niche

Matt Pronovost

Matt Pronovost says the mission at Gold Circuit E-Cycling is controlled growth.

Matt Pronovost calls it his “museum wall.”
It’s little more than a few wooden shelves in the back of the room cluttered with what could only be described as electronic artifacts, especially if you’re under age 40. There are a few 8-track players in the mix, two movie projectors, a ’60s-era console television (a model that sat on the living room floor), a turntable, an old Atari system, several beta camcorders and transistor radios, and maybe a half-dozen rotary telephones of various colors and shapes.
And then, there are the computers, most with brand names and model numbers that achieved fame (or infamy) but disappeared from the landscape decades ago. A Commodore 64 sits between a Digital UT102 and a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model III microcomputer. All three probably came out of the box 30 years ago, and they certainly look their age.
Pronovost said it takes something really unique to make the wall these days — like the old washboard and basin that came in a few weeks ago — partly due to the fact that he’s just about out of display space. But it’s mostly because he’d rather devote his time to the 99.9% of the stuff that comes in his door that he doesn’t even think about keeping.
This is what Gold Circuit E-Cycling is really all about.
This bin of circuit boards

This bin of circuit boards is one of many crowding the floor at Gold Circuit E-Cycling.

It’s a three-year old enterprise devoted to the recycling of computers and electronic equipment, an intriguing and fast-growing venture now occupying roughly half of one of the dozens of buildings comprising the sprawling Ludlow Mills complex. And it would seem to be the right business in the right place at the right time.
Indeed, as technology advances at a rate so rapid that it seems like a 40-inch flatscreen TV or five-year-old PC might soon be candidates for the museum wall (and there are more than a few of both on the floor waiting to be dismantled and recycled), area business owners and residents are increasingly challenged by the question of what to do with yesterday’s electronics as they acquire tomorrow’s products.
And Gold Circuit was created to provide an answer.
“Increasingly, people are realizing that there’s a solution to their problem, and it’s not the garbage can,” said Pronovost, adding that the business of e-cycling, as it’s called, is not exactly new, but it is picking up steam in the Northeast after migrating from the West Coast (as many trends do) a decade or so ago. “We’re here to help people make the responsible choice when it comes to unwanted electronic equipment.”
This venture, which recorded 25% growth in its first full year in business and will likely double its volume this year, collects or ‘demanufactures’ computers, electronics, batteries, home appliances, lawn equipment, metal furniture, copiers, printers, medical equipment, power tools, tires, fluorescent bulbs, styrofoam, pellet-fuel bags, and more, and sells the parts and material for scrap, thus keeping such items out of the waste stream.
There are charges for some products that are dropped off at the facility — anything with glass or refrigerant, for example, and tires as well — but many items can simply be left free of charge. And the company is making it even easier by staging collection events, such as one held recently at East Longmeadow High School.
Several dozen pieces of equipment arrive at the Gold Circuit facility each day, meaning the company is already essentially at full capacity in a 15,000-square-foot location it moved into just last year after outgrowing its original, 6,000-square-foot home in the Ludlow Mills complex.
When, how, and where the company next expands is a critical question, said Pronovost, adding that at present, the goal — and the challenge — is controlled, smart growth.
“I don’t want to grow too fast because expenses can really take off if you’re not careful,” he explained. “Like any business, we have to stay within ourselves and expand in a smart way.”
For this issue and its focus on green business, we look at a company that is certainly larger than the sum of all those parts amassed on the Gold Circuit floor.

Here’s the Breakdown
As he gave BusinessWest a tour of his facility, Pronovost stopped briefly at the museum wall — he tried, unsuccessfully, to find a date on that washboard — but quickly moved on to several large cardboard boxes, each destined for a vendor that would recycle the material in question and/or extricate the more valuable materials from them.
There was one for clean (as in unpainted) aluminum, a material that will fetch 65 cents a pound, he said, and another for ribbon wire, most of it from PCs. Three boxes contained low-grade, medium-grade, and high-grade circuit boards, respectively, designations that indicate that amount of gold in each one. And there were others for everything from transformers (separated by size) to plastic (one for lighter colors and one for black).
Meanwhile, there was a huge box filled with Styrofoam that was used to keep many of these products safe in their boxes. Sold by the bale, this material has a number of potential future uses, said Pronovost, especially as a composite material used in everything from furniture to picture frames.
How he came to be an expert on the future lives of such materials — and to create a business focused on e-cycling — is an intriguing story based on the most basic principles of entrepreneurship: seeing a need and creating a service to meet it.
“To be honest, I pretty much fell into this,” he explained, while retracing a career that started with work supporting those using computers, not breaking them down into component parts.
He started in what he called the “desktop-support field,” working at MassMutual for a few years before moving to a firm in Connecticut where he handled hardware setup and configuration work, as well as equipment auditing. As that company was repeatedly sold to larger corporations, with each transaction accompanied by a change in equipment, Pronovost segued into resale of the old hardware and, eventually, into selling parts and material for scrap, an operation carried out in-house.
“I had the right background to distinguish whether the parts I was looking at had value outside of scrap — whether they could be wholesaled out or brokered out, whether we tear it down or not tear it down,” he noted, adding that he quickly moved up the ranks within this division. “I made the transition from technician into sales, and was doing well with generating revenue.”
However, the Great Recession changed the equation quickly, he went on, adding that he was one of many to be laid off and forced to settle on a new career path. His was entrepreneurship.
“I decided to do it myself,” he said, with the ‘it’ being e-cycling. “I could see that there was a lot of opportunity, especially here in Western Mass.”
Elaborating, he said that there were, and still are, national outfits that would work with large corporations, such as MassMutual and Aetna, to help them scrap electronic equipment, but such operations historically haven’t had much interest in small businesses or residents. Meanwhile, some communities had collection operations (most of them pricey) at their transfer stations, he went on, but there was a definite void in service to large portions of the local market, and this was the need he set out to address with Gold Circuit.
He opened the doors in October 2010 and started small, handling the bulk of the work, including most of the demanufacturing, himself. Growth, he noted, has come through awareness — of both his company’s services and the need to seek out earth-friendly ways of dealing with yesterday’s electronic devices.

Hard-driving Entrepreneur

Employees at Gold Circuit

Employees at Gold Circuit ‘demanufacture’ a wide array of computers and electronics, with parts and materials sold as scrap.

Using an old laptop as an example, Pronovost said there is a good deal of scrap value in such devices, and his company has become adept at squeezing every cent from them.
“The screen, if it’s unbroken, can be torn down and reused,” he told BusinessWest. “The main [circuit] board probably has the most scrap value in that laptop, but the hard drive comes out to be shredded, and there’s a lithium battery — and right now, lithium is one of those commodities that’s sought after. Everything has scrap value.”
On the day BusinessWest visited the operation, there were several dozen old laptops awaiting their fate. A few of them might actually be sold to resellers if they are in very good condition, said Pronovost, as will the various pieces of equipment — computers, printers, VCRs, phones, air conditioners, toaster ovens, and more — crammed into the 20 or so large boxes on the shop floor.
This is a busy time of year — good weather inspires people to clean out their homes and businesses, apparently — and the floor is crowded with “inventory,” he went on, adding that Gold Circuit currently has several days worth of devices to demanufacture, and more comes in every day.
Pronovost has tweaked his original business plan slightly, but for the most part, the document’s projections for volume, or weight (400,000 pounds of material in 2012), revenue, growth, and employment have been on the money.
They were based on a number of factors, but mostly the incredibly fast pace of progress with computers, cell phones, and other electronic equipment, and the market for used items — or the lack thereof, as the case may be.
Indeed, he said that PCs more than seven years old, and some much younger than that, have little value other than as scrap when their owners decide to upgrade. And the same is largely true for today’s televisions.
“The older ones, those 20 or 25 years old, are still working,” said Pronovost with a laugh. “The newer HD models … they don’t work. And when they break, you generally have to replace them.”
This phenomenon is one of the many factors contributing to the company’s impressive growth rate, he continued, adding that others include everything from a lack of competition locally to strong word-of-mouth referrals, to heightened efforts in recent years to market the company.
But much of it comes down to partnerships, or working with a host of constituencies, from individual communities to area colleges and universities, to encourage responsible disposal of unwanted electronic items.
When the town of Longmeadow opened its new high school, Gold Circuit took roughly 12,000 pounds of old computers and other electronic equipment from the old one free of charge, said Pronovost, adding that another example of such partnership-building was the recent collection drive at Holyoke Community College to benefit a scholarship fund at the school. Participants paid a small fee to organizers to have everything from an old cell phone to a garage-cluttering air conditioner hauled away by Gold Circuit.
Such events are win-win-wins, said Pronovost, noting that the scholarship fund grows, the planet benefits because such items don’t wind up in area landfills, and Gold Circuit gains some invaluable exposure.
Looking ahead, he said the company, which now has four full-time employees, and several part-timers, will continue its efforts to chart steady but controlled growth.

Parting Thoughts
Pronovost said his museum wall often generates interest and conversation.
“People will say, ‘holy smokes, a Commodore 64 — I had one of those back in…,’ and they start adding up in the years,” he said, adding quickly that, while nostalgia is fine, it’s not what this business is all about.
Instead, it’s about meeting a growing need among area businesses and communities, and a desire to do the right thing when it comes to disposing of old equipment, styrofoam, and more.
“People are learning … they’re understanding that you can’t just throw things like this away,” he said, sweeping his hand across the shop floor. “And we’ve become an answer to their problem.”

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

Green Business Sections
‘Going Green’ Investment-tax Credits Have Many Benefits

Kristi Reale, CPA, CVA

Kristi Reale

‘Going green’ is a term that is rapidly gaining momentum in our economy. No longer an ideal for just the early adopters or the environmentally conscientious, going green, or investing in processes, equipment, and energy that are environmentally sustainable, is becoming a distinctive tool for many businesses.
Customers like to see that their products were made in a green environment, prospective employees see energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable workplaces as being preferable to the traditional workplace, and, more than anything, companies are choosing to do business in an environmentally sustainable way — a triple bottom line. And as the trend to go green becomes more and more prevalent in our economy, there is a lot of information suggesting that the fiscal and tax benefits of investing in green energy and equipment are significant. However, these benefits are not always clearly outlined in black and white. It’s important to understand how the credits work and, more importantly, how they apply to you and the investment that you’re planning to make.
Income-tax credits are direct reductions of a taxpayer’s income-tax liability. Generally, the investment-tax credit permits a reduction in tax liability based upon the taxpayer’s qualified investment in certain kinds of property placed in service during the taxable year. Thus, the investment credit is an incentive device, intended to stimulate the purchase or modernization of certain kinds of productive assets. This intent is achieved by permitting the purchaser or constructor of qualified property to reduce their federal income-tax liability by a percentage of the amount they spend for the assets. To this extent, it departs from the concept of a tax imposed on net income.
Form 3468 is used to claim the investment-tax credit. Investment-credit property is any depreciable or amortizable property that qualifies for the rehabilitation credit, energy credit, qualifying advanced coal project credit, qualifying gasification project credit, or qualifying advanced energy project credit. The energy credits are detailed below.
You cannot claim the credit for property that is:
• Used mainly outside the U.S.;
• Used by a governmental unit or foreign person or entity;
• Used by a tax-exempt organization unless the property is mainly used in an unrelated trade or business;
• Used for lodging or in the furnishing of lodging; or
• Property that has been expensed under section 179 accelerated depreciation.

Energy Credits
The business energy credit is either 10% or 30% of the basis of energy property placed in service during the tax year. To qualify as energy property, the property must meet the performance and quality standards that have been prescribed by regulations in effect at the time the property is acquired; be depreciable or amortizable property; be constructed, reconstructed, or erected by the taxpayer; or acquired for original use by the taxpayer.
Energy property that qualifies for the 30% credit is listed at Internal Revenue Code §48(a)(2)(A)(i), such as:
• Solar: the credit is equal to 30% of expenditures with no maximum credit and includes equipment that uses solar energy to generate electricity or heat and cool a structure.
• Fuel cells: the credit is equal to 30% of expenditures with no maximum credit; however, the credit is capped at $1,500 per 0.5 kilowatt of capacity.
• Small wind turbines: the credit is equal to 30% of expenditures with no maximum credit for small wind turbines placed in service after Dec. 31, 2008.
Other energy property qualifies for the 10% credit, such as:
• Geothermal systems: the credit is equal to 10% of expenditures with no maximum credit and includes geothermal equipment and heat pumps used to produce, distribute, or use energy derived from a geothermal deposit.
• Microturbines: the credit is equal to 10% of expenditures with no maximum credit; however, the credit is capped at $200 per kilowatt of capacity.
• Combined heat and power: the credit is equal to 10% of expenditures with no maximum credit, and applies to property placed in service after Oct. 3, 2008.
The basis of the energy property must be reduced by 50% of the energy credit determined. The business energy credit is not allowed for any portion of a property that also qualifies for the rehabilitation credit. Energy property that qualifies for a grant under §1603 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is not eligible for the energy credit for the tax year the grant is made or any subsequent tax year.

Renewable-energy Facilities
On Feb. 17, 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The purpose of the act was to preserve and create jobs, promote economic recovery, and invest in infrastructure that will provide long-term economic benefits. Provisions in the recovery act allow for irrevocably electing an investment-tax credit under §48 rather than a production tax credit under §45 for specified renewable energy facilities.
These provisions allow the taxpayer to make an election to receive an income-tax credit calculated at 30% of the cost of the qualifying property in the year it is placed in service, as opposed to the production-tax credit claimed over a 10-year period based on the electricity produced.
To qualify, this property must be tangible personal property (not including a building or structural components); constructed, reconstructed, or acquired by a taxpayer; depreciable; and for original use. The taxpayer must make a separate, irrevocable election for each qualified investment-credit facility.

Credit Recapture
Recapture of either all or a portion of the credit applies if, in the first five years, the investment-tax-credit property is disposed of, the use of the property changes so it no longer qualifies, the business use of the property decreases so it no longer qualifies, leased property is returned to the lessor, or the taxpayer receives §1603 grant money for the property.
Some exceptions to the recapture are death of the taxpayer, transfer between spouses in a divorce under §1041, and a mere change in the form of business in which the property is retained as investment-credit property, and the taxpayer retains a substantial interest in the business.
In summary, these credits appear extremely favorable. However, there are limits that apply, such as passive-activity limitations for certain pass-thru entities, basis limitations, and the effect of alternative minimum taxes.
Before embarking on projects based solely on the benefits of credits, you should consult your tax advisor. n

Kristi A. Reale, CPA, CVA is a senior manager with the Holyoke-based public accounting firm Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C.; (413) 322-3533; [email protected]

Green Business Sections
Recent Developments Spur New Solar-energy Projects In Massachusetts

Nicholas Lata

Nicholas Lata

Massachusetts has experienced rapid growth in its solar-energy sector in recent years.  The total capacity generated by solar energy in Massachusetts has doubled in the last two years, reaching 105 megawatts (enough to power more than 15,000 homes) in 2012, a figure that is forecasted to quadruple by 2020.
Massachusetts’ renewable-energy sector now employs more than 64,000 people statewide (including nearly 10,000 in Western Mass.) and is projected to grow 15% per year. Massachusetts is now considered to be one of the best states in the country for solar development, a phenomenon driven largely by the state’s numerous initiatives to promote clean, renewable energy.
What follows is a rundown of these incentives and other issues involved with the development of solar-energy projects.

Massachusetts Incentives
The Massachusetts solar market is driven by a statutory requirement for utility companies to generate a percentage (7% in 2012) of their electricity from renewable sources. This figure is scheduled to rise 1% per year until 2030, when it will reach 25%.
Utility companies that fail to generate sufficient electricity from renewable sources are required to pay a fine equal to $600 per Megawatt hour (MWh) the utility company falls below the requirement. In lieu of paying this fine, utility companies may purchase solar renewable energy credits (SRECs) from solar developers. Eligible solar developers receive one SREC for every MWh of electricity generated. Solar developers seeking to earn SRECs must apply through the Mass. Department of Energy Resources, and certain restrictions apply.
In 2011, solar developers produced only one-third of the 78,577 SRECs demanded by utility companies. As a result, there was a ready market for SRECs, which traded at approximately $550 per credit. The proliferation of solar development caused the supply of SRECs to exceed demand in 2012. In response, most solar developers have begun entering into futures contracts with utility companies, assigning all SRECs earned in the future for approximately $200 to $250 per SREC.
Finally, for projects that produce more electricity than is consumed on site, Massachusetts provides two options for solar developers to market excess electricity. The first is simply to sell the excess electricity to the local utility at the ‘dump rate’ (about $0.035 cents per kilowatt hour, or kWh). The second is to apply for net metering with the state Department of Public Utilities (DPU). Net metering entitles the solar developer to sell the electricity at a slight discount below the market rate to electricity consumers, typically at a slight discount below the market rate, which is usually $0.12 to $0.15 per kWh for commercial consumers.
A recent DPU order added a few wrinkles to the process for qualifying for net metering, particularly where the property being developed consists of multiple parcels of land.

Federal Incentives
The federal government allows an investment-tax credit equal to 30% of the investment in qualifying solar-energy property. Combined with accelerated cost-recovery rules under the tax code applicable to solar-energy property, this may allow solar developers to operate tax-free for many years.
The issue for many solar developers is that they do not have sufficient income to monetize the full value of the credits and deductions. Many solar developers have sought to bring in outside investors with greater ‘tax appetites,’ which has led to the formation of joint ventures and other arrangements.

Development Issues
On its face, Massachusetts law exempts solar-energy systems from local property taxes. Recently, however, several bills have proposed carving large-scale commercial systems out of the exemption, particularly ground-mounted systems. Although none of the bills passed, the state Department of Revenue has taken the position that systems are exempt only if all of the electricity is used on site.
In response, many developers have either sought properties occupied by businesses with great energy needs (i.e. manufacturers) or negotiated payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreements with towns in order to fix payments over the lives of projects. In addition, landowners selling or leasing land which is currently taxed as agricultural or forest property to solar developers may be subject to conveyance taxes, rollback taxes, and a town right of first refusal.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts law prevents towns from passing zoning bylaws that preclude the installation of solar-energy systems. Initially, developers interpreted this law to provide as-of-right siting for solar projects, which would allow projects to progress without the issuance of special permits.
Nevertheless, most towns have interpreted the as-of-right siting to apply only to small, roof-mounted systems, and have passed zoning bylaws that restrict the installation of larger, ground-mounted systems (especially systems exceeding 250 kW). Even where a friendly bylaw is in place, the permitting phase for large-scale projects generally takes at least six months.  Robinson Donovan is currently assisting a national solar developer in the development of a proposed 14-MW solar-energy system on 160 acres of land in Monson.

Project Economics
In general, the cost of installing a solar-energy system is based on its energy-generating capacity, ranging from under $3 per watt for large-scale commercial systems to as much as $6 per watt for smaller residential systems. Although the amount of electricity generated by solar-energy systems is relatively low compared to the investment required, projects can be profitable when incentives are taken into consideration.
When SREC values were at peak levels in 2011, solar projects frequently had rates of return in the range of four to six years. Returns have declined to where rates of return in the range of seven to nine years have become more realistic. Returns may be substantially lower for projects which fail to qualify for SRECs and/or net metering, as described above.
Nevertheless, with the Bay State’s commitment to renewable energy, it is likely that solar incentives are here to stay. Furthermore, advancements in solar-energy technology are simultaneously reducing costs and creating new applications.

Nicholas Lata is an associate with the Springfield-based law firm Robinson Donovan. He has been involved with several projects involving solar power; [email protected]; www.robinson-donovan.com

Sections Wealth Management
Critical for Effective Wealth Building

WealthBuildingSome watched the financial collapse in 2008 severely hamper their parents’ retirement plans. Others are simply working at jobs without pension benefits and doing the math.
For whatever reason, young people are starting to take a more serious look at their long-term financial future — a trend Patricia Grenier finds gratifying.
“For the first time in many years, I’m actually seeing young professionals — dual-income couples in their early 30s — coming in to talk about financial planning,” said Grenier, general partner with BRP/Grenier Financial Services in Springfield.
“That’s very surprising because, in the past, I always used to say, ‘I wish I could get them when they’re young, when time is on their side and they can ride the many ups and downs in the market.’ But now, they’re coming in at a much younger age, which gives us a lot more flexibility, a lot more time. It allows us to fix things and make adjustments as we go along.”
George Keady, senior member of the Keady Ford Montemagni Wealth Management Group at UBS Wealth Management in Springfield, makes a similar observation.
“The clear trend in the past five to seven years has been people starting younger,” he told BusinessWest, noting that some of that may be based on encouragement from their employers, many of which enroll them in self-funded retirement accounts almost immediately, and the employer must take the initiative to unenroll.
“Young people today assume they’ll have to take full responsibility for their retirement,” Keady said. “The era of defined benefits and pension payments is being reduced dramatically, so people are taking responsibility through 401(k) plans and savings.”
Doug Wheat agrees. “Certainly, many employers now automatically enroll new employees in 401(k) plans, and that has made a huge difference in what the participation rates are,” said the senior manager of Family Wealth Management in Holyoke. “While there may be more awareness, I think the automatic enrollment has made the most impact.”
While the world of the Internet age is definitely more educated on financial matters than it used to be, Grenier said many young professionals took lessons from the 2008 crash and what it did to the retirement savings of people they know, including their parents. Whatever the reason, they’re increasingly starting early to seek strategies to build and protect wealth.
“They’re more aware,” she said. “We have more knowledge 24/7; we know what’s going on. You can turn on the TV anytime and see exactly what’s happening in the world and in the economy. But there are strategies you need to apply that can’t be learned by turning on the TV. You have to sit down and plan.”

Planning Ahead

Pat Grenier

Pat Grenier says one of the biggest financial mistakes people make is underestimating how much money they will truly need down the road.

Some strategies are time-tested common sense, Grenier noted: save at least 10% toward retirement, prioritize spending and stay within one’s means, and do not build credit-card debt.
As for specific plans beyond the basics, when Grenier talks to younger investors, “they’re asking, ‘am I doing the right thing?’ even though retirement is 30 years down the road for them,” she told BusinessWest. “The lesson to be learned from this big downturn is you need to plan, you need to have a plan B, and if you think you have enough money, you don’t. You always need more money.”
To that end, she added, “I am seeing the younger ages more willing to plan and be flexible. And, unlike older clients, both spouses are usually involved in the decision-making process.”
Wheat said young professionals need to use the time they have to save for retirement, even though it seems so far down the road, “because they can take advantage of compounding interest by starting early. When you do that and build wealth slowly over time, the ultimate goal can be less daunting.
“If young people can target 10% to 15% of their take-home pay to put automatically in a 401(k) or 403(b) plan at work, it makes it relatively painless to contribute to retirement goals down the line,” he continued. “If they do that, it’s much easier to reach a retirement-savings goal which maintains their standard of living in retirement.”
That’s because, “in general, people underestimate how much they may need, and even when they’re contributing to a retirement plan, they often don’t contribute enough.”
If nothing else, Keady said, workers should maximize their company match if there is one, because every dollar makes a difference compounded over time. “If somebody starts putting $15 a week away in their 20s, in 40 years at 6%, they’d have $130,000.”
But that’s just the beginning, he said. “If they get started early, they can sit down and construct a real plan, not a one-size-fits-all solution. We have clients show up in their late 50s, and they’ve accumulated some money, but they really don’t totally comprehend what they need in the years ahead. People in their 40s who have accumulated some money have more options in the planning process.”
One reason young people might be starting on a savings and investment plan early is the cost of college tuition, which has far outpaced the general inflation rate over the past quarter-century.
“The young couples I’ve had this year are really concerned about the cost of education, what it will cost them to educate their children. Personally, I think college tuition is the next big bubble; it’s unsustainable,” Grenier said, noting that the average private college costs about $55,000 per year for tuition, room, and fees. “Even if their kids aren’t going to school for another 10 or 15 years, at today’s cost of college, there’s no way they’re going to be able to save enough money. Coming up with a strategy for them to alleviate the college load is really important.”
Wheat, who wrote about planning to pay for college in the May 6 issue of BusinessWest, agreed that it’s a daunting prospect. “Most people don’t have nearly enough to pay for college. The question becomes, how much debt are they willing to bear? Sometimes they take on more than they should — both college students and parents — and don’t think carefully about taking on more debt.”

Age-old Questions
For older individuals and couples, of course, expenses change as the retirement years loom.
“For people in their 50s and 60s,” Keady said, “those are the years where maybe tuition responsibilities are behind them, they’ve paid for their home, and now they’re thinking about themselves, thinking about retirement income, but also thinking about long-term care issues. That comes with longer life expectancy.”
What those people need to do, Wheat said, is to think about how much they need to maintain their standard of living, and then decide whether their goals are reasonable based on their expected income. If not, “are you going to cut back on your standard of living now or wait until retirement to do that, or do a little bit now and a little later?
“Most people, when they’re thinking about wealth building, really need to start with the basics of what they’re spending their money on and what their total expenses are,” he continued. “Are they spending money on things they really value, or are there places in their budget where they can cut back? For some people, creating artificial spending barriers is helpful for doing that. One of the classic ways to create an artificial spending barrier is to have part of your paycheck go directly into a savings account, where maybe it’s not as easily accessible and not as easily spent.”
Keady also suggested workers increase their withholding with every increase in their salary as another means to painlessly boost their savings. Still, Wheat said, most often the main issue is spending, not saving.
“It’s surprising how few people really know how much money they spend every year,” he told BusinessWest. “People know what their take-home pay is every week or every month, but they don’t necessarily think about it in terms of how much they’re spending for a whole year. The end result, for a lot of people, is spending small amounts of money on lots of things that are not that valuable to them, and it ends up being a lot of money — $20 on this, $25 on that, and $30 on this, and pretty soon it’s thousands of dollars every year.”
It’s an issue that knows no age limitations. “For younger people, the strategies are different because they’re in the saving mode and the spending mode; they might have young children,” Grenier said. “We know their expenses are going to be high, so we come up with a spending plan that suits their needs.”
Similarly, “if I have an older couple who are going to be retiring within the next few years, we’re going to try to find out what their expense needs are going to be and the sources of revenue coming in,” she explained. “If we can cover their fixed expenses, that’s strategy number one; then the rest of the money is gravy, the icing on the cake that allows them to keep up with inflation, allows them to do all those extra things, allows them to have peace of mind if the market drops, so they don’t have to panic.”
Still, the crash of 2008 has changed many experts’ minds about how to build an emergency fund. “Before the crash, we said, ‘make sure you have six months of living expenses.’ Now it’s one year, maybe two years of living expenses in investments they can easily get their hands on.”

Working for a Living
While younger professionals are still mapping out a career path, Wheat said, many older workers are realizing they’re going to have to work longer than they expected, and not just because of the impact 2008 had on many people’s savings.
“Over the past three or four years, Social Security has placed an incentive for people to delay accessing their Social Security benefits, keeping people in the workforce longer,” he said, noting that the traditional average retirement age of around 62-65 has slowly risen to around 65-67. “The fact is, people are living longer — 20 to 30 years after retirement.”
And, in many cases, Grenier said, “they’re outliving their money. It’s tough.”
Even the best-laid plans, for both younger and older investors, aren’t foolproof, which is why it’s important to continually reassess one’s goals and strategies, she added. “Planning is a dynamic process, and you have to make adjustments as life goes on, because life events happen. If you start early, you’ll have more options as to how to get there.”
Wheat said people often become overwhelmed by the prospect of changing course in their wealth-building plans, when actually making a change may not be so difficult. “Taking a half-hour or hour to make small changes can make a big difference.”
Fortunately, said Keady, whose group specializes in higher-net-worth individuals, today’s investors tend to be very engaged. “Clients are much more sophisticated and demanding. They want a comprehensive plan as they accumulate wealth. They expect more out of us than just investment advice. So we’ve got to adapt to changing client demands.”
Those demands, Grenier noted, are much easier to meet when clients start young, so they’re able to ride the inevitable ups and downs of the markets and take a long-term view.
“They can take more risks and look at alternative investments,” she said. “It’s exciting to me to see the younger people becoming more engaged.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Health Care Sections
When Disaster Strikes, Caregivers Spring into Action

ResponseAs a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and associate director of its Center for Surgery and Public Health, Dr. Atul Gawande knows a little something about how hospitals respond to emergencies.
And as a staff writer for the New Yorker, he was able to share some of that insight after twin explosions rocked the Boston Marathon last month, killing three people almost instantly and injuring more than 250 others, all of whom survived.
“They had their limbs blown off, vital arteries severed, bones fractured, flesh torn open by shrapnel or scorched by the blasts’ heat,” he wrote the day after the terrorist attack. “Yet, it now appears that every one of the wounded alive when rescuers reached them will survive. Medically speaking, this is no small accomplishment.”
He noted that, within minutes, the runners’ first-aid tent was converted to a mass-casualty triage unit, and emergency medical teams mobilized en masse throughout Boston, resuscitated the injured, dispersed them to eight different hospitals, despite the chaos and snarled traffic.
“How did this happen?” he asked. “Something more significant occurred than professionals merely adhering to smart policies and procedures. What we saw unfold was the cultural legacy of the Sept. 11 attacks and all that has followed in the decade-plus since. We are not innocents anymore.”
Gawande’s words resonate with Brian Rust, manager of Security Services at Cooley Dickinson Hospital.
“My philosophy has always been to steer away from the complexity of information-management systems and all this other stuff that sounds good when you get a degree in emergency preparedness,” he told BusinessWest. “Because, when something happens, people revert to what they know best. Doctors and nurses know how to take care of patients — two at a time, 10 at a time, it’s pretty much the same concept. That’s why hospitals respond so well to these events — they’re used to it. They deal with stressful situations all day long.”

In a disaster situation, says Jim Keefe (left, with Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Bob Moore),

In a disaster situation, says Jim Keefe (left, with Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Bob Moore), Holyoke Medical Center relies first on the accurate assessment and triage performed at the scene.

Gawande echoed that sentiment, noting that events in Boston happened too quickly for any well-practiced disaster plan to fall into place. Dr. Stanley Ashley, chief medical officer at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told his colleague that “I mostly let people do their jobs.” And without being called, scores of doctors, nurses, and other staff just showed up at the hospital, ready to do what they knew how to do.
Yet, no hospital downplays the importance of planning for a mass-casualty event and then playing out their strategies during periodic drills — a challenge, given that no two scenarios are the same.
“The response is based on the nature of the event,” said Dr. Niels Rathlev, chair of Emergency Medicine at Baystate Medical Center. “With what happened in Boston, clearly trauma surgeons would play a role at the forefront of managing these victims. With a flu pandemic, it would be people from infectious diseases. With a fire like in West, Texas, there would likely be trauma surgeons and toxicologists” because of the toxicity of the chemicals in the fertilizer plant.
But there are similarities in each case, too. Baystate, like most hospitals, follows an incident command system in which emergency responders, police, fire, and other officials set up a command center near the disaster site and communicate with area hospitals about how many patients each is able to accept. Baystate, being the region’s only level 1 trauma center, would receive the most critically injured.
“We implement what we call our disaster plan — all hands on deck,” Rathlev said, meaning no one is allowed to leave, and additional medical professionals are called in. It also means sending home patients who don’t need beds, canceling non-urgent procedures, and clearing out the emergency room as much as possible, moving patients already admitted there to other beds in the hospital.
James Keefe, vice president of Inpatient Services at Holyoke Medical Center, said that facility follows a similar policy of not letting anyone go home during a crisis.
Meanwhile, “we rely on a lot of accurate assessment and triaging outside the hospital at the scene, and we provide resources according to our availability here. If we were going to receive a large number of injured, we would say, ‘don’t start any more elective surgeries. We need the operating rooms empty; don’t put another case in there.’”
In short, once incident commanders let hospitals know how many patients need care, each hospital must make a call based on its capacity. “And every day is different for us,” Keefe said. “We could have the emergency room jammed with 100 patients that day, or it could be empty.”
Planning for a contingency no one can really predict — after all, who foresaw a tornado touching down in Springfield two years ago? — may seem like an impossible task, but hospital leaders say it’s necessary. One look at the TV on Patriots’ Day demonstrates why.

Prepare for the Worst
“Speaking of the tornado, we’ve had our fair share of practice here — I’ve been here four years, and we’ve had three major events,” Rathlev said, referring to the twister, last November’s natural gas explosion in downtown Springfield, and the freak October 2011 snowstorm, which in many ways was more challenging for the hospital than the other two scenarios. “Everyone lost power, and we were inundated with patients who came here needing to plug in ventilators, home oxygen, BiPAP and CPAP machines. They came here because we had backup power.”
Tom Lynch, Baystate’s chief of Security, explained that the hospital has an emergency-planning committee — a multidisciplinary team of employees that includes physicians, other providers, and support staff — and part of the team’s role is to examine all disaster possibilities and try to determine which are most likely to occur locally. “We take that as a starting plan.”
He explained that regulatory agencies dictate some of the things that all hospitals have to do, including the exercise of at least two drills per year. “One has to be a mass-casualty drill, and it has to be community-based; that is the key. The whole idea is to have the involvement of public safety. It’s important for people inside the hospital to know who the outside players are, and for people on the outside to know what we’re doing. It makes it easier to communicate.”
Afterward, Lynch explained, the various players break down what happened during the drill. “It’s helpful to have people sit down in a room, see what we’re doing, and make suggestions about ways to improve it.
“We try to take advantage of every opportunity to learn something, even if it’s outside of our scheduled drills,” he continued. “If a situation presents itself, we say, ‘if it had gone to the next level, how would we handle it?’”
He gave two examples of using real-world, non-crisis situations to simulate emergencies. One was the opening of Baystate’s MassMutual Wing. When patients were moved into that area, the hospital essentially ran the transition like an evacuation drill. “We had observers come in from the city and from the Department of Public Health,” he explained.
Then, when the hospital opened its new Emergency Department, it ran a similar drill when moving patients. “When we had to close in one area and open in another area, it’s a great opportunity for a planning session in real time,” Lynch said. “Again, we had people come in from the outside to evaluate how we did that. Those are the kinds of things that build confidence and skills and allow you to work with people in the community. Then, in the event of some kind of issue, we feel like we have a place to start, and we know what to do.”

Brian Rust

Brian Rust says strategies and drills are important, but most critical are caregivers who know what to do in a crisis.

Specific considerations come into play depending on the emergency, Rathlev said, from decontamination in the case of a chemical explosion to the possibility that some victims will arrive at the hospital on their own, not by ambulance. “You have to secure the perimeter of the hospital and not let anyone in unless you’re sure they’ve been adequately decontaminated. Once that happens, they can be brought in.”
Hospitals also must prepare for an inflow of concerned family members, as well as media members, who want to know what’s happening at every turn. “It’s all very systematic, and we practice it on a regular basis,” Keefe said. Those practices often take the form of drills that are unannounced to virtually all participants until they launch, followed by a debriefing and discussion period involving all stakeholders.
Meanwhile, the hospital is constantly monitoring medical trends as part of its planning, since an emergency can conceivably take the shape of a widespread pandemic, not just a localized disaster.
“Every year, we review our policies and procedures, and this year we predicted a tough flu season,” he said, noting that flu cases were showing up earlier than usual, in October, and vaccines were proving ineffective for more than one-third of recipients. The situation never became too serious, but hospitals were alert to the possibility.
“The Department of Public Health asked us to test our ability to handle an influx of flu patients, but we do that anyway,” Keefe said. “If we know we’re going to get a large flu population, we’d open up more beds to take care of the less-ill population; we’d look for alternate locations to treat patients besides the ED.”

Hope for the Best
Rust noted that Cooley Dickinson, like virtually all acute-care hospitals, conducts drills regularly. “We try to plan for everything and anything, but the bottom line is, no matter what it is, it’s sort of the same response. Whether we have a large number of patients come in with a contagious disease or a large number with burns, it’s all about caring for patients.”
Rathlev noted that the larger hospitals in Boston quickly admitted around 25 or 30 patients each, and emergency response personnel worked very quickly to distribute all the injured who needed hospital care — about 140 in all. That kind of response is a reflection of both intensive planning and, as Gawande noted in the New Yorker, caregivers who simply knew what had to be done.
“There is a reason to have plans. That’s important. But that’s not the most important thing; to me, it’s having people who are available,” Rust said, noting that it can be a challenge to mobilize the entire hospital at once, and Cooley Dickinson is working on improving its notification system to manage it more quickly. Still, said all those BusinessWest spoke with, once word of a crisis gets out, medical professionals don’t need much prodding.
“People in our line of business would be rushing to help,” Keefe said. “We would have a hard time keeping people away; they’d want to come. I’m sure Mass General had people coming out of the woodwork — interns, residents, fellows … they want to help. Those guys deal with traumas on a daily basis.”
Rathlev isn’t surprised that disaster management has a high profile right now. “Since 9/11, interest in the public eye has somewhat waned, and now it’s obviously back at the forefront, given what happened in Boston,” he said. “I think it’s very important to teach young medical students and doctors how to manage these situations. The fire in West, Texas, the bombings in Boston … they could happen anywhere. That’s one lesson you have to come away with.”
People often have a short attention span regarding disaster preparedness, Rust agreed, expecting public interest, just like after 9/11, to spike and then fade — except for the people, like him, who are tasked with thinking about it all the time.
“Like everything else, it’s important right after something happens, and then the interest begins to wane and takes a back seat,” he said. “Everyone is so busy dealing with today and yesterday that it can be a challenge getting people thinking about tomorrow.”
But considering the various possibilities is critical, he continued, because large-scale events can occur at any moment. “We know something could happen. Whether it’s a bus tipping over or a dramatic terrorist attack, there’s no longer that shock.”
And, as Boston demonstrated, it won’t be shocking when doctors, nurses, and other caregivers spring into action immediately.
“It’s really that simple,” Rust said. “When we look at the concept of emergency preparedness, it goes back to what you do every day — just on a larger scale. It comes down to having people who know what to do every day, so they can do it any day.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Health Care Sections
Hemophilia Poses Numerous, Lifelong Challenges

Dr. Richard Steingart

Dr. Richard Steingart says hemophiliacs have a shorter average lifespan than those without the disorder, but more meticulous care these days has allowed many to live normal, often-lengthy lives.

Mark Zatyrka’s passion is in his blood — blood that won’t clot.
He’s one of about 20,000 Americans living with hemophilia, a rare condition that prevents blood from clotting normally. But he’s turned his challenges into a gratifying career as vice president of American Homecare Federation, a company that provides services to patients with blood disorders. He also educates young people about HIV, which he contracted from a blood transfusion in the 1980s — a decade when AIDS killed many of his friends.
“I have severe hemophilia, so I know the challenges I grew up with, and I have a personal relationship with a lot of our patients,” he said. “I can mentor the younger kids and show them that disease does not need to define them; this disease does not have to hold them back, and they can still create great things with their lives.”
Dr. Richard Steingart, medical director of Adult Hematology at Baystate Medical Center, agrees.
“The average lifespan is definitely less than normal, although we’re finding that, with meticulous care, these people are living longer and longer,” he said. “Every ethnicity can get it — black, white, Hispanic, Pacific islanders, Asian, it doesn’t matter — and the incidence is about the same throughout the world.”
People born with hemophilia have little or no ‘clotting factor,’ which is a protein needed for normal blood clotting. Normally, when blood vessels are injured, clotting factor helps platelets — blood-cell fragments that form in the bone marrow — stick together to plug cuts and breaks on the vessels and stop bleeding.
People with hemophilia A — which accounts for about 90% of all hemophilia — are missing, or have low levels of, what’s known as clotting factor 8. The rest, who have hemophilia B, are missing or have low levels of clotting factor 9. Hemophiliacs ‘infuse’ themselves with pharmaceutical clotting factor; while those with a mild version of the disease may infuse only before an operation, dental visit, or potentially risky activity, many with severe hemophilia must infuse as often as every day, to prevent dangerous internal bleeding.
“A lot of different drug companies make a lot of different factors,” Steingart said, but noted that they can cost upwards of $3,000 every other day.” Home-care companies like Zatyrka’s exist partly to help patients navigate and access insurance. Overseas, however, that cost often becomes a dangerous challenge. “The product is so expensive that it’s much harder to treat in third-world countries.”
In this issue, BusinessWest takes a look at an often-misunderstood blood disorder and how those who struggle with it are able to find some measure of normalcy despite the ever-present danger.

Blood Simple
The hazards of hemophilia are clear; patients may bleed for a longer time than others after an injury, and may also bleed internally, especially in the knees, ankles, and elbows — all of which can cause long-term damage to organs, joints, and tissues. With rare exceptions, hemophilia is a male disease — about one in 5,000 boys are born with it — and it’s usually (but not always) inherited genetically.
“About a third of the cases are spontaneous mutations; that’s not an insignificant amount,” Steingart said. “It can show up even in a family with no history of hemophilia at all.”
The lack of clotting factor in severe hemophiliacs, like Zatyrka, is dramatic; people without hemophilia have factor 8 activity of 100%, while it’s often less than 1% in those with severe hemophilia. So, while a mild hemophiliac might need clotting factor infusions only on rare occasions, like before dental surgery, those with severe hemophilia may be constantly at risk of internal bleeding and joint bleeds, which can lead to arthritis, skeletal deformities, and even an inability to walk.
The disease often first presents in a childhood operation, often circumcision; today, children born in families with a history of hemophilia will typically undergo a screening for clotting factor 8, which can then be infused before they are circumcised. Meanwhile, some babies first present for hemophilia in the form of large bruises or welts incurred simply from rolling around a crib.
Although most hemophiliacs can live a relatively normal life, some activities — contact sports, for example — are typically not recommended. “But I have hemophiliacs who go skiing carefully, and swimming is perfectly fine, although diving is probably not a good idea,” Steingart said. “Obviously they don’t play football, and they’re not allowed to be in law enforcement or go into the Army.”
For lower-contact sports and other activities that pose slight risk, hemophiliacs will typically infuse themselves with clotting factor before the activity, “so they can get banged around and not have bleeding problems,” he noted.
“It’s really important to streamline these people into normal activities,” he was quick to add. “They don’t have learning disabilities, and they’re just as smart as everyone else — in fact, they’re probably smarter because they know how to live with this lifelong chronic illness.
“Sometimes their joints can hurt when they do have a bleed, so there’s concern about pain medications and addiction,” Steingart explained, “but most of them take pain medications for a certain amount of time, then get off of them. They’re not drug-seeking addicts.”
Better management of hemophilia — and thus longer life — has led to some ironic problems, he added, like the onset of heart disease and other conditions that strike older people. “How do you do a stent in a person with a blood disorder, who needs a blood thinner when, in fact, their hemophilia is a blood thinner, and it’s not protective? That’s becoming extremely challenging.”

Sad Chapter
Perhaps the biggest challenge for hemophiliacs in recent decades — and easily the most tragic — was the AIDS epidemic that tripled the death rate of the hemophiliac population during the 1980s due to infected blood transfusions, before the medical community fully understood what was happening.
Zatyrka, who lost many childhood friends during those years, feels fortunate to have a career that resonates so personally with him and that allows him to shape other people’s lives for the better, and he has gradually become a public advocate for hemophilia, HIV, and AIDS issues, partnering with a number of local organizations and regularly speaking to young people.
The hemophilia community “was devastated by HIV and AIDS back in the early ’80s; about 90% of severe hemophiliacs contracted HIV,” he said. “I’m HIV-positive, and I do my best to help educate others in the community.”
That includes his co-founding of the AIDS kNOw More Project, an initiative of the AIDS Foundation of Western Mass. that trains young people to educate their peers about HIV and AIDS, around which there’s plenty of misinformation.
“Unfortunately, a stigma still exists around HIV. That drives me nuts,” he said. “And a lot of the stigma comes from uneducated, unknowledgable people.”
Thankfully, the plasma-derived infusions of clotting factor common in the 1980s have been replaced by genetically engineered products that do not require plasma, which has eliminated the risk of AIDS from a transfusion.
In any case — mild, moderate, or severe — patients simply learn to live with the challenges, Steingart said, adding that, typically, “around age 7 or 8, a child learns how to self-infuse with help of mom or dad.”
There’s no cure for hemophilia — although hepatitis patients who receive liver transplants have often been able to generate enough clotting factor 8 in the new liver to eliminate both the hepatitis and hemophilia — but scientists continue to work on ways to improve current treatments.
An increase in the length of time an infusion is effective would be a major breakthrough; currently, it’s only about 12 hours. “What they’re looking for is a long-lasting factor 8,” Steingart said. “Wouldn’t it be cool if people could take a shot once a month rather than taking it every day?”
Until then, patients manage as they always have. Some of them, like Zatyrka, are doing more, working to change perceptions and help others cope.
“Sometimes I have a hard time labeling what I do,” he told BusinessWest. “Is this work, or is it personal? It just means so much to me.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Health Care Sections
With STDs, Information Is Often the Key to Prevention

By DR. PATRICIA BAILEY-SARNELLI

Dr. Patricia Bailey-Sarnelli

Dr. Patricia Bailey-Sarnelli

Did you know that nearly 20 million new sexually transmitted diseases — some of the most common being chlamydia, herpes, and gonorrhea — occur in the U.S. each year?
Or that a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analysis released in March — which included eight common STDs: chlamydia, gonorrhea, hepatitis B virus (HBV), herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), human papilloma virus (HPV), syphilis, and trichomoniasis — noted that about half of all new infections each year occur among young people ages 15 to 24?
Those numbers, especially among our youth, highlight the critical need for prevention. I see many adolescent girls in my practice, and a part of the problem has to do with their normal adolescent psychological development.
Adolescents go through a phase of magical thinking where they have a sense of invulnerability, that nothing can hurt them. For that reason, they tend to be less consistent about condom use, and that puts them at greater risk. The other part of the problem is their lack of knowledge and general understanding of the risks of STDs. In one study, for example, 25% of urban adolescent females developed an STI (sexually transmitted infection) within one year of first intercourse.
While the terms STD and STI are often used interchangeably, there is a difference, and STI is now being used more often in the public-health sector. The difference can be found in the terminology used to refer to an infection versus disease. You can have an infection spread through sexual contact that may or may not lead to symptoms and a future medical problem, but when it does, the result is a disease. In other words, STDs are preceded by STIs, but not all STIs result in the development of an STD. There is also a belief among some that referring to an infection, rather than a disease, has less of a stigma attached to it and is therefore less embarrassing to talk about.
Also, the CDC cites stigma, inconsistent or incorrect condom use, limited access to healthcare, and a combination of other factors as contributing to higher rates of STDs among teens and young adults.
Despite the challenges remaining, parents and schools are doing a better job about informing young people about sex and its consequences, including discussions about abstinence, reducing their number of sexual partners, and how to correctly use a condom.
The girls that I am seeing now are somewhat better-informed, and most talk about learning about sex in their health class at school. It’s also very important for parents to have a frank discussion with their children about sex and its risks. Literature shows that the results cut across all socioeconomic and racial boundaries, that kids whose parents have spoken with them about sex tend to make better decisions.
When it comes to talking to my young patients about STDs, I tell them that we are all sexual beings, and that the most important part of that is being a responsible sexual being — responsible to themselves, their partners, their family, and their community — and part of that includes using protection against sexually transmitted diseases.
The concern among clinicians is that, while most of these infections are treatable — many are curable — some can result in serious health consequences if left undiagnosed and not treated early. Also, the CDC’s March analysis noted that, while the consequences of untreated STDs are often worse for young women, the annual number of new infections is about the same between women and men.
According to the CDC, four of the STDs included in the analysis are easily treated and cured if diagnosed early: chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, and trichomoniasis.
Because they often have no symptoms, many of these infections go undetected. However, even STDs with no symptoms can seriously affect one’s health. Undiagnosed and untreated chlamydia or gonorrhea can put a woman at increased risk of chronic pelvic pain and life-threatening ectopic pregnancy, and can also increase a woman’s chance of infertility.
But while gonorrhea and chlamydia can be treated with antibiotics and cured, other STDs are lifelong, affecting both the physical and social health of an individual.
HSV-2, HBV, and HIV are lifelong infections that together account for nearly one-quarter of all prevalent infections. HSV-2 can lead to painful chronic infection, miscarriage or premature birth, and fatal infections in newborns. HBV can lead to cirrhosis, a life-threatening liver disease. And HIV damages a person’s immune system over time, increasing an infected person’s susceptibility to a number of diseases. Additionally, nearly 18,000 people in the U.S. die of AIDS each year.
Herpes, which will affect you for the rest of your life, is a very individual disease process. Some will experience a single outbreak, then may go for years without another. Others will have an outbreak every month. As for the psychological and social repercussions, those with herpes must make the responsible decision to tell a new partner and face the consequences of how they will react to the news. This can have enormous consequences and seriously affect one’s ability to connect with others throughout their life.
Also, when you think about sexually transmitted diseases, most people don’t always think of human papillomavirus (HPV), which can cause cervical cancer. HPV, for which there is no treatment, is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths among women worldwide. The virus accounts for the majority of prevalent STDs in the U.S. today, and more than half of sexually active men and women will become infected at some time in their lives.
While there is no cure for HPV infection, there is a vaccine that parents can have administered to their sons and daughters to protect them from certain HPV-related diseases. In fact, the CDC recommends routine vaccinations with Gardasil for boys and girls ages 11 or 12. Gardasil is given as three injections over a six-month period.
Based on information from the gardasil.com website, the vaccine helps protect against four types of HPV. In girls and young women ages 9 to 26, Gardasil helps protect against two types of HPV that cause about 75% of cervical cancer cases, and two more types that cause about 90% of genital warts cases. In boys and young men ages 9 to 26, Gardasil helps protect against approximately 90% of genital warts cases. Gardasil also helps protect girls and young women ages 9 to 26 against approximately 70% of vaginal cancer cases and up to 50% of vulvar cancer cases.
As importantly noted on the website, “Gardasil may not fully protect everyone, nor will it protect against diseases caused by other HPV types or against diseases not caused by HPV. Gardasil does not prevent all types of cervical cancer, so it’s important for women to continue routine cervical cancer screenings.”
In addition to the severe human burden STDs place on individuals, STDs also cost an already-stressed American healthcare system nearly $16 billion in direct medical costs alone, according to CDC figures.
Baystate Medical Center’s two community health clinics — Baystate Brightwood Health Center and Baystate Mason Square Neighborhood Health Center — offer both free testing and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases. STD testing is available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., including rapid HIV testing, as well as testing for gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis, and hepatitis C. Nurse practitioner Rebecca Reed also provides exams and treatment at Brightwood Health Center on Tuesday and Mason Square Neighborhood Health Center on Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. She is also at Brightwood on Friday from 8 a.m. to noon and at Mason Square from 1 to 4:30 p.m.

Dr. Patricia Bailey-Sarnelli is director of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecologic Services at Baystate Medical Center.

Columns Sections
Some On-the-money Advice on Grant Writing

By DONNA ROUNDY, CPA and CARLY CAVANAUGH, CPA

Donna Roundy, CPA

Donna Roundy, CPA

Carly Cavanaugh

Carly Cavanaugh

Grant money can be used in a number of applications, including the forming of new nonprofit organizations, startups, and the expansion or development of current initiatives and programs. However, securing grant money for your organization isn’t always as easy or straightforward as you may expect.
In a difficult and tumultuous economy, funding is increasingly difficult to secure. There is heightened competition for a diminishing grant pool, increased scrutiny by granting organizations, and limited resources to utilize when applying for grant dollars. Beyond the economic constraints involved, there are a number of additional issues to consider, including where to begin looking for grant money, how to apply, and how to determine which grants you may be eligible for.
However, despite the many challenges you may face when pursuing grant money, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. In this article, we will explore ways to differentiate and enhance your application, resources you may use in order to pursue the best opportunities, and strategies that you can utilize in order to build cohesive and effective relationships with granting organizations. Further, we will discuss the importance of finding granting organizations whose goals and mission are aligned with that of your organization.
When applying for a grant, it is crucial to be informed about the granting organization and its expectations. Ensuring that both organizations are working toward similar goals is step one; carefully read the application and assess whether your missions align. A careful analysis of your own organization’s mission and long-term goals is imperative.
Also, determine if any of your professional or personal contacts have an affiliation or relationship with the grantor. Matt Blumenfeld, principal of Financial Development Agency, noted that “your board and close friends matter. While it is frequently the executive director and/or board chair who will officially submit the proposal, it is really important to figure out if your organization (volunteers or staff) has any existing relationships with an individual at the funding source.”
If you can locate and activate a ‘champion’ inside the funding entity that will help to distinguish your proposal from all of the other excellent applicants you’re competing with, you increase your likelihood of acquiring funding. Blumenfeld stressed how important building relationships with the grantor can be. Establishing a relationship can be helpful because they get to know your organization.
Collaboration among organizations seeking grant money is a unique way to set your organization apart and increase your chances of winning a grant. When two organizations with similar or complimentary missions connect, you can increase the population you are helping and may be able to offer a more complete service.
For example, if you are applying for a grant to decrease childhood obesity through after-school programs, you may consider teaming up with a local gym, a farmers market, or your local parks and recreation department. Pooling these resources not only more effectively accomplishes your goal but also creates a symbiotic relationship between entities that makes a difference in the community and increases your chances to be successful in winning your grant award.
Be mindful of deadlines. A significant amount of information is needed to complete an application. Working with your team to set internal deadlines before the grantors’ deadline is a great way to ensure enough time for review and rewrites.
Being honest and realistic about what you hope to achieve is essential. Let your passion stand out in your writing. You want the funder to share your excitement about what you plan to achieve. It is important that you understand and can clearly communicate your program objectives but also how you are going to make that dream a reality. Realistic expectations and budgets can make the difference. Having additional funding sources can be a deciding factor in your favor, as grantors prefer not to be the sole provider of funds.
Once you have finished writing your proposal and have performed an intense self-review, one strategy for success is to reach out to people outside of your company or organization. Often, professional colleagues have gone through the process and can provide insight into making your proposal successful. A proofreader can give you objective advice on how to be more clear and logical in your language, and can catch inconsistencies. Be open-minded to suggested changes.
Here in Western Mass., there are a number of resources available to you when searching for funding sources. One organization that lists private funders is the Foundation Center Directory (www.foundationcenter.org). You may also wish to contact the Community Foundation of Western Mass. for help with the technical aspect of grant writing and to request funding. If you are a smaller organization and do not have the personnel or time to put into writing a grant proposal, you may consider using a grant-writing company, such as the Financial Development Agency of Amherst. These types of agencies are there to help you along the way and provide guidance through this difficult process if your organization lacks the resources to devote to grant writing.
Securing grant money is a difficult and challenging process. However, with the appropriate amount of research, relationship building, and passion, it’s an achievable goal. The guidance of your peers and that of the granting organization can help you successfully navigate the grant-application process. Always be sure to leverage the resources available to you, ensure that your mission and that of the grantor are aligned, and, above all, pay strict attention to detail when preparing your grant application.
By keeping these strategies in mind, you will be well on your way to winning your bid.

Donna Roundy, CPA is a senior manager with the Holyoke-based accounting firm Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C. (MBK); [email protected]. Carly Cavanaugh, CPA is a senior associate with MBK; [email protected].

Building Permits Departments

The following building permits were issued during the month of May 2013.

AGAWAM

American Tower Corporation
1804 Main St.
$12,500 — Exterior renovation

Bragaraus, LLC
60 North Westfield St.
$12,500 — Construction of a unisex handicap bathroom

Pioneer Tool
40 Bowles Road
$33,000 — Re-roof

CHICOPEE

Birch Manor
44 New Lombard Road
$20,000 — Insulate main building

Van Guard Consignment
450 New Ludlow Road
$12,800 — New roof

GREENFIELD

Fair Business, LLC
74 Fairview St.
$58,000 — New roof

Greenfield Corporate Center
101 Munson St.
$25,000 — New sprinkler system and renovations for new tenant

Super 8 Motel
21 Colrain Road
$2,000 — Install new door

Town of Greenfield
1 Lenox Ave.
$38,220,000 — Construct new 160,650-square-foot school

Town of Greenfield
1 Lenox Ave.
$51,000 — Create temporary entrance during construction of new high school

Quickfoods IV, LLC
461 Bernardston Road
$31,500 — New roof

HOLYOKE

O’Connell Development Group
15 Holyoke St.
$285,000 — Renovate existing retail space for Ulta Beauty

LUDLOW

Dave’s Pet City
433 Center St.
$26,000 — Alterations

Wing Memorial Hospital
34 Hubbard St.
$4,800 — Alterations

PALMER

Pride
1045 Thorndike St.
$5,000 — Alterations in store

Town of Palmer
4419 Main St.
$5,865,000 — Construction of a new police station

SOUTH HADLEY

Mount Holyoke College
50 College St.
$20,000 — Install new canopy

SPRINGFIELD

Center Street Housing Inc.
71 Adams St.
$1,500,000 — Renovations

International Valve & Instrument
992 Bay St.
$24,000 — New roof

Kimball Tower Condominiums
140 Chestnut St.
$122,000 — First floor alterations

Mercy Hospital
233 Carey St.
$80,000 — First-floor renovations for new day rehabilitation facility

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Aldi Mart
903 Riverdale St.
$1,010,000 — Construct 16,202-square-foot commercial structure

Costco Wholesale
119 Daggett Dr.
$779,000 — Erect a 2,995-square-foot addition

FiberMark
70 Front St.
$88,000 — Renovate fourth-floor bathrooms

Bankruptcies Departments

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

Aviles, Gedalia
a/k/a Adams, Gedalia
a/k/a Santos, Gedalia
a/k/a Velez, Gedalia
20 Arnold St., Apt. 5
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/08/1

Campbell, Lillian
414 Newton St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/09/13

Cohen, Bruce A.
82 Hewitt St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/12/13

Fudjo, Awusi
16 Tow Path Lane
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/06/13

Goodchild, Kara L.
38A Yorktown Dr.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/12/13

Henrichon, Glen Allan
102 Garden St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/09/13

Hunt, Alan R.
23 Union St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/11/13

Im, Chong A.
129 Memorial Dr.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/09/13

Jimmo, Andrea Marie
106 Edbert St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/11/13

Kibbe, Clarence Ernest
Kibbe, Margaret Ellen
243 Circle Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/10/13

Kindschi, Cynthia L.
60 Warren Wright Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/09/13

King, Neil R.
1010 Williams St.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/10/13

LaBianca, Lawrence M.
LaBianca, Diane P.
135 Meadow St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/09/13

Labonte, Kelly
a/k/a White, Kelly
Labonte, Nycole
2282 Main St.
Three Rivers, MA 01080
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/10/13

Lang, Whitney Charles
275 Chestnut St. #627
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/08/13

Lee, Tina Marie
a/k/a Moriarty, Tina Lee
66 Montgomery St.
Indian Orchard, MA 01151
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/11/13

Leger, Gary Michael
77 Valley View Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 04/11/13

Martel, James Michael
Martel, Claudine Nicole
a/k/a Talbot, Claudine N.
393 Silver St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7

Peacey, Scott W.
138 Piney Lane
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/15/13

Pfeffer, Susan M.
a/k/a Perrault, Susan M.
P.O. Box 131
Gilbertville, MA 01031
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 04/06/13

Sicotte, Karen Jo
36 Sunset St.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 04/15/13

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

ASHFIELD

157 Steady Lane
Ashfield, MA 01330
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Roger E. Howes
Seller: John D. Kendrick
Date: 04/08/13

BERNARDSTON

42 South St.
Bernardston, MA 01337
Amount: $213,000
Buyer: William J. McGuirk
Seller: Linda A. Morey
Date: 04/19/13

BUCKLAND

73 Avery Road
Buckland, MA 01338
Amount: $460,000
Buyer: Maya Nayak
Seller: Katherine E. Brown
Date: 04/16/13

CHARLEMONT

49 Harmony Hts.
Charlemont, MA 01339
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Timothy Flaherty
Seller: Ronald M. Mansi
Date: 04/17/13

CONWAY

238 Warger Road
Conway, MA 01341
Amount: $511,649
Buyer: Greenfield Savings Bank
Seller: Wesley B. Rowe
Date: 04/11/13

GREENFIELD

14 Cypress St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $127,000
Buyer: William W. Schmidt
Seller: Bruce W. Vought
Date: 04/11/13

324 Deerfield St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: 151 Federla Street LLC
Seller: Irene Dejackome
Date: 04/19/13

59 Fort Square
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Edward F. Maeder
Seller: Welenc IRT
Date: 04/08/13

46 French King Hwy.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $145,900
Buyer: Teresa Conti
Seller: Stephen R. McCabe
Date: 04/16/13

19 Highland Ave.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $340,000
Buyer: Tom Friedman
Seller: Stephen Sears LT
Date: 04/08/13

142 Oakland St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Tsetan D. Thingdutsang
Seller: John D. Petrin
Date: 04/19/13

12 Prospect St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $118,500
Buyer: Stephen Poulin
Seller: Eaton FT
Date: 04/12/13

Route 2
Greenfield, MA 01376
Amount: $850,000
Buyer: Franklin Land Trust Inc.
Seller: Wesley B. Rowe
Date: 04/10/13

27 Severance St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $154,000
Buyer: Eddie Martinez
Seller: James R. Knightly
Date: 04/12/13

ORANGE

150 Fountain St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $139,900
Buyer: Aaron T. Gannon
Seller: Adam M. Bouchard
Date: 04/17/13

SUNDERLAND

166 Old Amherst Road
Sunderland, MA 01375
Amount: $218,500
Buyer: Valley Building Co. Inc.
Seller: Brandts, Cynthia L., (Estate)
Date: 04/19/13

47 South Main St.
Sunderland, MA 01375
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Kenneth D. Arnold
Seller: Hubbard, Eleanor S., (Estate)
Date: 04/19/13

HAMPDEN COUNTY

AGAWAM

55 Annable St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $126,000
Buyer: MHFA
Seller: Joao Oliveira
Date: 04/08/13

70 Arbor Lane
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $231,100
Buyer: Gerard R. Boucher
Seller: Lynn A. Gelineau
Date: 04/10/13

25 Barbara Lane
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $237,500
Buyer: Mark A. Jamgochian
Seller: Martina Pocaterra
Date: 04/12/13

75 Fox Farm Road
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $174,100
Buyer: Johnathan S. Torres
Seller: Gifford, Donald L., (Estate)
Date: 04/19/13

22 Plumtree Way
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Fallah Razzak
Seller: Anthony D. Feato
Date: 04/09/13

181 Shoemaker Lane
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $165,274
Buyer: USA HUD
Seller: Bank Of America
Date: 04/10/13

BRIMFIELD

15 Oakwood Road
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $149,836
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Theresa R. Willoughby
Date: 04/10/13

CHICOPEE

11 Burton St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Mark A. Haryasz
Seller: Patricia Cossaboom
Date: 04/10/13

378 Dale St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Melissa K. Wackerbarth
Seller: Jeanne M. Boutelle
Date: 04/19/13

340 Grove St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $213,000
Buyer: Sarah B. Fisher
Seller: Revampit LLC
Date: 04/19/13

7 Lucretia Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $134,000
Buyer: Trudiann Pinnock
Seller: Brian Kolodziej
Date: 04/12/13

7 Montello Road
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Joshua H. Laplante
Seller: Robert W. Landry
Date: 04/17/13

EAST LONGMEADOW

28 Brookhaven Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Wayne D. Michaelian
Seller: John F. Ascioti
Date: 04/11/13

37 Holland Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $121,500
Buyer: FHLM
Seller: David Evans
Date: 04/12/13

49 Holy Cross Circle
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Ian A. Bracht
Seller: David G. Bareiss
Date: 04/12/13

14 Lombard Ave.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Paige Moylan
Seller: Eileen A. Verteramo
Date: 04/11/13

HAMPDEN

188 Glendale Road
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $167,500
Buyer: Kristin J. Desilets
Seller: Rosella Whitney
Date: 04/12/13

10 Glendale View Dr.
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $950,000
Buyer: Barbara A. Greco
Seller: James W. Hoerle
Date: 04/12/13

39 Mill Road
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $267,500
Buyer: Jonathan Caruana
Seller: Scott W. Brubach
Date: 04/12/13

HOLYOKE

14 Bray Park Dr.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $156,000
Buyer: Miguel A. Carrasquillo
Seller: Marie D. Worwood
Date: 04/19/13

18 Canby St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $123,500
Buyer: Alexandra T. Samets
Seller: Adam R. Methot
Date: 04/17/13

38 Claren Dr.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Sara A. Hayden
Seller: Donald L. Kooken
Date: 04/16/13

1 Country Club Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $2,500,000
Buyer: D Hotel & Suites Inc.
Seller: Holyoke Hotels LLC
Date: 04/16/13

1035 Homestead Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $132,500
Buyer: John A. Tart
Seller: Clifford W. Laraway
Date: 04/17/13

44 Laurel St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Clara W. James
Seller: Cynthia A. Teel
Date: 04/12/13

193 Sargeant St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Gary W. Keefe
Seller: Nancy L. Osgood
Date: 04/11/13

5 Woodbridge St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $242,000
Buyer: Joseph F. Griffin
Seller: Joseph F. Griffin
Date: 04/16/13

LONGMEADOW

187 Cedar Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $222,900
Buyer: Gloyd D. Kimball
Seller: Freya J. Wolk
Date: 04/12/13

24 Fairfield Terrace
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: David J. Lecours
Seller: Jane F. Woodward
Date: 04/17/13

83 Laurel St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $399,000
Buyer: Amy Monroe
Seller: Annie L. Zomermaand
Date: 04/08/13

69 South Park Ave.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $237,900
Buyer: Bruce D. Haskins
Seller: Lisa K. Reilly
Date: 04/19/13

119 Thresher Road
Longmeadow, MA 01036
Amount: $259,900
Buyer: Nicholas M. Tangredi
Seller: Mark G. Pearlman
Date: 04/10/13

LUDLOW

69 Aldo Dr.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $202,500
Buyer: Mark C. Howe
Seller: Scotty L. Afonso
Date: 04/16/13

Center St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $123,000
Buyer: Jason C. Martins
Seller: Rosewood Meadows Inc.
Date: 04/17/13

253 Colonial Dr.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Helder D. Santos
Seller: Peter C. & Joyce A. Shaw RT
Date: 04/16/13

107 Coolidge Ave.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $117,500
Buyer: Ryan N. Merceri
Seller: Joseph A. Barbieri
Date: 04/08/13

19 Daisy Lane
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $320,000
Buyer: Elin M. Zapka
Seller: Ireneu Freitas
Date: 04/11/13

N/A
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $251,000
Seller: Jason C. Martins
Date: 04/17/13

181 Pine St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $148,000
Buyer: Nicole K. Santos
Seller: Robert A. Sousa
Date: 04/19/13

MONSON

15 Hospital Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Beesh Sports LLC
Seller: River Hollow LLC
Date: 04/17/13

14 Main St.
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $140,900
Buyer: James P. Moran
Seller: Marc A. Pelissier
Date: 04/10/13

313 Silver St.
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Christian M. Gainer
Seller: Thomas O. Moore
Date: 04/16/13

29 Stafford Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $134,000
Buyer: Richard H. Casler
Seller: Debra M. Jean
Date: 04/17/13

26 Stebbins Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $321,000
Buyer: David E. Cote
Seller: John P. Lanucha
Date: 04/19/13

PALMER

2090 Oak St.
Palmer, MA 01080
Amount: $152,794
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Arlene L. Domey
Date: 04/17/13

PALMER

6 Caroline Circle
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Henry C. Lomba
Seller: Jeffrey P. Harris
Date: 04/08/13

2002 Overlook Dr.
Palmer, MA 01080
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Louis A. Brodeur
Seller: Valtelhas, Sophie J., (Estate)
Date: 04/12/13

SPRINGFIELD

307 Arcadia Blvd.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $127,500
Buyer: Donna Dunn
Seller: Barrett, Beatrice V., (Estate)
Date: 04/19/13

97 Avery St. #134
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Franklyn Torres
Seller: Elaine C. Graham
Date: 04/19/13
1333 Boston Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Salvatore A. Scibelli
Seller: Salvatore A. Scibelli
Date: 04/11/13

5 Caldwell Place
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Nationstar Mortgage LLC
Seller: Priscilla M. Schissel
Date: 04/17/13

149 Cooley St.
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $180,159
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Kim M. Santinello
Date: 04/12/13

34 Dewey St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $132,910
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Richard Cruz
Date: 04/11/13

180 Eddy St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $139,500
Buyer: Cynthia A. Galas
Seller: Pawel Misniakiewicz
Date: 04/08/13

117 El Paso St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Jessie L. Scribner
Seller: Foster, Jane M., (Estate)
Date: 04/16/13

56 Felicia St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: Jose D. Pacheco
Seller: Henry C. Lomba
Date: 04/08/13

22 Hobart St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Nationstar Mortgage LLC
Seller: Priscilla M. Schissel
Date: 04/17/13

23 Mary St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $117,500
Buyer: John M. Friedson
Seller: Maroney RE Investments
Date: 04/16/13

56 Old Farm Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Kevin D. McCabe
Seller: Brian R. Wallace
Date: 04/17/13

43 Ontario St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: Luis A. Torres
Seller: Jorge L. Colon
Date: 04/16/13

100 Perkins St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $151,250
Buyer: Connor M. Knightly
Seller: Julia A. Cross
Date: 04/17/13

82 Pheasant Dr.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $146,000
Buyer: Dawn M. Triplett
Seller: Peter J. Ngige-Njenga
Date: 04/10/13

286 Sumner Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $187,500
Buyer: Nicole T. Baker
Seller: Surtan Reatly LLP
Date: 04/19/13

42 Sylvan St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $117,500
Buyer: Carmen Rodriguez
Seller: Harvey Skerker
Date: 04/09/13

23 Tanglewood Dr.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Eric Podgurski
Seller: Thomas J. Bonavita
Date: 04/18/13

115 Wrenwood St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $176,464
Buyer: JP Morgan Chase Bank
Seller: John C. Eggleston
Date: 04/16/13

SOUTHWICK

16 Fenton Dr.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: B&E Aricraft Component
Seller: Igor Babinov
Date: 04/10/13

1 Gillette Ave.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $179,000
Buyer: Donald Nooney
Seller: Carole A. Hardick
Date: 04/10/13

26 Lakeview St.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Kelly J. Duncan
Seller: FHLM
Date: 04/12/13

TOLLAND

305 Moreau Road
Tolland, MA 01034
Amount: $2,100,000
Buyer: Shores Museum Tower QPRT
Seller: Kenneth M. Poovey
Date: 04/16/13

54 Ona Road
Tolland, MA 01034
Amount: $700,000
Buyer: Shores Museum Tower QPRT
Seller: Kenneth M. Poovey
Date: 04/16/13

WALES

32 Holland Road
Wales, MA 01081
Amount: $187,900
Buyer: David W. Fish
Seller: Steven W. Beyor
Date: 04/17/13

WEST SPRINGFIELD

30 Crestview Dr.
Amount: $207,500
Buyer: Stephen L. Holstrom
Seller: Gene J. Galuszka
Date: 04/16/13

258 Main St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: St.Francis De Salles LLC
Seller: Robert J. Schroeter
Date: 04/18/13

60 Mulcahy Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $497,000
Buyer: Robert J. Brodeur
Seller: Francis Wheeler Construction Inc.
Date: 04/08/13

117 Sibley Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $179,000
Buyer: Paul R. Dickey
Seller: Kenneth G. Aubrey
Date: 04/11/13

59 Sprague St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Maria N. Ayala
Seller: RAK Realty Assocs. LLC
Date: 04/12/13

12 Therese Marie Lane
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $340,000
Buyer: Svc Net Inc.
Seller: Robert J. Brodeur
Date: 04/08/13

23 Thomas Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Vyacheslav Dadayev
Seller: David H. Stahelski
Date: 04/19/13

115 York St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: York Street Realty LLC
Seller: Orograin Bakeries Sales
Date: 04/18/13

WESTFIELD

215 Bates Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Richard A. Grabiec
Seller: John A. Wallace
Date: 04/18/13

63 Crane Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $174,000
Buyer: Jeremy J. Moquin
Seller: Ryan W. Taylor
Date: 04/18/13

44 Darby Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Jorge M. Delgado
Seller: Kathleen Puza
Date: 04/17/13

240 Eastwood Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $279,900
Buyer: Lisa A. Saltmarsh
Seller: Daniel Lech
Date: 04/12/13

75 Eastwood Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Michael F. Messier
Seller: Kevin Malloy
Date: 04/12/13

28 Fowler Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Geoffrey C. Oldmixon
Seller: Maureen Wrobleski
Date: 04/17/13

88 Glenwood Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Andrew J. Martindell
Seller: Corriveau, Joanne F., (Estate)
Date: 04/09/13

59 Llewellyn Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Alexandra M. Tremblay
Seller: Stanley W. Stevens
Date: 04/17/13

10 Madison St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $128,900
Buyer: Charles Michaud
Seller: Bertrand, Patricia A., (Estate)
Date: 04/12/13

20 Oak Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $199,500
Buyer: Paul J. Boulanger
Seller: Genovese, Samuel C., (Estate)
Date: 04/10/13

155 Paper Mill Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Seth Lamountain
Seller: Kimberly L. Gibney
Date: 04/16/13

155 Root Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $284,000
Buyer: Kevin W. Connolly
Seller: April J. Williams
Date: 04/11/13

49 Rosedell Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Michele L. Cardinal
Seller: Rosetta Grimm
Date: 04/16/13

130 Shaker Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Marc J. Longtin
Seller: Catherine C. Berry
Date: 04/19/13

37 Summit Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $202,900
Buyer: Orlando Huertas
Seller: Daniel H. Knights
Date: 04/19/13

22 Wood Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $182,000
Buyer: Lance M. Phillips
Seller: Douglas E. Allard
Date: 04/12/13

124 Woodcliff Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $409,000
Buyer: Timothy J. Williams
Seller: Carolyn M. Hartt
Date: 04/11/13

WILBRAHAM

9 Brookside Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Patricia E. Perkins
Seller: Warren E. Newhouse
Date: 04/19/13

1 McIntosh Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $314,250
Buyer: Brian P. O’Connor
Seller: Paul A. Schreiner
Date: 04/16/13

28 Red Bridge Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $289,900
Buyer: Jeff W. Farnsworth
Seller: Robert G. Table
Date: 04/16/13

10 Stonington Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Peter D. Martins
Seller: Silo Farm Assocs. LLC
Date: 04/09/13

635 Stony Hill Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Masada RT
Seller: Michael J. Sambor
Date: 04/10/13

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY

AMHERST

48 Dana St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $367,500
Buyer: George D. Nichols
Seller: Patrick E. Brock
Date: 04/17/13

186 Harkness Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $425,000
Buyer: Servicenet Inc.
Seller: James J. Bess
Date: 04/17/13

112 Heatherstone Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $340,000
Buyer: Elizabeth B. Parker
Seller: Ivan S. Chow
Date: 04/12/13

241 Pomeroy Lane
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $338,000
Buyer: Courtney J. Platt
Seller: George, John W., (Estate)
Date: 04/12/13

BELCHERTOWN

72 Amherst Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Marian T. Goodhin
Seller: Brenda M. Martin
Date: 04/09/13

17 Bay Path Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $199,300
Buyer: Vincent J. Tran
Seller: US Bank NA
Date: 04/17/13

6 Country Lane
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $168,500
Buyer: Gregg D. Wing
Seller: Stephen F. George
Date: 04/12/13

48 Fletcher Ave.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $335,000
Buyer: Keith M. Frazier
Seller: Michael F. Kobus
Date: 04/12/13

Gold St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $500,000
Buyer: Town Of Belchertown
Seller: Kestrel Land Trust
Date: 04/10/13

154 Gold St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $295,000
Buyer: Tina L. Agustine
Seller: Tony P. Hill
Date: 04/18/13

62 Mountain View Dr.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Kyle Savage
Seller: Delfina M. Stevens
Date: 04/12/13

40 Oakridge Dr.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $334,900
Buyer: Allan A. Ruell
Date: 04/17/13

CUMMINGTON

3 Bates Road
Cummington, MA 01026
Amount: $157,593
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: William Lefleur
Date: 04/16/13

EASTHAMPTON

8 Arthur St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: James Duffy
Seller: Chad E. Gagne
Date: 04/10/13

21 Exeter St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Lindsay R. Barron
Seller: Stanley J. Kwiecinski
Date: 04/12/13

7 Lownds Ave.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $192,000
Buyer: Steven M. Bilodeau
Seller: Joshua D. Driver
Date: 04/08/13

O’Neil St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: Easthampton Savings Bank
Seller: Autumn Props. LLC
Date: 04/19/13

36 Strong St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $242,000
Buyer: Todd T. Dineen
Seller: John B. Anz
Date: 04/18/13

3 Summit Ave.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $146,000
Buyer: Lori J. Carrier
Seller: Pauline E. Carrier
Date: 04/12/13

65 Taft Ave.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Sage C. McKnight
Seller: Patricia H. Nadeau
Date: 04/17/13

36 Ward Ave.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $175,400
Buyer: Eve S. Eichwald
Seller: Julie A. Laurence
Date: 04/08/13

14 Water Lane
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Katie M. Spaulding
Seller: Wilfred J. Buri
Date: 04/08/13

40 West St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Bialy Dom Farm LLC
Seller: Diane K. Grzeskowicz
Date: 04/08/13

GRANBY

7 Greenmeadow Lane
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $150,100
Buyer: Kevin R. Gendreau
Seller: FNMA
Date: 04/16/13

16 Hubbard Dr.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Donald L. Derosia
Seller: Country Bank for Savings
Date: 04/10/13

129 South St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Kevin J. Whitacre
Seller: Gail D. Cosby
Date: 04/16/13

HATFIELD

115 Elm St.
Hatfield, MA 01038
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Florence M. Brisbois
Seller: Hatfield Village LLC
Date: 04/19/13

HUNTINGTON

4 Birchwood Dr.
Huntington, MA 01050
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Kevin A. Perrier
Seller: Crown Meadow Corp.
Date: 04/12/13

NORTHAMPTON

77 Emerson Way
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $449,000
Seller: Wright Builders Inc.
Date: 04/16/13

Emerson Way
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: Hampshire Property Mgmt. Group
Seller: Emerson Way LLC
Date: 04/18/13

28 Fox Farms Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $362,000
Buyer: Christopher R. Amato
Seller: Patrick J. Mahoney
Date: 04/16/13

Front St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $282,500
Buyer: Colin J. Hoyt
Seller: Shel Horowitz
Date: 04/08/13

43 Rick Dr.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $232,000
Buyer: Bonnie S. May
Seller: Renee A. Ceno
Date: 04/19/13

49 Woodlawn Ave.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $415,000
Buyer: Joel W. Wolfe
Seller: Margaret S. Zelljadt
Date: 04/19/13

SOUTH HADLEY

35 Applewood Lane
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Michael F. Kobus
Seller: Tonelli, Raymond J., (Estate)
Date: 04/12/13

45 Ashton Lane
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $345,000
Buyer: John B. Anz
Seller: Joni H. Zubi
Date: 04/18/13

7 Cedar Rdg
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $305,000
Buyer: Joshua D. Driver
Seller: Elizabeth Mazzocco
Date: 04/08/13

46 East Red Bridge Lane
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $409,000
Buyer: David W. Scruggs
Seller: J. N. Duquette & Son Construction
Date: 04/19/13

42 Hillside Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Nicholas Dube
Seller: Adam Boyer
Date: 04/12/13

60 Pearl St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $221,568
Buyer: Robert A. Carrier
Seller: Alexander Desrosiers
Date: 04/17/13

36 Red Bridge Lane
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $428,900
Buyer: Scott G. Newman
Seller: J. N. Duquette & Son Construction
Date: 04/12/13

SOUTHAMPTON

67 Gllbert Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $380,000
Buyer: Joy A. Tailefer
Seller: Czelusniak Custom Homes
Date: 04/18/13

WARE

43 Moriarty Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $232,000
Buyer: Melissa L. Kratovil
Seller: Lisa M. Kerr
Date: 04/19/13

DBA Certificates Departments

The following Business Certificates and Trade Names were issued or renewed during the month of and May 2013.

CHICOPEE

E-Nough Logic
19 America St.
Michael Cowley

Grimaldi Landscaping & Services
42 Rose St.
William Grimaldi Jr.

Nom Nom Hut
51 Maple St.
Marcy Megarry

GREENFIELD

Antique Revival
322 Deerfield St.
Eric Webster

Duo Senior Care
82 Birch St.
Rachel E. Lively

Greenfield Auto Specialist
335 High St.
Greenfield Imported Cars Inc.

Lucky Nails
130 Main St.
Tai Huynh

Meadow Green Nail Center
5 Park St.
Patricia Semb

The Carousel Corner
4 Woodland Road
Jonathan Lowe

HOLYOKE

Abercrombie & Fitch
50 Holyoke St.
Robert Brown

Archie’s Mini Market
81 North Bridge St.
Hector Archilla

Fye
50 Holyoke St.
John Anderson

Hair-Hunterz
279 Appleton St.
Frankie Cardona

Max Orient
50 Holyoke St.
Harry C. Chen

Sam’s Food Store
515 High St.
Asad Chaudhry

LUDLOW

AED Moving Enterprises
41 Bruno Ave.
Angelo Rosa

Budget Pest Solutions
264 Moody St.
John Boudreau

C.L. Diesel Repair Inc.
403 West St.
Corey Lajoie

Deluxe Auto Sales
127 East St.
Manuel Coelho

Ludlow Automotive
430 Center St.
Rodney Walker

Moody Street Realty, LLC
54 Moody St.
Beverly Aube

PALMER

Bling in Beads
23 Temple St.
Kyle Camyre

Day & Night Diner
1456 North Main St.
Karl Williams

Interactive School House
2055 Main St.
Nancy B. Roy

LMS Repair
3020 Main St.
Louis Stevens

Spic and Span
6 Green St.
Stephanie Nott

SPRINGFIELD

Little Cargo Couriers
24 East Hooker St.
Anatoly Atamansky

Luxury Landscape
27 Lyman St.
Jerrell Glass

Mack’s Barbershop
255 Bay St.
Michael A. Brawner

Mars Consultant Group
76 Albermarle St.

Martin Tile Company
184 Gardens Dr.
Jamie R. Martin

Mary’s Dollar Plus
2760 Main St.
Maria D. Ayala

Mass Collision
586 Berkshire Ave.
Gabriel E. Sanchez

Michael Ferzoco
33 Amity Court
Michael Ferzoco

Michael Vachula Real Estate
20 Howes St.
Michael Vachula

Mike Auto Repair Shop
136 Nursery St.
Michael S. Candelaria

Mobile Massage Therapy
85 Gold St.
Margaret Cooley

Namco, LLC
1500 Boston Road
Anabela Cruz

Nathan Bills Bar
110 Island Pond Road
John R. Sullivan

Oakley Residential Appraisals
36 Marengo Park
Gary E. Oakley

Omar & Sons Furniture
73 Liberty St.
Khuram Abbasi

Peach Brown Betty
11 Hiawatha St.
Jennifer M. Fleury

Peter S. Poniatrowski
23 Frontenac St.
Peter S. Poniatrowski

Phat Tuesdays
377 Dwight St.
Jazzberries, Inc.

Philip J. Ozzone
48 Champlain Ave.
Philip J. Ozzone

Pittola Investigations
136 Prentice St.
Damien Pittola

Pizza Hut
793 Boston Road
Pizza Hut of America

Price Cutter
2633 Main St.
Syed Shahab Ahsan

Princessazu International
204 Commonwealth Ave.
Boniface Anoje

R & M Remodeling and More
112 Avery St.
Miguel A. Homs

Robbie’s Auto & Truck Repair
1357 East Columbus Ave.
Robert D. Ober

Saravia Family Restaurant
880 Sumner Ave.
Rolando A. Saravia

Second Time Around
680 ½ Sumner Ave.
Pamela Anastasiou

Siec Software Innovation
104 Wayne St.
Marco T. Dermith

Sports Cut Barber Shop
1129 State St.
Susan Barratt

Spring Valley Food Mart
343 Allen St.
Abdul Quadus

Strictly D Best Clothing
604 Page Blvd.
Lorenzo L. Robinson

TM Cleaning
70 Chapin Terrace
Therese Leger

T & T Fernandes
509 Belmont Ave.
Gertrude Fernandes

The Collection
34 Front St.
Ariana Do

WESTFIELD

Alice M. Farrelly
45 East Meadow St.
Alice M. Farrelly

Amanda Calhoun
12 Fremont St.
Amanda Calhoun

Anugraha Grocery Store
160 Elm St.
Pralad Gurung

ESP Pool & Spa Services
261 Papermill Road
Edward Rivera

Guided Touch Therapy
26 Orange St.
Thomas D. Campbell

Sports Multi Media
51 Simmons Brook Dr.
Geof Spear

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Advanced Landscaping
955 Piper Road
Allan C. Beiermeister

D & J Management
42 Maple Terrace
Douglas Smith

George Abdow Enterprises
1680 Riverdale St.
George T. Abdow

Healthy Alternatives
42 Chester St.
Roxanne Susan

Law Office of Caroline Murray
71 Park Ave.
Caroline Murray

Mr. Sealgood
75 Church St.
Scott W. Gage

Nippon Grill & Seafood
935 Riverdale St.
Chang Q. Jiang

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

Amherst Landlords Association Inc., 1040 North Pleasant St., Amherst, MA 01002. Stephan Walczak, same. Association designed to represent and advance the interests of landlords in Massachusetts.

BELCHERTOWN

Advantech Consultants MSP Inc., 40 Emily Lane, Belchertown, MA 01007. Crystal Calouro, same. IT management and consulting services.

CHICOPEE

Becki Martin Photography, 32 Freedom St., Chicopee, MA 01013. Rebecca Martin, same. Photography services.

EAST LONGMEADOW

Burke Restoration Inc., 23 Sanford St., East Longmeadow, MA 01028. Restoration services.

GREAT BARRINGTON

Bachelorista Inc., 507 Main St., Suite 4 Great Barrington, MA 01230. Monica Bossinger, same. Retail sales of books, clothing, seminars, and videos.

LEE

ACC Building & Remodeling Inc., 75 Prospect St., Lee, MA 01238. Andrew Vuolo Sr., same. Remodeling.

LUDLOW

Aube Precision Tool Co. Inc., 54 Moody St., Ludlow, MA 01056. Michael Elkhay, same.

B and S Paving and Construction Inc., 145 Booth St., Ludlow, MA 01056. Maria Baltzar, 176 Stony Hill Road, Wilbraham, MA 01095. Paving and construction business and all related activities.

NORTHAMPTON

Al-Hamd Inc., 8 Green St., #10, Northampton, MA 01063. Maqbool Babar, 151 Church St., Barrington, R.I., 02806. Retail convenience store.

Atw Media, 7 Pleasant St., Suite 3, Northampton, MA 01060. Aaron Taylor-Waldman, same. Consulting services for small business owners.

SOUTHAMPTON

Alen Express Inc., 20 Helen Dr., Southampton, MA 01073. Yelena Krasun, same. Company operating specialty and dedicated services of transporting foods, commercial goods, vehicles, and other commodities via flatbed, container, and heavy hauling trailers on a for-hire basis.

Blue Paws Inc., 19 Helen Dr., Southampton, MA 01073. Jonathan Neumann, same. Restaurant and tavern.

SPRINGFIELD

All-In Labor Inc., 99 Arnold Ave., Springfield, MA 01119. Francis Mirkin, 72 Brookside Drive, Longmeadow, MA 01106. Provides contract labor to building/demo industry.

Bizzy Landscaping Inc., 95 Cliftwood St., 1L, Springfield, MA 01073. Berge Bernadeau, same. Landscaping services.

WARE

Align Hypnosis Inc., 18 Kingsberry Lane, Ware, MA 01082. Basil Allen Roman, 94 Sczygiel Road, Ware, MA 01082. To help people to improve their quality of life through hypnotherapy and hypnosis.