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Monson Boasts Diverse Business Community

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Community Spotlight

Bryson Busiere says it started as a hobby.

Then it became a “second business.” And there are plans — it will take several years to a decade for them to become fruition — for it to become a full-time pursuit, a career.

Bryson Busier and his father, Marc, have guided their maple syrup business to continued growth and diversification.

We’re talking about Bryson’s Maple Syrup, an undertaking he started with his father, Marc, 15 years ago when he was in middle school. Together, they’ve grown it steadily to where they now tap 3,000 trees across four main properties, and produce 400 to 600 gallons of maple syrup a year.

They use it create a wide range of products, from bottled syrup to candy to some infused offerings, and sell them at craft fairs, farmers markets, and other events across the region and throughout the year, although summer and the holidays are the busiest times.

“We typically do one fair each weekend,” said Busiere, who works in construction by day, adding that the Pioneer Valley Wine Festival in Brimfield was one of recent stops. “But we’re looking at doing two or three, depending on the week. We’re trying to branch out a little more now that we’re making enough syrup to be able do that.”

Bryson’s Maple Syrup is part of an eclectic business community in Monson that includes many small businesses and second businesses, shops along Main Street, and several agriculture-related ventures.

And it’s one of many converging stories in this town of roughly 8,000 people. The biggest, of course, is the redevelopment of the former Monson Developmental Center (MDC), a saga that started when the institution officially closed in 2012 — although speculation began long before that as operations wound down at the complex — and has moved in mostly slow motion for most of that period.

But the pace of progress has accelerated in recent years, starting with the acquisition of the property by Westmass Area Development Corp. And the pace quickened further last month with town meeting approval of a zoning change to create a planned village district that will include housing, commercial, and retail spaces.

What for many years was conceptual is now real, and it will become more real as demolition continues, with the site, which includes more than 30 buildings, due to be fully cleared roughly a year from now, Westmass President and CEO Jeff Daley said.

Meanwhile, numerous other storylines are taking shape in this community, Town Administrator Jennifer Wolowicz said, including:

• A comprehensive reconstruction of a mile-long stretch of Route 33 (Main Street). Now in the planning and public-hearing stage, the projected $15 million initiative is scheduled to start in 2028 and will be the first major reconstruction of the street in roughly a century;

• Expansion of the Board of Selectmen from three members to five; and

• Plans to apply for a grant from MassDevelopment to eventually undertake infrastructure work on a stretch of Route 20 that goes through Monson, Palmer, and Wilbraham to encourage more commercial development there.

The Route 20 initiative — and the MDC project, for that matter — are efforts to bring more development, vibrancy, and people to the community, but without changing the rural character of the town that its residents value, Wolowicz noted.

“Getting this property transferred over to Westmass for oversight and now ownership will provide Monson with an opportunity,” she said. “And opportunities can look and feel different for everyone. I’m sensitive to the historic charm that Monson has, and I’ve loved it since I moved here myself.

“I’ve talked to a lot of people who have lived here their whole lives, and generations before them, who are excited about the project,” she went on. “They’re looking at it as an opportunity to downsize from the large home that they’re still living in because their children have grown and moved and have homes of their own; Monson does not have any 55-and-over communities to offer to our seniors.”

For this latest installment of its Community Spotlight series, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at Monson and the many developing stories there.

Progress Report

Craig Swietzer, president of Monson-based Sweitzer Construction, has served on the town’s Planning Board for decades now.

He recalls maybe one subdivision plan in all that time, with all other housing being essentially one-offs. So he can understand why there might be some apprehension about the MDC site and plans for more housing than the community has seen over the past several decades combined.

But he believes most of that apprehension has been alleviated through a thorough review process of Westmass’s plans, coupled with strong desire to see something happen with the long-dormant property — something that will generate tax revenue for the community — as well as recognition that housing of various forms is needed, and will come in phases at the MDC site over the next several years.

Jennifer Wolowicz

“Opportunities can look and feel different for everyone. I’m sensitive to the historic charm that Monson has, and I’ve loved it since I moved here myself.”

 

“The town gets it,” he told BusinessWest, adding that the vote to approve the village district was nearly unanimous, for all those reasons. “It’s easy to be afraid that this thing is going to be huge and there’s going to be 1,000 new residents, but it’s not going to be like that.
It’s going to be market-driven; we anticipate slow, steady, sensible growth.

“Obviously, some adjustments will be needed, like fire and police, but I think this growth can be absorbed efficiently,” he went on, adding that, given the decline in enrollment in town schools, additional students can be absorbed without any new building needed.

Wolowicz agreed, noting that there is some apprehension and negativity concerning the MDC project, but mostly relief that a site that had been vacant for so long is finally being developed, as well as optimism about the various housing options that might emerge at the site.

“One of the things that we hope will be part of this is a mixed-use type of property where you’ll have cluster housing with single-family homes, but you’ll also have a 55-and-over living community that also has some businesses connected to it, like an occupational therapist business or a coffee shop,” she said, adding that, while the property is in Monson, it is near the border with Palmer, and could benefit the residents of that community as well.

Jeff Daley says demolition of the buildings at the MDC site should be concluded by the summer of 2027, with infrastructure work to follow.

Daley agreed. When it comes to the market, he anticipates there will be solid interest in housing of various types in a community just a mile or two off the Palmer turnpike exit — and only a few hundred yards from the planned east-west rail station in town — and a project that will provide a more affordable alternative to the sky-high prices in Greater Boston and the comparatively high prices in the Worcester area.

“It’s a four-minute ride to the Palmer exit,” he said, adding that, overall, the goal will be to use Westmass’s experience in site development and housing construction to create homes that will be more affordable than those built in other locations and by other developers.

As for the timetable moving forward, demolition of the site is the next priority, Daley said.

“Our goal is to have everything on the ground and the site basically cleaned and ready for development by June 2027,” he noted, adding that the contractor, Associated Building Wreckers, is on pace to meet that goal.

After demolition will come infrastructure work — water, sewer, and electricity — and then market-driven development.

“We’re putting together a development plan for how the site could lay out in the future,” he said. “When that comes to fruition, we’ll likely be the land owner, and a good chunk of the developments will happen with us or through us managing those.

“At the of the day,” he added, “our estimate is that it will be $300 million to fully develop the site with all the infrastructure that needs to be done and the housing and commercial use — and anywhere from 10 to 20 years of work.”

Sweet Success

Busiere told BusinessWest that the family maple syrup venture has grown and evolved over the years.

Indeed, that branching out he mentioned has been happening on many levels, starting with the number of taps. But it also includes the roster of events where the company has a presence, the portfolio of products sold, and a “help yourself farm store” in front of the family home, a miniature sugar house, as he put it.

As for the products, there are now 50 to 75 of them, depending on the year, and these include maple syrup, maple candy, maple cream, and a variety of infused maple syrups, including coffee, cinnamon, and many others.

Most of these items are produced at the sugar house in Monson, but the company also rents out a commercial kitchen for some of its items, including maple-coated peanuts and walnuts as well as a planned maple mustard.

“We’re on track to double in size for the next several years,” he said, adding that the long-term goal is to make this a full-time venture, perhaps in a decade at the current rate of growth and progress.

“It’s easy to be afraid that this thing is going to be huge and there’s going to be 1,000 new residents, but it’s not going to be like that. It’s going to be market-driven; we anticipate slow, steady, sensible growth.”

As noted earlier, Bryson’s Maple Syrup is part of an eclectic business community in Monson, one that includes few large employers, but many smaller, venerable institutions, from Monson Savings Bank to the Woodbine Country Store, a fixture on Main Street for generations.

James Przypek, CEO of the Quaboag Hills Chamber of Commerce, which serves 15 communities, including Monson, said the community boasts a wide range of businesses in sectors ranging from construction to telecommunications; from HVAC to farming and the growing realm of agritourism.

Indeed, ventures such as Echo Hill Orchards Winery & Distillery and Silver Bell Farm, known for its elaborate holiday lighting displays, are helping to make Monson a destination.

“Silver Bell is an amazing attraction — people keep coming back for it,” he noted, adding that the community features many smaller businesses, from cookie makers to roadside farm stands that give it a unique flavor .

As for Sweitzer Construction, it has been part of the Monson landscape for more than 40 years now. A family business, it covers two generations, with Craig and his wife Pat at the helm, and sons Brian and Michael serving as project managers.

The company specializes in in high-tech, design-build work that includes dental construction, a unique niche, but also medical facilities, commercial and manufacturing construction, and, most recently, cannabis facilities.

The business has grown steadily over the years — from its portfolio of projects to its team — and is looking to sustain that growth and “feed the machine,” as Craig put it.

“That can be the tricky part,” he said. “To keep up the volume and the numbers that we need, sometimes we travel more than we like to, but that’s the nature of the beast.”

Elaborating, he said the company has, over the years, expanded its geographic base, both to serve long-term customers, such as Attleboro-based Rust-Oleum, and to secure new work, such a recent project in New Haven. 

Overall, each project is unique and brings its own set of challenges, Pat added. “There are a lot of projects that are complex, and they’re really fun — it’s not the same production work over and over. They’re unique projects, and we’re lucky to have a lot of customers like that.” 

Federal Agencies Are Sharpening Workplace Enforcement

By Contributor
Law

Advice for Employers

By Michael Lewis, Esq.

Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis

Federal workplace enforcement has picked up speed. The EEOC continues to pursue discrimination, accommodation, and retaliation claims. OSHA has renewed its focus on heat hazards. The NLRB has adjusted charge-handling guidance in ways that can shape how workplace disputes start, spread, and settle. For employers, the point is simple: now is the right time to inspect your policies, your records, and the choices your managers make every day.

The risk rarely begins in court. It usually begins earlier, with a charge, an inspection, or a demand for records. At that stage, agencies tend to look for the same things: a written policy, a clear paper trail, and proof that the company followed both. When the file tells a scattered story, the problem grows. When the handbook says one thing and supervisors do another, the gap invites scrutiny.

The EEOC’s recent activity reflects a steady push toward disability issues, retaliation claims, and broader workplace practices, not just one-off incidents. That should force a hard question. If an employee requests an accommodation tomorrow, would your managers know the next step? If an employee reports bias, would your team respond and document the response in a way that holds up under scrutiny? A policy alone will not carry the day. Your records, your training, and your follow-through will do that work.

OSHA’s renewed attention to heat hazards carries the same lesson. Employers with outdoor crews or hot indoor worksites should not treat heat as a seasonal annoyance; they should treat it as a safety issue that requires a concrete plan. Water, rest, training, supervisor awareness, and site-level judgment all count. So does documentation. If an inspector arrives after a stretch of high heat, you will want more than a binder on a shelf. You will want records that show what your company actually did.

 “For employers, the point is simple: now is the right time to inspect your policies, your records, and the choices your managers make every day.”

Labor enforcement also remains active, even for non-union employers. Many business owners still assume labor law concerns only union shops. That assumption can create avoidable risk. Employee complaints about pay, schedules, staffing, safety, or workplace rules can raise labor issues in an ordinary workplace. When a manager reacts too quickly or writes a rule too broadly, a routine personnel issue can turn into a charge.

Prevention carries real value. A sound handbook, current policies, manager training, and disciplined record keeping can stop problems before they spread. They can also put an employer in a far stronger position when an agency comes calling. Early review usually costs far less than late repair.

Now is a smart time to ask a few blunt questions. Do your accommodation procedures work in practice? Do your wage-and-hour records hold together? Do your safety policies match conditions on the ground? Do your managers document facts, or do they leave gaps for someone else to fill?

Business owners do not need more paper for paper’s sake. They need policies that fit the workplace, records that tell a clear story, and guidance that catches trouble early. A focused review now can spare a great deal of cost, distraction, and strain later.

If you would like to review your handbook, audit key employment policies, train managers, or prepare for agency scrutiny before it arrives, reach out. Early attention often marks the difference between a contained problem and a long, expensive fight.

Michael Lewis is an associate in the Massachusetts office of Halloran Sage.

What Business Owners Are Saying About Their Futures

By Contributor
Wealth Management

The Quiet Countdown

By Alyssa Mandeville

Ask most business owners when they plan to step back from the company they built, and the honest answer is usually “not yet.” But new national research suggests that day is closer than many of them let on — and that the years immediately surrounding it deserve far more planning than they typically get.

Raymond James recently released its 2025 Business Owner Report, a survey of 540 privately held business owners conducted in April 2025. The headline finding is striking: 88% of owners plan to financially exit their business, in part or in full, within the next decade. More than half — 56% — expect to transition their financial stake within just five years. Whether they realize it or not, a large share of the business community is already inside the runway to a major transition.

The encouraging news is that most owners are not flying blind. Eighty-five percent reported having a transition plan in place. That is a meaningful figure, and it reflects a generation of owners who take the responsibility of a smooth handoff seriously — to employees, to customers, and to the families who depend on the business. The harder question is whether those plans extend beyond the operational handoff to the personal financial picture that surrounds it.

That picture is more concentrated than many owners appreciate. The survey found that 44% of owners say their business represents more than half of their total wealth, and nine in 10 say it accounts for at least one-quarter. Among Baby Boomers, the concentration is more pronounced still: 31% reported that more than three-quarters of their personal wealth is tied up in the business — a rate nearly three times higher than among their Gen X and Millennial counterparts.

Concentration like that is the natural result of decades of reinvesting in something you believe in. But it also means that a single event — a sale, a partial recapitalization, or a transfer to the next generation — can reshape an owner’s entire financial life in a matter of months. When most of your net worth is illiquid and bound to one enterprise, the transition is not just a business decision. It is the single largest personal wealth event most owners will ever experience.

What strikes me most about the data is what owners intend to do next. Nearly two-thirds (63%) say they plan to keep working in their business or start or invest in a new venture after they exit their current financial stake. This is not a generation looking to disappear; they are looking to redeploy. And 85% expect they will need a capital infusion to fund their next stage of growth, though there is little consensus on whether that capital should come from private equity, lending, or personal resources. The appetite to build again is alive and well — but it requires liquidity, and liquidity requires planning.

That is where the window matters. In our experience, the 18 to 24 months before and after a transition are the most consequential — and the most overlooked. It is the period when succession structure, income and estate tax mitigation, estate planning, risk management, investment objectives, and short-term personal cash flow all collide at once. Decisions made hastily in that window, or deferred until after a deal closes, are difficult and sometimes impossible to undo. Decisions made deliberately, well in advance, are where real value is preserved.

The practical takeaway for owners is not to rush toward the exit; it is to start the conversation earlier than feels necessary. If you are among the 56% who anticipate a transition within five years, the planning work ideally begins now, not when a buyer appears or a family member raises a hand. And if you are among the 44% whose wealth is heavily concentrated in the business, diversification and liquidity planning deserve a seat at the table long before any transaction is on the horizon.

Business owners are some of the most capable planners I know — it is how they built what they have. The opportunity this research highlights is to bring that same discipline to their personal financial lives, and to treat the transition not as an endpoint, but as the next phase of a long and deliberate plan. The countdown may be quieter than it sounds. The owners who thrive will be the ones who start preparing while there is still plenty of time on the clock.

Alyssa Mandeville is senior vice president, head of Wealth Management at PeoplesBank.

Wall Street Goes Orbital with SpaceX IPO

By Contributor
Wealth Management

Preparing for Takeoff

Brendan Roberts

SpaceX conducted its initial public offering last week at a $1.77 trillion market cap, making it the largest IPO ever; it has surged significantly since. By trading at this valuation, it became a top-10 market cap company on day one, leapfrogging Tesla itself in in the process. SpaceX is also projected to do less than two-thirds the revenue of Tesla this year, all while having negative cash flow.

To put that in perspective, when Google first became public in 2004, it was a $23 billion market cap and didn’t even place in the top 100 companies by market cap. Meta Platforms (Facebook) debuted in 2012 at a $104 billion market cap, placing it inside the top 25 most valuable companies at that time, surpassing heavyweights like Amazon, Citigroup, and McDonald’s.

Artificial intelligence continues to permeate markets the same way the internet captivated the world when it went mainstream in the late ’90s. The IPO window is open, and SpaceX is just the beginning.

Later this year, the companies behind ChatGPT (OpenAI) and Claude Code (Anthropic) are in a full sprint to list their shares publicly as well. They have seen the fastest product adoption since smartphones, the internet, and social media. If you thought launching rockets into space was ambitious, these companies double their revenue every few months. Despite the macro headwinds from multiple global conflicts, persistent inflation, and lower-income consumers under pressure, the markets continue to creep higher. 

Although there are many different polarizing conversations to have about AI and IPOs, we now must consider how these firms fit into our world of investing. Are owning these companies considered high-risk? Is it appropriate for people entering retirement to hold a position like SpaceX, Anthropic, or OpenAI? Are passive indices such as the S&P 500 eventually going to have exposure to these companies? What about my retirement funds? These are the type of client questions we’ve received — and they are timely conversations to have with your financial advisor.

Is Passive Index Investing at Risk?

Passive indexing, the S&P 500 as one example, gives you broad exposure to the U.S. economy by proportionally allocating capital to the largest public companies by market cap weighting. New risks may arise, however, if companies like SpaceX, Anthropic, OpenAI, and others are included in the index well before they generate positive cash flow. If a company cannot generate positive cash flow, it makes it more difficult to support paying a dividend or buying back company stock. Therefore, it’s very unlikely a company can return capital to shareholders until they do generate positive cash flow.

This means, as an investor, most (if not all) of your investment returns must come from price appreciation through the stock price heading higher, which is driven by investor sentiment. 

“Artificial intelligence continues to permeate markets the same way the internet captivated the world when it went mainstream in the late ’90s. The IPO window is open, and SpaceX is just the beginning.”

Although this is certainly a possibility, as it is with any stock, an investor must consider the risks of the stock itself, in addition to the market dynamics at play, to potentially make a positive return on their investment. Many of the early insiders who owned these companies prior to the IPO have already made a ton of money and will advantageously use the IPO as an exit strategy — i.e., sell their shares to capture some, if not all, of their profits.

However, there are lockups involved for insiders and employees, meaning they cannot divest their shares immediately when the stock first begins trading. This could result in many months (if not years) of selling pressure as investors look to ring the register on a company they’ve already made a lot of money from. One may question, what about the passive indices? Won’t they be forced to buy the IPO since it’s projected to be a top 10 market cap company? Not necessarily.

Bending Rules Based Investing

The Nasdaq Composite is an index comprised of the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on the exchange. This index is already dominated primarily by tech, software, and telecommunications sectors. Previously, a stock would have to be a public company for at least three full calendar months before being considered for inclusion in the index.

Surprisingly, Nasdaq implemented a new ‘fast entry’ rule effective May 1 of this year, by which the top 40 non-financial companies can be fast-tracked into the index in as little as 15 days. This is a rule change that occurred just months before the SpaceX IPO, which raised concerns for many investors. 

The S&P 500 index has a rule where a company would have to demonstrate cumulative GAAP profitability over the most recent four consecutive earnings reports to qualify for inclusion in the index. Previously, S&P Global considered making an exclusion for ‘megacap’ companies like the three IPOs discussed today, but they recently changed their tone and said they will not make any exceptions. This means it will likely be some time before SpaceX is included in the S&P 500, as it is not likely to meet the profitability metrics in the near term required for inclusion.

S&P Global is in a difficult position because, if they do not include SpaceX, it could result in a tracking error and possibly worse performance than funds that do choose to allocate capital to the company. Alternatively speaking, if they manipulate their own rules to try to include a company with no cash flow, it could compromise their rules-based investing approach, which has worked for decades.

Active Versus Passive Investing

Actively managed investing involves someone selecting the investments rather than getting exposure to a defined basket of investments as determined by an index fund. For example, someone about to enter retirement or already in retirement may not view SpaceX as an appropriate investment for them, given it’s considered high-risk as measured by its lack of profitability, lofty valuation, and continuous share dilution, among many other risks.

Something else to consider is the tax consequences of where you choose to hold the stock. If the SpaceX IPO is not successful and the stock price falls significantly, you could benefit from realizing a loss in a taxable account as a tax write-off as opposed to a retirement account, where you could not write it off.

Conversely speaking, if SpaceX makes new highs and you have significant gains in a taxable account, you would have to factor in capital gains tax when choosing to sell the position. If it were held in a retirement account, there would be no tax consequences to selling the position at a gain. (With any financial advice, it should be tailored to the individual, family, or institution.)

Unfortunately, there is not a one-size-fits-all solution to decide if these IPOs are appropriate investments for you or not. Fortunately, there are plenty of capable investment professionals to have this conversation with you and help determine what is appropriate for your situation. 

We will be watching these IPOs intently in the coming months. Although the prospect of exposure to such a disruptive and innovative company is compelling on the surface, we remind investors to proceed with extra caution with IPOs, especially when they are widely hyped and sought after by the public.

Brendan Roberts is a portfolio manager at St. Germain Investment Management, serving in a dual role as both an advisor and a member of the firm’s investment policy committee. His responsibilities include equity research, trading, and financial advising.

St. Germain Investment Management does not intend or suggest investment advice through this information. This information is provided for educational purposes only and should not be construed as advice. This presentation has been prepared without consideration to the circumstances and objectives of a particular individual; therefore, investment vehicles mentioned may not be suitable. Investors should carefully consider risks, investment objectives, fees, and potential expenses before investing. Individual results may vary, and past performance does not guarantee future results. Market and economic conditions beyond our control, such as inflation, interest rates, and other exogenous events, may or may not have played a role during the time period, and such conditions or material data, whether in whole or part, does not suggest similar investment outcomes in the future or that such conditions would prevail in like fashion. Neither the data nor rate of return reflect the particular objectives or investment goals of any individual, group, or company at St. Germain Investment Management.

What the SpaceX IPO Means for the Market

By Contributor
Wealth Management

Exploring New Frontiers

Jeffrey Liguori

Momentum behind all things outer space is building rapidly. The aerospace field is advancing quickly toward ambitious goals beyond mere exploration, such as in-space manufacturing, lunar data centers, space-based solar power, lunar mining for rare earths and metals, and space tourism. Space is nearly a $700 billion industry today and likely to surpass $1 trillion in about five years, and $2 trillion by 2040.

For years, exploring and working outside of the Earth’s atmosphere has been almost entirely driven by the governments of sovereign nations, largely dominated by the U.S. and Russia, with China emerging as a powerful competitor in more recent years. Private contractors dabbled in space travel as early as 1982, but with intermittent success, constrained by the enormous amounts of capital required to support an ongoing effort. That all changed in 2002, the year that SpaceX was founded. 

Elon Musk tasked SpaceX with slashing the cost of reaching space to unlock bolder exploration and broaden access, with the long-term aim of making humanity multi-planetary. To bring that vision within reach, SpaceX is building fully reusable rockets and spacecraft that could one day help establish a self-sustaining city beyond Earth.

It is no surprise, given the size of the industry and the bold ideas of the company and its founder and CEO, that the SpaceX initial public stock offering was the largest ever, with a $1.77 trillion market capitalization, or total value, when shares began being sold to the public this month. Until now, the IPO for Visa in 2008 was the largest ever, valuing that company at $20 billion. 

All this makes SpaceX the eighth-largest public company by value on the planet, and one of only two in the top 10 with fewer than 20,000 employees.

Market Indexing and Institutional Buying

While the overall valuation of SpaceX is massive, the company is only selling about 5% of all shares, which means investors only have to deploy between $6 and $8 billion to support the offering, with all proceeds going directly to the company. Musk will retain approximately 42% of equity (with about 85% voting power) after the IPO. 

The pattern in many ‘hot’ IPOs is familiar: a strong opening surge followed by a cooling-off period over the next 12 months. Visa was no exception, climbing roughly 50% in its first month as a public company before briefly trading below its IPO price a year later. For patient shareholders, however, the outcome was far more compelling: the total return of Visa shares since coming public is about 2,500%, versus roughly 725% for the S&P 500 through May 31, 2026.

Visa’s macroeconomic backdrop in the throes of the Great Financial Crisis was far different from today’s market, where equities are hitting new highs almost daily. And past performance is no indication of future results. 

Given SpaceX’s expected size at listing, the company is likely to join the Nasdaq soon after its IPO, creating a potential technical tailwind for the shares. Because many ETFs and other passive funds are required to track the index, inclusion would likely trigger incremental buying demand. Analysts expect that index-related flows could begin roughly 15 days after the offering, providing an additional source of near-term support for the stock.

“This year, individual investors have shown a strong tendency to chase winning stocks, which can make market moves bigger and more volatile.”

The expected timeline is as follows: Nasdaq inclusion roughly 15 days following the IPO, following a rule change that allows SpaceX to qualify. S&P 500 inclusion is likely to be delayed by approximately 12 months because the index did not change its rules. (A company must be profitable for addition to the S&P 500, and despite lobbying efforts on behalf of SpaceX, which isn’t currently profitable, Standard & Poor’s refused to change its rules.)

The Active Retail Investor

You and I — the retail investor — may matter more to SpaceX’s IPO than index funds or other passive buyers. This year, individual investors have shown a strong tendency to chase winning stocks, which can make market moves bigger and more volatile. Much of that buying has been concentrated in semiconductor names such as Nvidia, Micron, SanDisk, and Advanced Micro Devices, as well as in leveraged ETFs tied to those trades.

Those gains are now large enough that retail investors could have an outsized influence on the IPO. If even a small share of recent profits is redirected into SpaceX, demand could be powerful relative to the limited number of shares available for trading.

That could lead to two clear outcomes. First, strong retail demand could push the stock well above expectations after the IPO. Second, investors may sell other recent winners to free up cash to buy SpaceX, which could create short-term pressure in parts of the broader market, especially in leveraged funds, where selling can have an amplified effect.

Investor enthusiasm around a SpaceX IPO may be adding fuel to an already stretched stock market. Many Wall Street strategists warn that AI-driven gains have pushed valuations toward historically elevated levels, increasing the risk of speculative excess. SpaceX could intensify those concerns: at nearly 110 times revenue and with no current profitability, its valuation would reflect exceptionally high expectations for future growth. Even at the peak of the late-1990s tech bubble, valuations generally topped out around 10 times revenue, making SpaceX’s projected multiple extraordinary by historical standards.

Still, the IPO market may suggest a different conclusion. More than 1,100 companies went public during the buildup to the tech bubble from 1998 to 2000 before the market eventually broke. By contrast, only about 235 IPOs have come to market over the past three years, including SpaceX and others expected later this year. If IPO volume offers any signal about the broader market, the current rally may still have room to run.

As always, it is difficult to predict if the SpaceX IPO moves the market to even loftier heights, or marks a turning point whereby stocks come back to earth. Either way, it will be one hell of a ride — pun intended.

Jeffrey Liguori is executive vice president of Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc.

Why a Negotiated Contract Is Critical

By Contributor
Law

If It Cannot Run the Deal, It Cannot Protect the Business

By Tanzi Cannon-Eckerle, Esq.

Contracts are supposed to reflect the ‘meeting of the minds’ of the contracting parties. Yes, that is a legal term. It means the contract is supposed to be well thought out, and that, when Monday morning arrives and something goes sideways, as it inevitably does, both sides should understand the deal the same way.

A contract should not be a stack of recycled clauses, optimistic assumptions, and whatever someone copied from the last transaction. It should be a negotiated operating framework that turns business expectations into actual obligations, decision rights, escalation paths, and exit routes. If the document does not tell the business what performance is expected and what happens when performance slips, costs rise, or milestones move, it is not done. It is simply signed. And those are not the same thing.

By the way, I have heard from many business owners that they do not want to jinx the deal or upset the other company by negotiating or making changes to the contract. Negotiating material terms of the contract is not an offensive act. It is a thoughtful and prudent act, and it is expected by the courts. Furthermore, most companies want to do business with savvy companies that have transparent and honest business practices. A heavily negotiated contract is the epitome of transparent — when you draft what you mean.

When the Contract Is Vague, the Dispute Is Already Brewing

Most contract failures do not begin with villains or cinematic betrayal. They begin with imprecision. Most people leave the signing table thinking the business terms are clear, and then the team responsible for delivery opens the agreement and finds words like ‘timely,’ ‘reasonable,’ ‘commercially acceptable,’ and ‘best efforts.’

Tanzi Cannon-Eckerle

“A contract should not be a stack of recycled clauses, optimistic assumptions, and whatever someone copied from the last transaction. It should be a negotiated operating framework that turns business expectations into actual obligations, decision rights, escalation paths, and exit routes.”

Those are legal terms with legal meaning for sure. But for operational purposes, those phrases are only workable right up until a launch date slips, a service level is missed, or a deliverable turns out to be neither clearly defined nor practically achievable. The terms need to be clearly defined in plain language and measurable. Otherwise, operators are set up to fail, and a dispute is teed up for the first round of litigation.

What smart leaders do instead: they force the contract to say what the deal actually is. Deadlines. Service levels. Acceptance criteria. Payment triggers. Dependencies. Who approves what. What happens if any of those things fail. If a supplier reads a delivery date as aspirational and the customer has built a production schedule around it as fixed, the dispute did not begin later. It began in the drafting. The same goes for “full onboarding support,” “industry standard quality,” or “small event.” Those are not terms; those are opinions. If the contract leaves core obligations to assumption, the parties are not aligned. They are simply optimistic. Draft what you mean.

Boilerplate Is Where Leverage Hides

Executives sometimes treat boilerplate as background noise — the legal equivalent of the fine print nobody reads on the back of the shampoo bottle. That is a mistake. Those supposedly standard provisions often determine where a dispute gets decided, how notice must be given, whether a missed deadline can be cured, what damages are recoverable, and whether a party can force performance or is left holding a claim for money after the operational damage is already done. Boilerplate is often where the real allocation of business risk is hiding in plain sight. Don’t just cut and paste.

I have seen contracts Frankensteined together from well-loved templates where one clause requires litigation in Massachusetts and another mandates arbitration in New York. That is not efficiency. That is deferred cost wearing a nice suit. The same is true when a company signs a form saying time is ‘of the essence’ while the internal team is quietly thinking, ‘well, within reason.’ If the contract says one thing and operations is prepared to do another, legal will eventually be cleaning up the misunderstanding with invoices attached.

The operational takeaway: treat every clause that affects timing, money, remedies, notice, forum, exclusivity, or termination as a business term. If it changes leverage when something goes wrong, it is not filler.

If You Did Not Negotiate the Exit, You Did Not Finish the Deal

A surprising number of contracts explain (at length) how to begin a relationship and then get very coy about how to end one. That is a problem. There is nothing wrong with a prenup. Every meaningful agreement should address not only termination for cause and termination for convenience, but also what happens when one party signals ahead of time that it is not going to perform. That is called ‘anticipatory breach.’

It is not letting anyone off the hook, either — it is smart and practical and anticipates that things happen. If your supplier tells you in June that it cannot possibly make a September delivery, you should not be forced to sit there politely until the formal breach date arrives like some sort of legal waiting room. 

What belongs in the contract: clear, practicable, and articulable exit rights. Who can terminate, on what grounds, after what notice, with what cure period, and with what post-termination duties. Can the customer walk for convenience on 30 or 60 days notice? Does the vendor get paid for work properly performed and non-cancelable commitments? Is there transition support or data return? And if anticipatory breach is in play, define what statements or conduct count, whether adequate assurances can be demanded, and how long the other side has to respond.

Remedies Deserve the Same Level of Practical Thinking

If delay creates measurable but hard-to-prove harm, liquidated damages may make sense, but only if they are drafted as a reasonable pre-estimate of likely loss. In real life, that means tying the number to something you can explain with a straight face: downtime costs, lost margin on delayed production, replacement costs, service credit exposure, or the carrying cost of idle labor and equipment. Where money is not enough, the contract should also preserve the right to seek specific performance and injunctive relief. Courts do not hand those remedies out automatically. If they matter, draft it.

A Signed Contract Still Needs an Owner

Even an excellent contract can fail if nobody owns execution after signature. This is why contract management should not be treated as clerical aftercare. It should be part of someone’s official duties, with authority and accountability to monitor milestones, approvals, change orders, notice deadlines, renewal dates, pricing adjustments, service levels, insurance certificates, and termination triggers. Once the agreement is signed, someone should be responsible for translating it into operational reality for the people who now have to live inside it.

What that looks like in the real world: a company misses an automatic renewal cutoff because no one owned the calendar, and suddenly it is committed to another year of underperforming service it never wanted. Strong contract management does not eliminate risk. It catches the problem before it grows teeth.

What Smart Operators Negotiate Up Front

For CEOs and COOs, the playbook is not academic. It is operational discipline in legal form:

• Write in executable terms. If the people running the deal cannot tell what happens next, the document is not ready.

• Negotiate for failure, not just success. Define what counts as breach, anticipatory breach, delay, non-conformity, and inadequate assurance.

• Build an exit before you need one. Termination rights, cure periods, transition support, data return, and payment consequences should be explicit. This is not expecting failure; it is just being prepared.

• Match remedies to real business harm. Use liquidated damages where losses are hard to measure, and preserve specific performance or injunctive relief where money is not enough.

• Assign an owner after signature. Contract management should be an actual responsibility, not an assumption. It is an essential function. 

• Document changes while the relationship is healthy. If scope, pricing, or deadlines move, the paper should move with them. Review contracts often. 

Heavily negotiated contracts are often the cheapest contracts a company will ever sign. The time spent clarifying scope, defining remedies, pressure-testing exit rights, and aligning the document with actual operations is almost always less expensive than litigating ambiguity later. A good general counsel does not just mark up clauses and hand back a cleaner draft. The job is to translate business reality into contractual architecture that protects the company when the relationship is working — and when it is not.

The Bottom Line for CEOs and COOs

Most contract disputes do not begin with dramatic table-flip moments. They begin with avoidable ambiguity, weak ownership, and a document that never captured how the business expected the relationship to function in real life. A contract must clearly express the deal, define the early warning signs of failure, and provide a practical off-ramp when performance breaks down. When that work is done well up front, companies spend less time arguing about what they meant and more time doing what they set out to do.

For more information about drafting contracts or fractional general counsel services, reach out to Tanzi Cannon-Eckerle at General Counsel by Cannon, PLLC, a New England-based labor and employment and business law firm offering fractional general counsel services in New England; [email protected]

CISA Helps Drive the Region’s Farming Community

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Experts in Their Field

Jennifer Core is certainly familiar with the myriad challenges facing the region’s farms these days.

Indeed, she and her husband, Olivier Flagollet, operate Heddy Bell Farm, a livestock farm in rural Warwick, specializing in beef, lamb, pork, Thanksgiving turkeys, and more.

“We see it all, every day,” said Core, who, through that operation, became familiar with, and supportive of, the nonprofit agency CISA (Community Involved with Sustaining Agriculture) and its broad mission to build a stronger, more resilient, and more just local food system.

So supportive, in fact, that when longtime Executive Director Phil Korman retired in 2025, she sought to succeed him in that role.

One of CISA’s primary missions is to promote the region’s nearly 2,000 farms and everything they produce.

“CISA has been this cherished place in my heart and mind for a long time,” she said. “I feel fortunate to have landed at CISA, where we celebrate all the farms in this area and talk about the issues that impact farms, educate and engage the community — and now, I get to see it from the other side.”

For this issue, we talked at length with Core and others at CISA about the state of farming in Western Mass., and about CISA’s mission and how it carries it out.

Regarding the former, she said this region boasts a strong, vibrant farming community, one that is diverse — everything from livestock to vegetables; hay to fruit trees — and features many young, first-generation operators. But it’s also one that, like farms across the country, faces numerous challenges.

“According to a recent legislative report, two-thirds of the farms in Massachusetts are earning about 95.5 cents for every dollar they spend on their farm operations.”

They range from various climate change-induced weather extremes — at present, it’s persistent drought — to succession issues involving the many family farms that remain, to the pressures facing all large landowners during an ongoing housing crisis.

And then, there’s simple economics.

“According to a recent legislative report, two-thirds of the farms in Massachusetts are earning about 95.5 cents for every dollar they spend on their farm operations,” she said. “And that’s important to understand … that’s not sustainable, and that’s why many farmers need multiple careers.

“If I were ever to be stuck on an island with one other person in the world, I would want it to be a farmer — because farmers tend to know how to do a lot of things, how to problem solve, and how to work really hard creatively,” she went on. “And that is asked of them every day in this economy, in the recent past and moving forward.”

From left, Claire Morton, Margaret Christie, and Jennifer Core handle the many aspects of CISA’s broad mission.

And CISA exists essentially to assist farmers with all they must confront, said Margaret Christie, special projects director, who has been with the agency almost from its beginning in in the early ’90s. And this assistance comes in many forms, from workshops on issues ranging from succession to irrigation to climate change, to targeted programs such as the Local Hero ‘buy local’ campaign and an emergency farm fund that provides zero-interest loans to assist farmers and farm businesses struggling to meet their immediate needs in the aftermath of severe weather events and other emergencies.

“We try to be a one-stop shop, which doesn’t mean we can solve every problem that every person has,” said Christie, who, like others we spoke with, described CISA as a resource, but also an important connector, linking farmers with experts and information.

Claire Morenon, CISA’s communications manager, agreed, noting that many of the agency’s initiatives, and part of its mission, is to create opportunities to both support the region’s farmers and address food insecurity issues in the region.

Such efforts include the Senior Farmshare program, which subsidizes summer CSAs for low-income seniors, and HIP (Healthy Incentives Program), which offers individuals and families in the Bay State receiving SNAP benefits an automatic rebate on purchases of fruits and vegetables from farmers markets, farm stands, mobile markets, and CSAs.

“We talk about that program being a win-win program — it increases food access for low-income people, but it’s also an important revenue stream for farmers,” Morenon said. “In larger conversations about policy and how we want to see our local food system be supported in a more general sense, we’re thinking about solutions that are at the intersection of benefiting the larger community, but also providing really important financial support for farms.”

By the Numbers

Core told BusinessWest that the latest census data shows there are nearly 2,000 farms across Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden counties (CISA’s service area), 94% of them are family farms, and about one-third of them sell directly to consumers through farmstands, CSAs, and farmers markets. The value of what’s produced in the three-county area is more than $162 million, she noted, adding that this is more than one-third of what’s produced across the Bay State.

The buy-local thrust so critical to its messaging is essentially how CISA started.

The most popular crops are mixed vegetables, feed corn, hay, and tobacco, she went on, adding that many of those managing area farms would be considered first generation, an encouraging sign for the region.

“The vast majority of the farms in this area are new and beginning farmers, meaning they’re first-generation farmers,” Core said. “Many came to this region for school — our higher education activities in this region draw young people, and we’re talking more about food systems at the university level than ever, which piques a lot of interest.

“A lot of folks who come to farming from a values perspective or an academic interest may not stay in production farming,” she went on. “But they may end up in ag-adjacent careers, system careers, so it is driving a tremendous amount of economic activity.”

When asked how these farms, and all the region’s farms, are doing, she said they are holding their own given all they have to contend with.

“There are a few compounding factors at play right now. Climate is one; the norm now is that farmers have to be ready for any possibility all the time, and that’s a pretty risky endeavor and a costly endeavor. We’ve had late frosts, we’ve had early frosts, we’ve had drought, we’ve had extreme precipitation events, flooding events … and all of those take a toll on crop production in our area.

“That is combined with incredibly increased input costs,” she went on, listing everything from gasoline to fertilizer. And then, there’s a pinch in the agricultural labor market with recent immigration efforts, “which have created an incredible amount of stress on the agricultural workforce, which is a very skilled and valued workforce in our area.”

All this helps explain why many farmers need other sources of income, usually second jobs, said Core, adding that this is an understandably difficult proposition given how taxing farm work is.

“We try to be a one-stop shop, which doesn’t mean we can solve every problem that every person has.”

And it also explains why farm owners are feeling extreme pressure when it comes to keeping their land devoted to farming.

“There’s tremendous development pressure — both housing and solar pressure,” she told BusinessWest. “It’s a lot easier to put solar on agricultural land — it’s flat and accessible. And there’s a vulnerability in farming … when we think about farm transitions and succession planning, that’s a very vulnerable moment for the farmland itself if it’s not protected.

“We’re lucky to live in a state that has exceptional farmland protection programs — that’s something we should all be proud of, that our taxpayer dollars do protect farmland,” she went on. “But farmers are particularly vulnerable for financial reasons; most of the farm equity serves as retirement funds for retiring farmers, most of the time. Balancing and weighing the tradeoffs of how you can pass the business on to another grower or whether you need to liquidate your assets is a tricky moment and an incredibly personal decision, but a decision that could actually impact all of us.”

Planting Seeds

When asked what climate change has brought to this region and those 2,000 farms, Christie said it’s not one specific pattern such as warmer temperatures or more rain.

Profitability has become a key issue for area farms.

“The short answer is that weather is less predictable and more extreme, meaning that we’re more likely to have drought and more likely to have floods,” she explained. “Our rain tends to come in bigger, more precipitous events — we get more rainfall in shorter periods of time rather than more gentle rainfall that is spread out, and that causes drainage problems and erosion problems, and can cause flooding, as we saw in 2023.

“Sometimes, people think that, ‘well, if the climate’s getting warmer, we’ll just be able to grow things that normally don’t grow well here because we’re too far north — all we have to do is shift our product mix,’” she went on. “But, in fact, the weather is getting more erratic and more extreme, so it’s more difficult to plan and make adjustments.”

Helping farmers cope with these extremes and unpredictability is just one of many forms of assistance provided by CISA, she continued, adding that such help generally falls into one of three buckets: business support, including training and technical assistance for both farm and food businesses; promotion of local farms and communication about agriculture and local food; and “making the system work bett`er,” as she put it, meaning the larger system of both farming and food access.

And a big part of that category is advocacy, she went on, adding that this takes many forms, including work to monitor progress on both the federal and state farm bills now working their way through the legislative process, and help ensure that they support that constituency.

Overall, CISA does act as a connector, Christie said, adding that, for some issues, the agency can and will refer farmers to groups such as the UMass Cooperative Extension for production issues, and Land for Good for succession matters.

Promotion of the region’s farms is one of the key aspects of CISA’s mission, Morenon said, adding that the primary goals are to inform area residents of all that is produced in the region and then encourage local buying.

And a key instrument in this work is the Local Hero campaign, the longest-running ‘buy local’ program in the country. It has grown into a comprehensive public awareness and marketing effort with 400 local business members, including farms, farmers markets, distributors, butcher shops, and more.

“This was one of the first ideas that CISA was founded on — the idea that using mainstream media tools to promote local farms and local farm products could be a really powerful way to help farms survive, and not just survive but thrive,” Morenon told BusinessWest, adding that the initiative includes advertisements to alert residents about what’s in season as well as an online database of farms that are part of CISA’s program, detailing what they grow and where their products can be found.

“A lot of other communications work is about helping farmers and other local food businesses tell their own stories,” she went on. “And that’s about highlighting the people who are part of this larger food system and helping them make connections to the community around them.”

This buy-local thrust was essentially how CISA started, she continued, adding that it has branched out in different directions since, including technical assistance and programs designed to address both food insecurity and the needs of farmers.

And that technical assistance takes several forms and addresses a number of issues, from immigration to disaster response, with many of them involving the larger issue of profitability, said Christie, citing those numbers mentioned earlier, as well as the attention given to inflation and the higher cost of going to the grocery store.

Often lost in that dialogue is the plight of farmers producing those products.

“We have prioritized low prices for food, even though, right now, food prices feel high to many people, and they’re not wrong — food prices are high,” she noted. “No one would blame people for wanting prices to come down, but it’s also true that we don’t really pay enough for food to ensure that farmers can pay their workers well, take care of their land, and make sure that their own families are able to be comfortable and send their kids to college and plan for retirement.”

Educating the public on such matters is just one of the many ways CISA goes about its mission of helping farmers grow crops, but also grow their business. 

Greenfield Savings Bank’s State House Visit Emphasizes Collaboration

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Back on the Bus

Secretary Eric Paley says Massachusetts will not thrive as it should unless all regions of the Commonwealth, from the 413 to the 617, are doing well.

Eric Paley calls it “one of my biggest concerns — maybe my biggest concern that keeps me up at night.”

Specifically, “we have a very robust economy, but there’s tremendous economic dispersion. So how do we handle the fact that we have this K-shaped economy throughout Massachusetts?” said Paley, Massachusetts’ secretary of Economic Development, using a term for an uneven growth environment where different segments of the economy or population experience different outcomes.

And in grappling with that question, he knows he’s accountable to not only dozens of sectors, but 351 municipalities.

“The people on the ground, they’re the ones who know what matters in their community,” he went on. “So we can’t sit here thinking we know all the answers to solving the problems in those communities.”

In the spirit of mutual education, communication, and collaboration, Greenfield Savings Bank hosted its third annual bus tour to the State House on June 3, bringing about 50 regional business and nonprofit leaders to Boston to speak with legislators and department and committee chairs about economic development, discuss issues ranging from housing to clean energy to transportation, and hear about the legislative process that moves the needle on all of it.

The importance of those “people on the ground” is why Paley conducts roundtables in local communities, he said, in addition to the one that came to him on this occasion, as he gave the main address over lunch in a Senate meeting room.

“It’s why I want to talk to the bankers — because the bankers tend to invest in and support businesses that, on paper, make no sense whatsoever. It’s because they know the people, and they’re willing to commit and support those people,” he said. “Sometimes people have misconceptions about bankers, but community banks step up in ways that are extraordinary, and I see it all the time.”

Tara Brewster, Greenfield Savings Bank’s vice president of Business Development and director of Philanthropy, said the annual trip keeps building on previous successes.

“We have new people on the bus each year, making meaningful connections with each other in the 413 as we travel to the 617, to the State House, to make meaningful connections with the elected officials there,” she told BusinessWest on the ride home. “We heard from so many amazing elected officials, senators, representatives, chairs, all listening about how they want to help all of Massachusetts strengthen each other.

“We have amazing elected officials, and we know they do the hard work every day, every week, every month, to really champion us in Western Massachusetts, and it was time for us to start doing some of our own heavy lifting for them,” Brewster added, describing how the annual trip came together two years ago. “So this has been such an incredible trip, so meaningful, toward collaboration, friendship making, bridge building, and convening of Western Mass. constituents, both nonprofit and for-profit.”

“The people on the ground, they’re the ones who know what matters in their community. So we can’t sit here thinking we know all the answers to solving the problems in those communities.”

Paley pointed to a February report by JPMorgan Chase & Co. that surveyed business owners nationwide. Among Massachusetts employers, positivity about their own business was well above the national average, but when asked about the overall economy, they were much less positive than the national average.

“When I go to groups of business owners, a lot of people start shaking their heads and tell me, ‘I worry about it.’ But why are we so negative?” he went on. “I think some of it is, we are disproportionately affected by a lot of the federal policies today. The whole country’s felt a lot of volatility around this. You think of something like tariffs — we are a very heavy exporter of money. That doesn’t explain it alone, but that is key.

“Then there’s immigration — we are a top five immigration state. I didn’t know that we have more immigration per capita in Massachusetts than Texas does; that kind of blew me away. But as we’ve seen ICE crackdowns and all this anti-immigration stuff, the sense that people can’t get visas, borders are closed … I think that’s created a lot of anxiety. Some people are not coming to work because they’re so worried about raids.

“And then the biggest one that I think is unique to us is our research economy, which is a huge engine of our overall economy,” Paley explained. “We get more federal research dollars than any state in the country, and there’s been a huge cutback in federal research. So a lot of the universities are really struggling. UMass is a really great example of that, but every major research institution has massive uncertainty.”

Developing Matters

Peter Albero says legislators have responded positively to Greenfield Savings Bank’s annual bus trip.

In another session on June 3, Carole Fiola, House chair of the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies, addressed a number of topics, including the importance of both collaboration and persistence when it comes to getting things done — because no projects move as quickly as their proponents would like.

As one example, she cited South Coast Rail, a $1 billion project connecting Boston and Southeastern Mass. that was 30 years in the planning and development before coming to fruition last year.

“With 351 cities and towns, everyone wants the attention of the administration; everybody wants that infrastructure grant, right?” Fiola said. “So you’ve got to be focused, you’ve got to have a good message, you’ve got to have an idea of how the funding streams can work, and the private-public partnerships that would be needed.”

Especially over a 30-year timeline, she added, “administrations change. Some of the community leaders change. And as elected officials move and change, priorities can change — but if your priority hasn’t changed, you’ve got to stay with it. I can’t repeat that enough because, finally, after 30 years, it happened.”

Later, Secretary of Housing and Livable Communities Juana Mattias said constituents need to bring similar energy and persistence to matters like housing stock, which has become a serious concern for communities of all sizes across Western Mass.

“Showing up to those town meetings, showing up to those discussions and saying, ‘this is where the business community stands,’ ‘this is where the nonprofit community stands,’ writing op-eds in your local newspaper, all makes a huge difference,” Mattias noted. “We have to organize and understand, who are the partners at the state level, at the regional level? What are the stories we’re bringing to the forefront?

“It’s reminding [state and local leaders], ‘you had an opportunity to raise your family. Your kids had an opportunity to leverage the public school system. What we want to do is make sure that other people have the same opportunity.’ It has huge implications on our ability to remain the state that we are. So organizing and leveraging your voices is critically important.”

Others who spoke to the bus trip participants included state Sens. Jo Comerford and Barry Finegold and state Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, and the day concluded with a tour of the State House. But the liveliest conversation emerged from Paley’s talk, which touched on everything from Community One Stop for Growth, a streamlined application portal and collaborative review process of grant programs, to a recent effort to lower LLC filing fees for small businesses.

“We are a global competitor. People don’t even realize, if Massachusetts were a country, we would be the fourth most productive economy in the world by GDP per capita,” he said. “So we want to attract global investment. We get a lot of it anyway, but we need to really build business development programs and activities around this.”

He also touted a ‘one Massachusetts’ model, noting that “people in Greater Boston need to understand Boston ultimately will not thrive if the whole state is not thriving. The rest of the state also needs to appreciate it; if the region inside 128 or 495 is not thriving, the rest of the state won’t. We are one state.”

“We have amazing elected officials, and we know they do the hard work every day, every week, every month, to really champion us in Western Massachusetts, and it was time for us to start doing some of our own heavy lifting for them.”

Paley also discussed continuing conversations around affordability in Massachusetts and how that affects outmigration, and, as a related matter, the importance of talent capture amid all that movement. “We think we have the best talent engine in the world,” he noted, “but a disproportionate percentage of it leaves.”

Keeping the Conversation Alive

State Sen. Jo Comerford addresses a gathering of about 50 Western Mass. business and nonprofit leaders at the State House.

A former venture capitalist who shifted to a career in public service, Paley said he’s constantly learning new things every day, and those emphases on learning, communication, and listening framed a busy day in Boston for the Western Mass. contingent.

“I’m learning stuff I’ve never seen before, being challenged in ways I’ve never been before,” he said. “I literally feel like the limit might be my capacity to learn as fast as I want to learn. I remember feeling like that in college, wishing there was a way to inject the knowledge. I feel that way again. It’s been incredibly exciting and challenging.”

Peter Albero, president and CEO of Greenfield Savings Bank, said he hoped all the guests on the bus trip embraced the same spirit of learning and collaboration.

“We think it’s important for Greenfield Savings Bank to bring all these organizations in Western Massachusetts to Boston to voice their concerns and hear directly from the legislators about what they’re doing to address those concerns,” he told BusinessWest.

“We think, as a community bank, one of our main missions is to bring the community together, and we think this is one of the best ways we can do it,” he added. “This is our third year in a row doing this, and when we talk to legislators, they think it’s important for us to continue to do this year in and year out. So we’ll be back next year and in the years to come.” 

Dr. Andrew Lam Keeps Writing New Chapters

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Features Special Coverage Where Are They Now?

Dr. Andrew Lam inside the restored Brewer-Young mansion

Where Are They Now?

It’s called the ‘Cobra Effect.’

And Dr. Andrew Lam is more than happy to explain.

“In India in the 1800s, the British in Delhi had a problem: there were too many cobras. So they said, ‘let’s make a bounty on cobras; if the people bring us a dead cobra, we’ll pay them,’” he explained. “At first, it seemed to be going great; they were getting all these cobras, and the native cobra population declined. But for some reason, the cobras kept coming, and they realized people were breeding cobras so they could get paid for them. So they stopped doing the bounty, and then the people released their cobras into the wild because they were worthless, and that increased the cobra population.

“It was a classic backfiring of a well-intended policy,” Lam went on, noting that he made this case part of a chapter in his latest book, called What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Unintended Consequences, Unnecessary Blunders, and the Urgency of Avoiding Tomorrow’s Mistakes.

It is expected to be released early next year, said Lam, who gave BusinessWest a sneak preview of sorts — a breakdown of tentatively titled chapters and cases to be explored within them. 

In the chapter called “Resist the Easy Fix,” he looks at China’s one-child policy, price freezes, and rent controls. In one called “Assume Your Invention Will Be Misused,” he explores the work of the Wright Brothers, Alfred Nobel, and Richard Gatling, as well as developments such as AI. And in a chapter called “Do Good Carefully,” he addresses Prohibition and the Bay of Pigs.

We’ll get back to What Could Possibly Go Wrong? later. It represents just that latest … well, chapter in Lam’s story, and there are many of them, all ongoing.

Dr. Andrew Lam has written four books, with a fifth slated for release next year.

Let’s start with his day job. He’s a senior partner at New England Retina Consultants and professor at UMass Medical School. And there are his books, several of them now. The others are Saving Sight, in which he describes his life as a retinal surgeon while also telling the stories of doctors whose inventions make saving sight possible; Repentance, an award-winning novel drawn from the heroic story of a Japanese-American regiment that fought in World War II; Two Sons of China: A Novel of the Second World War; and The Masters of Medicine: Our Greatest Triumphs in the Race to Cure Humanity’s Deadliest Diseases.

And then, there’s his work in the community of Longmeadow. He started on the Historical Commission, later served on the Finance Committee, and, in 2024 was elected to the Board of Selectmen.

“I enjoy doing everything I can to help make Longmeadow better,” he said. “And I’m particularly passionate about helping to steer a prudent fiscal course.”

Meanwhile, Lam and partners Henry Clement and Chris Orszulak restored the historic Brewer-Young mansion on Longmeadow Street into co-working space called Modern Workspace. The venture, which had to endure its own battle to win approval from town board and, ultimately, town meeting voters, has successfully transformed the landmark, which had fallen into deep disrepair, into home for a wide array of professionals.

And just this past week, Lam gave the keynote speech as Longmeadow celebrated the nation’s 250th birthday party with an event on the town green.

Most of the above has happened since he was named a 40 Under Forty winner in 2014. Back then, he had two books published — Saving Sight and Two Sons of China — and was just starting to get involved with the town, on the Center School Council and Longmeadow Soccer Assoc., for example.

He’s added to the résumé in both realms, especially as a public servant, which he finds rewarding, but worlds apart from his work as a retinal surgeon, as he explained.

“I don’t think there’s anything as antithetical to the skills and attitude of being a surgeon as being in government,” he said. “As a surgeon, you learn to be decisive, and sometimes the stakes are extremely high. In government, it’s the exact opposite; it moves like molasses, and things that seem like common sense take a long time because of the process.”

For this latest installment in its Where Are They Now? series, we look at the many aspects of Lam’s life and career, and how he makes time for them all.

Learning from History

Dr. Andrew Lam in 2014, when he was named to the 40 Under Forty.

In his address to those assembled at Longmeadow’s 250th celebration, Lam offered some history lessons about men from Longmeadow who left their homes to travel to Boston the day after the battles of Lexington and Concord — men whose names now grace streets and open spaces in town: Captain Simon Colton, Medad Stebbins, and others.

He also offered some thoughts on the nation’s first 250 years and the forces that have shaped its trajectory.

“History shows us the story of American progress is not a straight line upward,” he said. “It has always involved setbacks, disagreements, sacrifice, and renewal. It has included grievous errors, from slavery to prejudice, nativism, and some wars fought abroad that contributed to untold havoc and suffering. 

“We’ve made mistakes, but the difference between us and the monarchies and dictatorships of the past and present is that our system allows us to recognize those mistakes and correct them,” he went on. “We do not have to pretend we are perfect. We can believe we have an excellent form of government and that America can be a force for good in the world, without insisting that we are exceptional or somehow better than people in other nations.”

These comments display Lam’s passion for history, public service, and learning lessons from past mistakes with an eye toward not repeating them. And these passions have driven his writing, which covers considerable ground — from China during World War II to efforts to cure deadly diseases — and different genres.

“A smart author would only do the same kind of book every time because you make a ton of connections with reviewers and readers,” he explained. “When I did the historical novels, I got lots of connections with people who write blogs and reviewers and podcasts on that subject. And with the medical books, I made a lot of connections. But I can only write well if I’m really interested and fascinated by the subject.”

This mindset includes his latest effort, which is much more than a comprehensive listing of things that have gone wrong over the years, everything from plastic bag bans to desegregation busing; tariffs to geoengineering; the ill-fated bullet train between Los Angeles and San Francisco to overreaction to the ‘shoe bomber.’

It’s also a look into what drives these failures — the cognitive biases, emotional drivers, and systemic blind spots that consistently derail even the most thoughtful plans.

“With optimism bias, we plan for perfection,” he explained, adding that this mindset drives everything from cities staging the Olympics to towns (like Longmeadow) building new DPW facilities, to people scheduling their day and leaving for appointments. And this bias helps explain why things go wrong — and why people are late.

“People expect there to be no traffic, no parking problems — we do this all the time in our daily lives; we’ll leave at the last second, for everything,” he said, adding that this is just one tiny example of how thinking everything will go right is a major contributor to things ultimately going wrong.

By cataloging some of the more infamous things that have gone wrong over the years, Lam hopes these cautionary tales can perhaps prevent future calamities on many different scales.

“This book covers our worst mistakes in government, business, medicine, the military, and more,” he said. “The idea is to learn lessons from these errors and apply them to future problems.”

The Write Stuff

Like most authors, Lam said that, even before his latest book has been published, he’s thinking about the next one.

He has an idea, but isn’t ready to share it just yet. Suffice to say it will address something he’s passionate about — and that certainly covers a lot of ground. 

Firm Commitment

By
Features Law Special Coverage

From left: Frederick Sullivan, Meghan Sullivan, Gordon Quinn, and Layla Taylor.

Early in 2000, on one of her first days on the job at Sullivan, Hayes & Quinn, Meghan Sullivan visited a lead smelting and refining plant in New York, one of the firm’s clients.

Her father, Frederick, the founding partner who co-created the firm in 1976, asked the plant manager to give her a tour.

“I thought, all right, I’m going to go walk around the plant. And all of a sudden, I’m being sized up for the respirator mask for my face,” said Meghan, now managing partner. “I was in there climbing ladders to look down into smelters, and when I came out, I asked, ‘why did you make me spend three hours doing that?’ And he said, ‘so you understand.’

“It was a wonderful learning moment — that we are obligated to understand a client, more than just what their statement of purpose is when they file their incorporation, and to have as broad an experience as possible, so we can picture it when our client calls and says, ‘this is the issue we have today.’ We’re able to understand it and picture it so that we can give relevant advice, not just something out of a book that’s theoretical.”

And plenty has changed in the 50 years since Frederick Sullivan and Dick Hayes hung a shingle in Springfield. As the firm reflects on this milestone year, its attorneys also recognize the many changes that have emerged in labor and employment law over a half-century.

“When I joined the firm in 1990, there was no Family Medical Leave Act. The American Disabilities Act came online later in the year I joined,” Partner Gordon Quinn said. “The whole concept of sexual harassment in employment, was still a novel legal claim. And there’s been an explosion of laws that have happened since then.

“Just look at the leave laws,” he went on, citing not just the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, but Massachusetts’ Earned Sick Time and Paid Family and Medical Leave laws. “It’s become a much more challenging environment for employers because of this mushrooming of laws.”

“We’re able to understand it and picture it so that we can give relevant advice, not just something out of a book that’s theoretical.”

Frederick couldn’t have predicted all of that, but said he fell in love with this area of the law at at an early age and found someone equally enthusiastic when he met Hayes, and the rest is history — a constantly changing, evolving history.

In the beginning, he said, the primary focuses were union organizing, collective bargaining, strikes, and wage and hour issues, all working on behalf of the employer, as remains the case today. “But we have seen great changes within the discipline. And we were able to stay abreast of it — and try to stay ahead of it.”

“We’re all nimble,” Partner Layla Taylor said, and that goes for tools of the trade as well as ever-changing laws and regulations. “One of the things I’ve appreciated since I’ve been here is, whenever there’s a new technology or there’s a new thing that we need to adopt, we’re pretty quick to adopt it. We all recognize that we need to be able to speak with the same tools as our peers.”

The firm is also deeply collaborative, Quinn said.

“If I have an issue or a question about immigration law, I know I’m going to be talking to Layla. Or if there’s something that could involve a criminal issue, I’ll talk to Meghan. If it’s a really heavy-duty labor law issue, I’ll talk to Fred. We all have open-door policies, and we’re all in constant communication. We talk to each other.”

“We always looked upon ourselves as the partners of the entrepreneur, trying to accomplish what the entrepreneur sought, but to do it in a lawful way, in a way that was really the right way when it came to employees.”

And not only at formal meetings, he added. “We just go into each other’s offices. If it’s a complex issue, I’ll say, ‘have you handled an issue like this before?’ And that’s invaluable. We’re not all cubbyholing in our offices. We all interact with each other, ask each other questions. And I’ve found that very rewarding. I’ve always felt secure in the advice I give, not only from the research I do, but also being able to talk to people and work it out and think about things from a different perspective.”

Proactive Strategy

The partners emphasized that their roles don’t stop with actual issues that arise, and the negotiation and/or litigation that follows. That’s where experiences like the lead plant tour come in — Sullivan, Hayes & Quinn prioritizes understanding a client’s business inside and out, so they can identify potential employee issues and legal landmines that might arise, before it’s too late.

“As much as everyone wants to avoid litigation, we all feel very fortunate that we consistently have clients who are just inclined to do what they’re supposed to do — to do the right thing and be fair,” Meghan said. “So that’s nice, when we come in and navigate situations that can feel very complex. We also know that our clients are partners with us in trying to make sure that the way that they’re treating their employees is the way that they would want to be treated, or would want their own family members to be treated.”

Quinn agreed. “A typical question might be, ‘we have an employee, and there’s an absentee issue there.’ We try to be proactive, obviously, to help them navigate those laws to avoid what we call landmines — a misstep that could lead to costly litigation and vast defense costs. So the proliferation of all these laws — and that’s just in the leave and absence area — have made it a lot more interesting for us, and a lot more challenging for our clients.”

From the very beginning, Frederick said, “going back to the days of Dick Hayes and myself, we always looked upon ourselves as the partners of the entrepreneur, trying to accomplish what the entrepreneur sought, but to do it in a lawful way, in a way that was really the right way when it came to employees, because that went to the question of productivity, too.

“So it’s been an interesting 50 years, with the people that we’ve met. We’ve worked with casinos. We’ve worked with convents. We’ve worked with zoos, hospitals, colleges, museums, public sector employers in schools and towns … just about every type of employer. And we’ve met wonderful people along the way who basically wanted to do the right thing. They wanted to be successful, and they realized there is a real art to managing people.”

Meghan said she enjoys the educational aspect of the job, as it applies to helping companies understand how — and why — to do the right thing.

“I love doing trainings. Whether I’m presenting to college professors or third-shift factory workers, I know that I have an ability to take this abyss of legal compliance and make it understandable.

“Every employment law, just like every labor law, gets presented as if it’s an employer’s obligation and an employee’s right,” she went on. “But frequently, they’re mutual rights and mutual obligations. So I love that part of the work that we do, where we get to go into this diverse set of workforces with vastly different types of jobs and talk about what it means to be an employee or a supervisor and the fact that it is mutual.”

And she understands the limits of legal consulting, especially when it runs into bottom-line issues. “I very much appreciate when we are dealing with people who want to do the right things. But we know they can’t just do everything that someone demands because every budget is only so large, and they need to have the ability to make payroll after that.

“But when we help a client navigate a murky situation, and the result of it is satisfactory to the employer, but also satisfactory in a way that that employee-employer relationship is not completely disturbed or that doesn’t lead to a massive morale issue, that’s always a happy day. To resolve a situation artfully means considering the bigger picture of what it means to be a manager or a supervisor, and you still need a workforce that wants to continue.”

Never a Dull Moment

Whether it’s working with issues of discrimination and harassment, wage and hour, labor relations, workplace safety, or any number of other employment matters, the constant evolution of workplace laws is, on a personal level, very intellectually fulfilling, Taylor said.

“If you’ve been doing this long enough — and all of us here have been — you start seeing the history of the American workforce, and how that evolves. And it’s a really fascinating thing.”

Indeed, the team brings plenty of institutional knowledge to work every day; Taylor came on board in 2003, the most recently of the four.

“Not only has there been a proliferation of laws, but the administrative agency involvement in the legal process has evolved,” she said. “And now we’re starting to see emergent things that we hadn’t seen before. AI is one of them — and the impact that’s having on the workplace. So, intellectually, you’re not going to get bored because there’s always going to be something new.

“Sometimes we’ll start with a client from its business inception, so we’re looking at compliance; we’re looking at getting things right from the start,” Taylor added. “But sometimes we’re actually helping clients at the end of their life, in their succession planning and how that’s going to work. We get involved with purchase and sale. We get involved with reductions in force. It’s a really fascinating thing we do. Every day we come in, it’s a little bit different.”

“I’ve always felt secure in the advice I give, not only from the research I do, but also being able to talk to people and work it out and think about things from a different perspective.”

Frederick praised not only the experience of his team, but their creativity.

“It takes creativity, it takes foresight, it takes anticipating where the judicial boards are going to be going, how people are going to be thinking. And 99% of the professionals are routine in their approach: the law says yes, the law says no,” he explained. “I think what has made the people who have worked for this firm different is that they are creative in how to accomplish what should be accomplished.”

That’s part of why so many clients are long-term — including the firm’s very first client, a third-generation metallurgy enterprise, which is still on board.

“It’s very rewarding, working with the variety of clients that we have, not just private sector, but public sector as well,” Quinn said. “And when you have public sector clients in towns and cities and schools, they have another layer of laws that regulate how they interact with their employees. Whether it’s collective bargaining or dismissal decisions or disciplinary decisions, being able to work with them and guide them through that process is … well, they say variety is the spice of life. And we see a lot of variety here.” 

Sharing the Wealth

By
Features Special Coverage Wealth Management

Merrill Gagne knew his $10,000 matching investment in a Franklin County gift card promotion last year — making each $25 card worth $50 at participating stores, restaurants, and other businesses — was going to be popular when one woman wanted to buy 200 of them.

“She basically wanted to use it to pay for her wedding venue,” he laughed. “That’s smart — I get it. So we had to put a limit on it.”

The more obvious sign the promotion was a hit was the fact that the 400 cards sold out in three hours. Earlier this month, the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce Gagne issued a second round of gift cards doubled by another $10,000 donation from Gagne, and they sold out as well — this time, in just 17 minutes.

The idea — like other such programs in the Valley, like the doubled gift card Scott Keiter has funded with the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce for a few years now — is to use philanthropy to boost local businesses. And for Gagne, president of Gagne Wealth Management Group in Greenfield, who has given back like few business owners have over the years (much more on that later), it just made sense.

“It’s just the idea of trying to infuse some cash into the businesses so that people are buying gift cards and then spending it locally,” he said. “You’re really benefiting local businesses because people are coming back and spending their card, and the money goes back into the community.”

Jessye Deane, executive director of the Franklin County Chamber, has worked with plenty of nonprofits and sees the good that can come from giving — and the joy of celebrating that support in a public way.

“But with Merrill, it’s less about celebration and more about the impact. That’s always what stands out,” she said, adding that this is the only countywide gift card match in the Pioneer Valley, encompassing 26 towns.

“Instead of a generic gift card or an Amazon gift card, this is a card that guarantees the money secures local spending in a way that’s really unique. People can choose where to spend it, but also find new favorite businesses to fall in love with, and really increase their foot traffic.”

Hannah Rechtschaffen says Merrill Gagne’s philanthropy not only benefits the GBA, but inspires others to do the same.

Hannah Rechtschaffen, director of the Greenfield Business Assoc., is celebrating Gagne’s community support as well, touting a challenge grant created last year whereby he donated $10,000, which the GBA then had to match through its own fundraising, followed by another $15,000, which it again had to match, for a total of $50,000 toward the association’s work to promote the economic and civic vitality of the Greenfield business community.

“People want to feel a part of something,” Rechtschaffen said. “You need that leader. You need someone to say, ‘I will take a gamble on you, on your organization, on what you’re telling me you’re going to accomplish.’ Without that person, it is harder to go after other large gifts. But when I can go to someone and say, ‘look, Merrill Gagne is willing to vote confidently in our favor. Will you join him in that?’ — it puts me in a different position as a fundraiser. So it is a gift in itself for him to take that kind of chance.”

The success of that $25,000 challenge gift has already helped catalyze a broader wave of support for the GBA’s vision. In February, it inspired a successful fundraising event at JaDuke Center for the Performing Arts (co-sponsored by Gagne), where business owners, community members, and local leaders came together to dance, sing, and raise more than $31,000 to support the next phase of the association’s organizational growth.

“I just think Merrill is a real standout when it comes to the way he sees his business fitting into the greater ecosystem,” Rechtschaffen said, adding that Franklin County may not have as much investment capability or as many angel investors as larger counties, but they exist, and may just need motivating.

“Merrill is part of this conversation of who could be involved more, and how do we get them involved? How do we get them thinking about themselves as philanthropists, as impact investors, and really being a part of things? In that way, he’s driving a lot here — it’s not just simple sponsorship.”

National Reach, Local Impact

Jessye Deane says Merrill Gagne’s gift card match not only excites local consumers, but keeps money circulating at local businesses.

When BusinessWest sat down recently with Gagne in his Main Street office in downtown Greenfield, he said giving back has long been part of his business model, especially with a concept he calls philanthropic marketing.

“That is, putting as much good out into the world as possible without expecting any return, just assuming that it’ll eventually all be paid forward, as they say,” he explained. “And living in this community, I grew my whole business over the last two decades under the premise, and the promise, that we were going to give back and do good things.

“We’re licensed in 42 states,” he went on. “So it allows us to not only draw from Boston, but we have clients all over the country, as far as Alaska. We can literally jump on a Zoom or a Teams meeting at any time. It’s fantastic. But all of those dollars that those clients are paying come back to Franklin County.

“That allows us to grow from an economy of scale perspective — I mean, we’re just shy of a billion dollars in assets under management. And that gives us the ability to have all that revenue come back here and support the local community in as many ways as we can.”

Gagne’s community efforts include fully sponsoring the Learn to Skate program with the Franklin County Hockey Assoc., backing Greenfield Minor League Baseball, spearheading holiday food drives, generating support for the Greenfield Public Library, and serving as a leader and donor for the YMCA, the United Arc, Rachel’s Table, and the Children’s Advocacy Center.

He has also established match incentives for the Children’s Advocacy Center, Community Action Pioneer Valley, and, as noted, the GBA and the chamber.

Meanwhile, he has developed a relationship with JaDuke since it opened its Greenfield location in 2025.

“I worked with [executive director] Kim Williams right away in order to foster a program where we would pay for any kid that doesn’t have access to the money to be able to pay for dance classes, and then pay for their dresses and their dance recitals, so they can go perform on the main stage,” Gagne said. “So it’s not their parents choosing whether they’re going to spend the money on it or not, because we’re going to cover that cost for them.”

And on Monday, Sept. 28, the Gagne Wealth Impact Invitational will debut — a first-of-its-kind golf tournament at the Crumpin Fox Golf Club in Bernardston. All tournament expenses, including lunch, dinner, and an open bar, have been underwritten by Gagne Wealth Management, and 100% of all entry and raffle fees are awarded to the top three nonprofit organizations selected by participating players.

“We always started with children and local families,” Gagne said. “Like, 10 years ago, with the Franklin County Hockey Association, we decided we were going to pay for all of the ice time for the Learn to Skate program — because if a family has to choose between spending 500 bucks on ice time or not, they’ll choose not. But if it was free, it would provide access, and those kids then go on to feed the hockey program — which has literally quadrupled in size in the last five years.

“People don’t always put their money where their mouth is. They always have an opinion, but they’re not willing to listen, step up, and be the difference in the world. So that’s what we’re trying to do, and it’s really easy to start out with children and families,” he went on.

“I’ve been told, ‘my kid just loves hockey now. He’s changed. He doesn’t want to be on video games anymore; he just loves being out there on the ice. And I never would have had the money to be able to do that. It’s really changed our family.’ I’ve heard that story dozens of times.”

Future Focused

Gagne didn’t wait for his degree from the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst to start working; he paid his way through college by interning as a financial advisor.

“I grew up very poor in downtown Springfield, so I knew that the only way [to attend college] would either be to take on debt, or to work. And I always knew, early on, that I’d be good at managing money.”

Now, about 20 years into his business, he has evolved from an early focus on estate planning to a wide-ranging, higher-end, boutique wealth management firm, one that serves both individuals and businesses. “We do full-level estate planning, financial planning, and then income and wealth management all together.”

The average client, he added, is past what’s known as the accumulation phase and into the distribution phase — in other words, figuring out what to do with their money.

“That’s the fun part. And then also, how do I leave it to my kids? How do I leave it to charity?” he said. “Most of my clients don’t even know what a qualified charitable donation is — at age 70½, you can take IRA money pre-tax and give it to charity at $100,000 a year and never pay taxes on it. I see people all the time who take all the money out, then cut a check out of their checkbook. It’s after-tax money, they do the donation, and they never get to deduct it.”

“With Merrill, it’s less about celebration and more about the impact. That’s always what stands out.”

Besides this educational aspect, Gagne enjoys the fact that no day is the same — because all clients are different. “I have a CFA, a CFP, a full suite of advisors in my office who all work for me only, and only my clients. And we customize every single person’s portfolio to their risk tolerance, where they’re at, their goals, what they care about. There’s not a single client in my books that’s the same. I mean, the concepts are the same, but the stories are different.

“My job is being with people,” he went on. “And when I’m in front of people, we talk about finance for, like, three minutes, and the other 97% of the meeting is therapy. We’re talking about how you’re feeling, what’s going on, divorces, children, grandchildren, babies, all that stuff. It’s almost like going to like a family reunion every time I see a new client. We catch up on life. It’s such a rewarding thing, being able to be there for people when they need you the most.”

As for business clients, Gagne is gratified to help them strategically grow, figure out what their markets are, and work effectively in that space as well. Rechtschaffen sees him as a local success story, one who wants to pay that success forward.

“Merrill has been in this community for a very long time. And he’s choosing to be here,” she said. “He could take his business anywhere. And I hear a lot of business owners say that: ‘I could do this anywhere.’ But people are choosing to be here.”

And some of them are choosing to do good outside their office walls.

“I think,” Gagne said, “if more people just gave because they want to be here and they want to be community-driven, it would be better for everybody.”  

Car Makers, Dealers Motivated to Shake Off Slow Start to 2026

By
Autos

Gearing Up

It’s called a ‘20 Group.’

It’s a collection of 20 non-competing auto dealers with similar business models who gather several times a year to exchange ideas and share best practices.

Carla Cozenzi, president of the Hadley-based TommyCar Auto Group, attended a session recently in Cedar Rapids, Idaho. And before that, she was at another conference, ASOTU CON (Automotive State of the Union) in Baltimore. There were packed agendas in both cases, she said, with discussions on everything from AI and how the industry is using it and can use it (see related story on page 15) to the somewhat sluggish start to the year for the auto industry — and the reasons behind it.

And those reasons are many, including everything from a brutal winter in many regions, including New England, to global tensions and economic uncertainty; from the high cost of new cars, trucks, and SUVs — the average sticker price is now close to $50,000 — to soaring gas prices.

Collectively, these factors contributed to a flat start, a few percentage points off last year’s pace and what was projected for this year, and some minor shifts within the market — from a slight uptick in car sales (although SUVs still reign supreme), in a nod to those soaring gas prices, to continued high demand for used cars, a response to those high prices for new models.

Carla Cosenzi says that, unlike the industry as a whole, TommyCar Auto Group is off to a solid start in 2026.

“Overall, automotive is down slightly from last year,” said Cosenzi, adding quickly that her group is bucking that trend, up a few points. “And there are many reasons why … the overall state of the economy, what’s happening in the world, all the talk on tariffs, the cost of vehicles, and the rising cost of living.”

As the calendar turns to June and the sales season heads into high gear, pun intended, dealers are optimistic that this year will get back on track, especially as manufacturers respond with attractive incentives designed to move hesitant consumers to action.

Ford is leading the way with the return of employee pricing for May and June, a strategy deployed by various manufacturers during other slow times. It’s an attractive incentive that is already moving the needle, said Mike Marcotte, president of Marcotte Ford in Holyoke.

“It’s a substantial saving for the customer,” he said, adding that the program covers almost the full lineup, including trucks and transits, and was designed as a way to mark the nation’s 250th birthday. “The message has been out there, and it’s created more online traffic and more traffic in the dealership, especially with the nicer weather.”

Meanwhile, other makers are introducing less splashy, but still effective incentives, including attractive lease deals and lower financing rates, designed to make monthly payments more palatable.

“Overall, automotive is down slightly from last year. And there are many reasons why … the overall state of the economy, what’s happening in the world, all the talk on tariffs, the cost of vehicles, and the rising cost of living.”

“Employee pricing is basically the best you can get,” said Alex Balise, director of Corporate Strategy for the Balise Auto Group, which includes a few Ford dealerships. “Most of the manufacturers, though, are taking a targeted approach, offering different incentives based on supply and demand. They’re not just tossing incentives out there … they’re being strategic and going model by model, which makes sense.

“Depending on the model, it might be a low APR or a special rebate,” she went on. “They’re doing what they can do address the needs of each model — which makes it a good time for customers.”

Overall, summer is generally a good time for the industry, between the better weather, longer sales days, people with time on their hands, and sometimes the need to ramp up and get into something new for the family road trip vacation. And with initiatives in place to drive sales and leases, those we spoke with are projecting that the industry’s overall performance should move into a higher gear over the coming months.

“We’re optimistic, based on the last few months, that things will stay steady through the summer,” said Balise, adding that, after a solid May, the company is on roughly the same pace it was last year.

Driving Forces

As he talked about the start to the year and the outlook for the second half of 2026, Marcotte said it seems that dealers are always

Mike Marcotte says Ford’s employee pricing offer during the months
of May and June has already had an impact on sales.

coping with different challenges, many of which are unforeseen.

In his case, it’s slightly lower inventories for the popular Ford F-150 pickup due to supply issues impacting manufacturing. But the dealership is plowing through, he said, moving that model at a faster pace than last year. Meanwhile, SUV sales have remained strong, despite the higher gas prices, and commercial sales have followed up a strong end to 2025 with continued solid performance.

Still, affordability is an issue with many consumers, he said, adding, as others did, that employee pricing and other incentives are designed to make the lift somewhat lighter for consumers.

And in the meantime, cost-conscious consumers are looking at more affordable options, including everything from longer financing terms — up to 84 months, in some cases, to keep the monthly payment affordable — to traditional cars, which have certainly taken a back seat in recent years to the SUV.

“They’re selling now because of the cost and gas prices,” Balise said. “There aren’t many [models] left, but the ones that are there are selling. If you’re looking for a lower price point for a new vehicle, that’s where to find them.”

This explains improved sales of Camrys and Corollas at the group’s Toyota stores, she said, adding that it’s the same with other makers still offering cars.

But SUV sales remain solid, especially those vehicles at the smaller end of the spectrum, those that get better gas mileage, those with hybrid options, and those that offer a lower price point, said Cosenzi, adding that, across the board, car makers are motivated to help consumers get into new vehicles.

“They’re not just tossing incentives out there … they’re being strategic and going model by model, which makes sense.”

“Manufacturers are stepping up in a really big way to make vehicles more affordable for customers again,” she told BusinessWest. “We’re seeing some of the most aggressive incentives and APR offers that we’ve seen in a very long time.

“That’s helped us bridge that gap,” she added, noting that the incentives have helped push consumers over the top when it comes to a decision on buying or leasing something new. “We’ve reached out to customers and put them in better positions and educated them on how we can help them.”

Elaborating, she said these incentives, many of which have been in place for months, have helped TommyCar move ahead of the sales pace set last year at most of its dealerships.

“Our Hyundai store is up more than 8%, our Nissan store is flat, Genesis is up 16%, and our Volkswagen store is up just slightly,” she noted. “So, overall, as a group, we’re up.”

She attributes this to several factors, but especially close customer connections — letting them know about new incentives, vehicles they might be interested in, programs to purchase their used vehicle, and more — that create opportunities.

And there remains strong interest in used cars, especially with the high prices of new vehicles, Cosenzi said, adding that dealerships are looking for cars in what would be called the ‘affordable’ category — quality used cars in the $25,000 to $30,000 range that provide an attractive option to new — and target people with them, to both secure more inventory in that column and put their previous owners into something new.

“That’s a customer life cycle that has made us so successful in the first half of 2026,” she said, adding that such strategies address consumers in both categories.

Fueling Speculation

Meanwhile, the higher gas prices are prompting some movement, or at least some looking, in directions other than the mid-size and large SUVs that have captured the attention of the buying public.

“Gas prices are impacting some of what people are looking for,” Balise said, adding that the surge at the pump has prompted immediate discussion about changes in buying habits, if not immediate action.

“It’s on their mind,” she went on. “People are thinking, ‘am I going to get a truck or an SUV? What’s the gas mileage on it? Is there a hybrid option?’”

Cosenzi agreed. “Our customers have become accustomed to and feel safe having an SUV,” she told BusinessWest. “However, as soon as we see that gas threshold increase to what we’re seeing now, we do see interest in EVs and compact and subcompact SUVs, and we see demand for those vehicles increase.”

Balise said there is a still a strong market for electric vehicles, despite an end to federal incentives, with manufacturers offering their own rebates to move inventory off the lots.

“The people who want EVs are still coming in for EVs,” she noted. “The people who were on the fence … with rebates not being as strong, they’re more likely to consider hybrids. People are still buying EVs, and it helps that the OEMs are offering their own rebates to offset the loss of federal incentives.”

Overall, inventories of vehicles in nearly every category are much improved over just a few years ago, although they’re still not back to pre-COVID levels in many cases, area dealers report.

“It’s a healthier supply-to-demand ratio,” Balise said, adding that, for the most part, there aren’t too many cars on the lot, just a good number that mostly eliminates the need for customers to wait for what they want or settle for less.

“There are multiple options available — it’s not getting on the list for the next one that comes in, necessarily,” she noted, adding that this is yet another reason why it’s a good time to be buying or leasing.

Looking ahead, those we spoke with said the second half of the year — and especially Q4 — is typically better than the first half, and they are expecting that trend to continue in 2026, as various driving forces collaborate to prompt consumers to act.

It should make for some interesting talking points at the next 20 Group meeting. 

Auto Dealers Are Finding New, Creative Uses for AI

By
Autos

 

Driving Change

As he talked about artificial intelligence (AI) and how it’s being used by the auto sales industry, Rob Pion chose to first discuss consumers — and the modern shopping
experience — in general.

“It’s a 24/7 world — we’re an immediate society; people don’t want to wait for the next business day for anything,” noted Pion, president of Bob Pion Buick GMC in Chicopee, the dealership started by his grandfather. “It’s 2 in the morning, you wake up and say, ‘shoot, I forgot to order ‘X,’ you jump on Amazon, order it, and it’s there before you wake up in the morning or the next day.

Rob Pion says AI has helped auto dealers better serve customers in a 24/7 world.

“People expect that out of everything,” he went on, adding that this includes cars, trucks, a part, or a service appointment. In short, customers are looking for information and insight — and in many, if not most, cases, they don’t want to wait until the next day for the answers.

And that’s one way dealers are using AI, Pion said — to chat with customers, answer questions, and collect some leads at all hours of the day.

“At least we have someone, or something, responding 24/7 to customer inquiries and concerns,” he explained, choosing those words carefully and then noting that AI is a way for dealers to meet consumers where they are, on their schedule.

But providing answers to questions on lease rates at midnight is just one of the ways auto dealers are putting AI technology to work. Others include everything from finding answers for technicians in the service bay to slicing through the remarks in customer reviews to find common threads, to finding holes in service schedules — and filling them.

“We always read through reviews, but you don’t always catch the themes as they come in,” said Alex Balise, director of Corporate Strategy for Balise Auto Group. “I’ve been using AI to read our reviews for the past three months and tell us key themes so we know what customers appreciate and where we can improve. A one-off review doesn’t necessarily tell you what the real experience is, but, looking at the themes, you can see that wait times have become an issue at this store or they really like the muffins at Balise Subaru in Hadley, so we should keep those. AI can tell us that.”

And it can do many other things, such as providing help with pricing to analyzing inventory to helping make sure the dealerships are carrying the right mixes of vehicles, said Carla Cosenzi, president of TommyCar Auto Group, noting, as others did, that the technology is certainly not intended to replace the human interaction that has marked this industry from the very beginning, or replace people.

“We want to use AI to make us a better resource for the customer and make sure we don’t lose that human interaction that we pride ourselves on here.”

“We use AI a lot,” she explained. “We’re a very customer-centric and community-focused dealer group, so we want to use AI to make us a better resource for the customer and make sure we don’t lose that human interaction that we pride ourselves on here.”

For this issue and its focus on auto sales, we look at the various ways AI is being used today, and how it might be used in the years to come.

Speed Thrills

Like most other industries, the auto sales and service business is really only beginning to tap into AI and its vast potential.

Indeed, those we spoke with said that, while many different uses have been found for the technology, there are many others still in the developmental stages, with testing ongoing. But already, individual dealers and larger groups have been successful in developing strategies for using AI in everything from sales to marketing to service and using the technology for what it was designed to do — creating efficiencies while allowing employees to do what they do better and make more efficient use of their time.

And in many cases, time is what is being saved — for those working at the dealership, and for customers as well.

“AI gives customers really quick, personalized, and smarter responses with transparent pricing, and it gives them a quicker transaction time,” said Cosenzi, citing the example of a customer looking for information online. 

“If a customer wanted a price on leasing a Nissan Rogue and sent in a quote to our internet department … before, our internet department would have to go to the sales managers and get information from them to properly quote the vehicle if they wanted a lease or different financing options,” she explained.

“But we have new software and AI that enable us to get right back to a customer in under five minutes and give them a completely transparent quote that gives them all the options they need, whether that’s purchasing, financing, options for different money down, for different financing institutions — all in less than five or 10 minutes. Before AI, it might have been 20 or 30 minutes.”

Balise agreed, and offered another example, this one in the service bay.

“A lot of the manufacturers have added AI support,” she explained. “So when a technician is working on something and has a question, their AI guide can help finish the repair sooner than if they had to call a support line and wait for an answer. That’s been a big help with making a repair time faster; AI can read their whole manual, which could be hundreds of pages, and spit back the specific instruction needed for that repair.”

Using AI to sift through customer reviews also saves time, Balise said, noting that employees would spend hours reading through the responses looking for common themes and issues to address. “AI can do it five minutes and give us action items that can make a real difference in the customer experience.”

Beyond saving time, AI is also helping dealerships be more efficient with everything from how they market their products and services to how they shape their inventories, Cosenzi noted, adding that new uses for the technology are continually being explored.

“It’s a 24/7 world — we’re an immediate society; people don’t want to wait for the next business day for anything.”

“We use it to match the right vehicle to the customer for their situation to help meet their goals and accomplish what they’re looking for, which saves them time,” she said. “We use it to price our vehicles in the market to make sure we’re the most aggressive and our customers are getting transparent, upfront, live-market pricing; we’re using it to help customers schedule appointments with us smarter and faster; and we use it to analyze our inventory so we’re carrying the right mix of what our customers are searching for.”

People Power

The overriding strategy is to put AI to work in ways that will enable employees to save time and put their energies in other directions, not put them out of work, said those we spoke with.

“We’re looking for where AI can make our teams more efficient so they can spend their time doing the human things we need them to do — connecting with customers,” Balise said. “AI should be an extra tool for our team. It’s not replacing people; it’s making them more effective in their jobs.”

Pion agreed. “We’re a ways from AI replacing people, especially in our business,” he said. “It’s a personal experience when you’re spending this kind of money, and people want to deal with people. I see AI as a way to communicate with people overnight, when I can’t expect someone to be doing that on my behalf. But there’s no replacing human interaction in a business such as ours.”

While AI is making its mark in the auto sales industry, those in the business say that, in many ways, dealers are only scratching the surface when it comes to this technology, what it can tell them, and how it can make their operations more efficient.

Right down to the muffins at the Subaru dealership. 

PV Squared Partners with HCC on Hands-on Student Training

By
Building Trades

 

Outside the Classroom

What does a career in solar energy actually look like?

That question moved from abstract to tangible when a group of Holyoke Community College students in HCC’s clean energy training program visited PV Squared Solar’s headquarters and warehouse in Greenfield for an evening of hands-on learning and career exploration in the solar industry.

The visit was designed to give students a practical look at what working in solar actually entails, from installation work and electrical systems to team dynamics and long-term career pathways.

PV Squared offered HCC students exposure to the roof mock-ups used to simulate solar installations.

Students heard from PV Squared team members, including Pablo Revelo, master electrician; Alex Peterkin, president of the board of directors; and Kate Carter, team manager, who shared insights into the skills, training, and mindset needed to build a career in the trades.

“This kind of experience is where everything starts to click,” Carter said. “Students can see the tools, the systems, and the teamwork involved, and begin to picture themselves in those roles.”

The evening’s agenda included a walkthrough of the company’s warehouse and training areas, where students explored electrical training setups and system components, roof mock-ups used to simulate real installations, the tools and equipment used daily by solar crews, and the layout and function of installation trucks and warehouse operations. Demonstrations included safe ladder setup, equipment handling, and a look inside the box trucks that crews rely on in the field.

“This kind of experience is where everything starts to click. Students can see the tools, the systems, and the teamwork involved, and begin to picture themselves in those roles.”

Revelo, who works closely with installation teams, emphasized the importance of connecting technical training with real-world application.

“There’s a lot that goes into a solar installation that people don’t always see,” he said. “It’s physical work, it’s technical work, and it’s collaborative. But it’s also incredibly rewarding to build something that lasts and contributes to clean energy.”

For one evening, the students’ classroom extended into a working environment. Tools, trucks, electrical systems, and team dynamics all became part of the learning experience.

Programs like HCC’s clean energy training initiative are essential to building the future workforce, but classroom learning alone can only go so far, PV Squared’s leaders noted. This visit was designed to bridge that gap.

This visit is part of a growing relationship between PV Squared and Holyoke Community College, focused on creating clear, accessible pathways into the clean energy workforce. As demand for solar continues to grow across Western Mass., workforce development is becoming just as important as project development, Carter said.

“Workforce development doesn’t happen in a classroom alone. It happens when students can step into a real environment, ask questions, and see what the work actually looks like day to day. That’s how confidence is built, and how pathways into the trades become real.”

 “It’s physical work, it’s technical work, and it’s collaborative. But it’s also incredibly rewarding to build something that lasts and contributes to clean energy.”

During the visit, students also learned that careers in clean energy extend beyond installation alone. The solar industry includes a wide range of roles, including electrical and installation trades; system design and engineering; project management and operations; and sales, customer experience, and administrative support. This broader view helps students understand not just how to enter the field, but how to grow within it.

Students explored a wide range of hands-on activities, from equipment to how installation trucks are laid out.

During the visit, students also learned about what PV Squared looks for in employees, including curiosity, reliability, teamwork, and a willingness to learn, as well as the benefits of working within a 100% worker-owned cooperative.

 

For many students, this was also their first exposure to a structure where ownership is shared among employees, meaning the people designing, installing, and maintaining systems are also invested in the long-term success of the company.

“Worker-owned cooperatives are a powerful force for good in our communities,” Peterkin said. “They create meaningful jobs, build local accountability, and keep the benefits of clean energy rooted right here in the places we live. That’s exactly the kind of foundation we need for the green future we’re working toward.”

He added that, for students considering long-term careers, that structure offers appealing elements, including stability, shared responsibility, and a direct connection between work and impact.

“As the clean energy economy continues to expand, partnerships between educational institutions and local employers are playing an increasingly important role in building a skilled and resilient workforce across Western Massachusetts.”  

Experts Warn Against Six Common Insurance Mistakes

By
Insurance

 

Reinforcing the Safety Net

Beth Pearson understands insurance isn’t anyone’s favorite topic.

“Insurance is something people don’t love to talk about, but it’s so key,” she said — and she speaks not only as president of Pearson Wallace Insurance in Amherst and Pittsfield, but from personal experience.

“I was in a car accident — I was hit head on,” she said, but she was able to sleep at night knowing she had the protection she needed.

“Insurance is a financial tool, and sometimes people forget that,” Pearson noted, adding that policies are dense and complicated, and people don’t always want to read them or have tough conversations with their agents, or they just take out policies with direct writers online and don’t worry about it — until they have reason to worry, anyway.

Beth Pearson

“Everything has gotten incredibly expensive lately. And people think they can save on their insurance — but skimping on insurance, or having a strategy of bare minimum coverage, can really backfire when a loss occurs.”

For this issue’s focus on insurance, we spoke with four local insurance experts on the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to insurance coverage and claims. Most of what they had to say fell into one of six categories.

1. Not Covering Full Replacement Cost

Pearson has heard plenty of questions regarding why clients need so much coverage on their home, and in this economy, she gets it.

“Everything has gotten incredibly expensive lately. And people think they can save on their insurance — but skimping on insurance, or having a strategy of bare minimum coverage, can really backfire when a loss occurs,” she said. “Your biggest investment is your home. So you don’t want to compromise on the coverage.”

And that means insuring not for the assessed value of a home, but the potential cost of replacing it — and everything in it — in the event of a total loss, Pearson explained.

“Someone might say, ‘my house was only appraised at $550,000; why do I want insurance for a million dollars?’ Well, it’s because you want the full replacement cost. And the elements that make up the replacement cost valuation include the cost of construction, the cost to meet all the new green standards, the cost of materials, and the time it takes to rebuild,” she went on, noting that even a current circumstance like the Strait of Hormuz disruptions could cause supply delays.

Meanwhile, fire, smoke, and water damage can wipe out almost all one’s possessions — and items like furniture, clothing, and others are more expensive to replace these days, she added. “If you’re only getting the cash value instead of the replacement cost, you don’t have the ability to recreate your home as it was before the fire.”

Christine Bey, Personal Lines manager at Encharter Insurance in Amherst, agreed.

“Most companies like to insure a home to replacement cost value — not what you purchased it for, not what you think the value of it is, but what it would cost to rebuild that home from the ground up at today’s building costs,” she explained. But there are other costs to consider as well.

“We can add other bits and pieces to a policy, like loss of use. So if you can’t stay in your home because of a covered claim, they will pay for you to stay in another home or rent a hotel. Loss of use includes coverage for all of your belongings in your home, too. Then there’s liability on top of it. There’s so much that goes into the policy above just insuring to the value of the home.”

Christine Bey

“Most companies like to insure a home to replacement cost value — not what you purchased it for, not what you think the value of it is, but what it would cost to rebuild that home from the ground up at today’s building costs.”

2. Not Including Specific Coverages

“Do you have a dog? What kind of dog do you have?” asked Michael Long, CEO of the AXiA Group in West Springfield. Those are important questions, he added.

“Some insurance companies exclude certain types of dog, and some require you to tell them if you’ve got a dog — and if you don’t, they might not pay the claim. And the average dog bite claim is over $50,000.”

Or take e-bikes, which have become very popular, selling in the seven figures annually.

“Most insurance companies do not cover liability that’s created on an e-bike,” Long said. “So if you’re driving down the road and you take a right and cause a car to smash into another car and somebody’s injured, you have no coverage. If you’re on a bike path and you hit somebody and they fall down and bang their head, you have no coverage.

“That’s a big problem — and, unfortunately, it’s not talked about very often,” he continued. “Some insurance companies say they will cover it, but if I read their policy, it’s not clear. So you’ve got to get something from your agent in writing that they’re covering that. I don’t care about the $3,000 for the bike. I mean, that’s important. But the $100,000 lawsuit, the $1 million lawsuit, that’s more important.”

On the commercial insurance side, there are a host of considerations businesses might not consider, some of them involving leases, Long said.

For example, “we’ve seen cases where there’s damage to a strip mall. Our customer is on the end — no damage on his property. The city comes in and says, ‘building law says, since half of this building is destroyed, we have to tear it down.’ The guy on the end, whose building did not have any damage, goes to turn a claim in, and the insurance company says, ‘where’s your damage? The fire didn’t cause any damage to your place. No coverage.’”

Pearson brought up a few specific commercial insurance products worth having, including employment practices liability insurance, which protects against worker claims that their legal rights have been violated; hired and non-owned auto coverage, which applies when, for example, a manager runs to the store for supplies and gets into an accident; and business interruption and extra expense coverage, which kicks in if, say, a fire shuts down a restaurant for five months.

“The property coverage kicks in as you start to rebuild the exterior and the interior, but you still have bills, you still have key employees that you want to keep, you need to pay yourself, maybe you have credit card debt,” Pearson said. “With business interruption coverage, the carrier pays the costs to maintain the business while you’re rebuilding.”

And it should be adequate coverage, she added. “If you have $2 to $3 million in sales, but your business interruption coverage is $100,000 and you’re paying the rest out of the pocket, that can go very quickly.”

3. Underinsuring for Personal Liability

Speaking of adequate coverage limits, personal liability in an accident — whether at home, at work, or on the road — is an extremely critical component of insurance, Bey said.

“Choosing price over coverage is probably the biggest mistake we see. We like to tell people that price isn’t always as important as that coverage. For example, the state requires you to have $35,000 worth of property damage on an auto policy. In reality, increasing that coverage is minimal in pricing. We always tell people, ‘if you go up to that larger limit, that $250,000, you’re only going pay maybe $50 more a year.

“It’s the same with a homeowner’s insurance policy. Liability is really important,” Bey added. “I feel like, these days, everyone is a little sue happy. We see a lot more liability claims coming through — dog bites, people being injured on someone else’s property, things like that. So if you have $500,000 worth of coverage on your policy, to increase that to a million, it’s only about $30 more a year.”

Pearson agreed. “If you’re putting on minimum liability, it’s easily exhausted by a serious accident. If somebody’s injured on your property, or if you cause a major, multi-car accident, the medical bills and legal fees can skyrocket way past your limits.”

And that applies to circumstances people might not even think about, she added.

“If somebody’s overserved at a party and goes out and kills someone, you’re liable. If you have teenagers, you might say, ‘hey, they’re 18 years old; they’re very responsible,’ and go to Aruba for a week. And the teenager has a massive party, and someone dives into the pool and breaks their neck — you’re liable. I tell people, ‘these are not just fictional events — they can happen.’”

4. Not Taking Simple Risk Mitigation Steps

The policy and premium comprise just the start of a good insurance strategy, the experts we spoke with said. Equally important are the steps a customer can take to reduce the risk of an incident in the first place.

“Anytime we write a new policy or we go over a renewal with a customer, we want to talk about all the options that companies have out there when it comes to discounts — and a lot of those discounts are related to mitigation of losses,” Bey said.

For example, “companies are giving better pricing to people who have newer roofs, or who have water leak detection, or a burglar and central fire alarm. There are discounts for all of that — and some of those discounts are pretty substantial.”

Michael Long

“Some insurance companies exclude certain types of dog, and some require you to tell them if you’ve got a dog — and if you don’t, they might not pay the claim. And the average dog bite claim is over $50,000.”

Long also noted the importance of automatic water shutoffs.

“The average water damage claim is over $100,000. But there are water sensors, and some insurance companies offer a reasonable discount for water damage coverage if you have them,” he said. “And most fires are created by electrical problems — not by lightning, not by discarding smoking materials, but electrical. And there are companies right now that are offering discounts for systems that examine your wiring by plugging something in, testing the wiring throughout your house.”

Pearson said people sometimes neglect easy fixes — such as an automatic water shutoff valve or Wi-Fi leak sensors by the washing machine and water heater — because there’s a little cost and set-up time involved. “But the impact can be huge. If you’re catching a leak early, it transforms a major mold remediation nightmare into a simple plumbing fix.”

On the commercial side, “you really should have a lawyer look over your contracts, and you should have safety meetings with your employees. Those are really big, and are going to help everybody be on the same page,” said Linda Eichstaedt, Commercial Lines manager at Encharter. “And document everything — keeping really good records is so important.”

She told BusinessWest she just had a conversation with a client about cyber coverage for a business. “They were asking, ‘why would we really need cyber coverage?’ We have tons of educational material, and I sent them examples of things that can happen if you don’t have it.”

The general consensus in the industry these days is that it’s not only big companies that are targets of cybercrime; anyone can be.

“Phishing attacks are going out all the time to all kinds of people. They don’t really distinguish between what type of business you have,” Eichstaedt said, which is why businesses should not only have a cyber policy, but takes steps to train staff to avoid becoming the reason a hack gets through, from multi-factor authentication to training on phishing emails. “So many businesses are working online, and with so much online presence, they don’t always realize the risk.”

5. Filing Too Many Small Claims

And when it’s time to file a claim … well, it might make more financial sense not to.

“Another thing people do too much is filing small claims,” Bey said. “Especially on a home policy, when you have a claim on your file, your insurance premium is going to go through the roof.

Linda Eichstaedt

“Phishing attacks are going out all the time to all kinds of people. They don’t really distinguish between what type of business you have.” 

“So when insured calls us and asks, ‘do I have coverage for this tree that just fell?’ we’ll have the discussion that ‘yes, you do have the coverage, but you have this deductible on your policy. And then on top of that deductible, if you do file a claim, you’re going to see a surcharge on your insurance the next couple of years,” she explained.
“So sometimes, it’s just not worth it to file a claim that’s under, say, $5,000 because, in the long run, you’re going to end up paying more in your premium.”

The idea behind avoiding smaller claims, Bey added, is that insurance is mainly for large losses, when a policyholder really needs the payout.

“If somebody has two losses, chances are the insurance company is going to non-renew them. And if you’re non-renewed, chances are nobody’s going to take you in the standard market, and you can expect somewhere between a 50% and 100% increase for three years,” Long said, laying out the actual impact of too many small claims.

“So if you’re paying $1,500 for your insurance policy, which is probably a reasonable average, and you have a $3,000 loss that you put in, and then you have somebody steal something, so you put in another $2,000 claim in, you’re going to be canceled, and your premium will double for the next three years at least — so you’ve lost money. It’s going to penalize you in the end.”

So if a customer calls to report the theft of a couple bikes worth $1,500 and has a deductible of $500 or $1,000, Long said, “I’m going to say, ‘you’d be crazy to turn in a claim.’”

6. Not Adjusting Coverage as Circumstances Change

The local insurance experts we spoke with all emphasized the importance of the client-agent relationship, and one time when it comes in handy is when life circumstances change.

“If you improve the value of your house by 5% — you put a deck on, or you put a sunroom on — and you don’t notify your insurance company, you’ve actually voided some of your coverage,” Long said.

Other changes that warrant a talk with the agent, Bey said, are a teenager getting a driver’s license (they should be put on the parents’ policy); the purchase of jewelry, art, or other items of high value; or brining home a motorcycle or boat.

“Some people buy a new toy, and maybe it’s not super valuable, but at the same time, you want to make sure you’re carrying that liability coverage in case someone gets injured while you’re using it,” she explained. “You may not want the collision coverage for it, but you’re going to want the liability.”

At the end of the day, it’s about clear communication, Pearson said, not only on the personal lines side, but for business clients.

“I’m big on sitting down with a commercial client once a year, or more, to do a review. ‘What are your goals? What are you planning for next year? What were the challenges this year?’ Insurance is an important financial safety tool. It’s incredibly important to your success.

“A great insurance expert is not just someone who sells the policy and disappears, but who acts as a chief risk officer for you,” she added. “It’s not just a piece of paper; it’s a promise to help clients, to give our expertise, and to make sure you’re actually covered when the worst case scenario might happen.”

Alzheimer’s Disease Drug Development Pipeline Is Growing

By
Health Care Healthcare News

Reasons for Hope

Compared to a decade ago, there are substantially more drugs (a 35% increase) being tested for Alzheimer’s disease in more clinical trials (a 40% increase), targeting a greater number of aspects of the disease, according to a new analysis of Alzheimer’s disease drug development as reflected in clinical trials registered on clinicaltrials.gov.

“The current drug development pipeline provides the basis for optimism regarding the emergence of new therapies for patients with Alzheimer’s. There are a robust number of trials, and agents in trials target a variety of disease processes,” said Dr. Jeffrey Cummings, Joy Chambers-Grundy professor of Brain Science in the Department of Brain Health at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and lead author of the paper. “This reflects our improved understanding of the biology of Alzheimer’s and the success of developing disease targeted therapies — starting with the anti-amyloid monoclonal antibodies.

“Alzheimer’s is no longer an untreatable disease. It is now a disease with treatments that successfully interfere in the disease process,” Cummings added. “Progress is also evident in clinical trial design, integration of biomarkers into trials, and emergence of promising candidate therapies. Biomarkers are increasingly used for trial eligibility as well as being integrated as trial outcomes.”

“Alzheimer’s Disease Drug Development Pipeline: 2026” was recently published by Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions, a journal of the Alzheimer’s Assoc. Cummings and colleagues’ annual review of the Alzheimer’s drug development pipeline began in 2016.

Dr. Jeffrey Cummings

“Alzheimer’s is no longer an untreatable disease. It is now a disease with treatments that successfully interfere in the disease process.”

Looking at the most active areas of drug development revealed that the Alzheimer’s drug pipeline has become significantly more diverse. For example, over the last 10 years, the percentage of the pipeline devoted to:

• Inflammation/immune dysfunction has increased from 6% to approximately 20%.

• Tau targeted agents have increased from 6% to approximately 20%.

• Amyloid targeted agents have decreased from 33% to approximately 20%.

“It is clear that Alzheimer’s is a complex disease with many contributing elements,” Cummings said. “Inflammation is consistently present in the brain of Alzheimer’s patients, and reducing the inflammatory response promises to slow the disease process. Researchers are seeking ways to complement the anti-amyloid therapies, and there are proportionately fewer amyloid drugs in the pipeline.”

The researchers identified 192 clinical trials for Alzheimer’s, assessing 158 drugs. This included 54 trials assessing 36 drugs in phase 3, 89 trials assessing 84 drugs in phase 2, and 49 trials assessing 45 drugs in phase 1. The 192 clinical trials and 158 novel agents in 2026 expand on the 182 clinical trials assessing 138 drugs in the 2025 pipeline.

Disease-targeting therapies (DTTs) account for 73% of agents in trials. Cognition-enhancing symptom-targeted therapies contribute 18%, and drugs targeting neuropsychiatric symptoms comprise 10%.

Furthermore, 2026 may be an exciting and busy year for Alzheimer’s drug news as eight phase 3 trials will reach their
primary completion date, and 29 phase 2 clinical trials will be completed.

Not only are there more drugs and more trials, but a varied and comprehensive array of Alzheimer’s disease processes is being addressed by investigational drugs. The researchers identified 17 aspects of Alzheimer’s impact on the brain that are targeted by at least one drug in current clinical trials.

Repurposed agents approved for non-Alzheimer’s indications include 56 drugs and 73 currently active trials. Repurposing plays an important role in Alzheimer’s drug development, and repurposed agents comprise almost half of phase 2 drugs. The benefits of investigating drugs that are already approved for other indications include significantly reduced development time, lower development costs, higher probability of success, and a well-known safety profile.

Addressing an Unmet Need

“While the current FDA-approved treatments for early Alzheimer’s are a game-changing breakthrough, there is still a great, unmet need for drug development to address the needs of the growing population of individuals with Alzheimer’s in all communities and across all stages of the disease,” said Maria Carrillo, chief science officer and medical affairs lead for the Alzheimer’s Assoc.

For example, according to the Alzheimer’s & Dementia paper, there are no DTTs approved for pre-clinical Alzheimer’s disease or for moderate to severe Alzheimer’s dementia; no new classes of cognition-enhancing agents have been approved since 2004; and there are no approved treatments for symptoms such as Alzheimer’s-related psychosis, depression, or apathy.

Maria Carrillo

“Compounds for people who show early biological signs of Alzheimer’s but have no detectable clinical symptoms are now in clinical trials. If these studies are positive, that could quickly change how the disease is managed.”

The Alzheimer’s Assoc., through its Part the Cloud program, is advancing Alzheimer’s treatments by providing critical funding for early-phase clinical trials that bridge the gap between laboratory research and final-stage human trials. Part the Cloud has funded 83 research projects with more than $90 million to support diverse, high-risk, high-reward approaches aimed at stopping or slowing the disease.

Recently, Part the Cloud announced more than $11 million in new investments, focusing on tauopathy therapeutics, improving synaptic connectivity, and combination therapies. The association funds studies on neuroinflammation, metabolism, and immune response to target the disease from multiple angles.

Alzheimer’s Network for Treatment and Diagnostics (ALZ-NET) is a voluntary, nationwide network sponsored by the Alzheimer’s Assoc. that collects real-world clinical, safety, and imaging data from patients receiving new FDA-approved Alzheimer’s therapies. It aims to improve treatment, monitor long-term outcomes, and enhance care. ALZ-NET is enrolling clinical sites across the country.

Meanwhile, the Alzheimer’s Assoc. is leading a pivotal shift in early detection and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, from responding to symptoms after they appear to identifying risk of cognitive decline, quick and accurate diagnosis, and much earlier intervention.

“Treatments that slow progression of early Alzheimer’s and offer meaningful benefits have been approved by the FDA and other agencies around the world,” Carrillo said. “At the same time, compounds for people who show early biological signs of Alzheimer’s but have no detectable clinical symptoms are now in clinical trials. If these studies are positive, that could quickly change how the disease is managed.

“Plus, we are at a turning point in what we know about brain health,” she added. “The results from the Alzheimer’s Association U.S. POINTER trial demonstrate with confidence that engaging in a structured, multi-component healthy lifestyle program can protect brain health and improve cognition for many people at risk for dementia in the U.S.”

Continued Investment

The growth of the Alzheimer’s drug development pipeline reflects the impact of sustained federal investment in Alzheimer’s and dementia research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which the Alzheimer’s Assoc. has championed alongside bipartisan leaders in Congress.

To continue the scientific momentum reflected in this year’s pipeline, the association is working to secure the NIH director’s professional judgment budget request of a $187.21 million increase for Alzheimer’s and dementia research at NIH in FY 2027. 

As It Turns 100, Rocky’s Continues to Grow, Adapt

By
Building Trades Cover Story

Marking a Milestone

Johnny Falcone (left) and Rocco Falcone

For the Rocky’s Ace Hardware chain, there are many numbers of significance to consider.

Let’s start with 100. That’s the round-number anniversary the family business that started in downtown Springfield is celebrating this year.

But there’s also 52 — the number of stores in the chain. (It was 50 before two recent additions in Kennebunk, Maine and Manchester, Conn.) And also nine, the number of states in which you will now find the Rocky’s chain — five of the New England states (there are none in Vermont) as well as Ohio (which boasts 10 stores), New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Florida.

There’s also the number four, connoting the number of generations of the Falcone family that have been involved with managing the chain, with the fourth being led by John ‘Johnny’ Falcone, who carries the all-encompassing title of ‘director of growth.’

“In our industry, there are a lot of senior folks like myself who don’t have families ready, willing, or able to take on the family business.”

Indeed, quite a bit goes with that designation, especially the numbers just mentioned and what they will be in five, 10, or 20 years.

There has been a wave of consolidation in the hardware business over the past few decades as the small, independent store that almost every city or town could boast has given way to larger chains, especially as Baby Boomers, many with no succession plans in place, moved into retirement, a process accelerated, in many cases, by COVID.

Instead of cutting a ribbon, officials chainsawed a board to mark the opening of the Rocky’s in Manchester, Conn, one of the latest additions to the chain.

“In our industry, there are a lot of senior folks like myself who don’t have families ready, willing, or able to take on the family business,” said Rocco Falcone II, third-generation owner of Rocky’s and the one who has been instrumental in much of the company’s expansion, even if he didn’t take the same title as his son. “So we’re still seeing opportunities for acquisitions for that reason.”

Beyond growth in the number of stores, the company is looking ahead to the next 100 years, with an eye toward anticipating and embracing change, and keeping its focus where it has always been: on the consumer.

“Every decision we want to make is with the consumer in mind,” Johnny said. “We think about our customers and the options they have when they want to buy. When we look at growth for this business, it has a lot to do with allowing the customer to choose the method with which they want to buy that item or help them with their project — whether that’s buying in store, online, on a mobile app, through third parties like DoorDash, or other apps that are out there — and then meeting them in the method they want to receive that product, whether it’s picking it up themselves, having someone deliver it, or having someone assemble it for them.

“It’s really reinventing what convenience means,” he went on. “Fifteen or 20 years ago, convenience meant a neighborhood hardware store; today, convenience means so much more when it comes to technology, especially with how consumer behavior has changed. So for us, every one of our decisions is made with the customer in mind; we’re working hard at redefining what convenience looks like in the digital world.”

“Every one of our decisions is made with the customer in mind; we’re working hard at redefining what convenience looks like in the digital world.”

For this issue, we take an in-depth look at the first century in the history of the Rocky’s chain and what will come next for what can only be called a retail institution — in this region and now far beyond it.

Changing with the Times

For those not familiar with the Rocky’s story — and by now, most are — it begins in 1926, when Rocco’s grandfather (also named Rocco), who saved some money while selling newspapers in front of the Paramount Theater and, later, working at Zundel’s Hardware in downtown Springfield, decided to go into business for himself.

Equipment and tool rentals were a big part of the Rocky’s success formula for decades.

He started with a small hardware and tool rental business, with the latter half thriving because, at that time, many people could not afford to own equipment.

The company remained on Main Street for decades, but as the population moved out from downtown (and in many cases out from Springfield), the company went with it, eventually adding hardware and rental locations in other parts of the city, such as Breckwood Boulevard, before moving its headquarters and flagship hardware store into a former sawmill on Island Pond Road in the ‘60s. 

In the ‘70s, the company, now under the leadership of Rocco’s father, Jim, expanded to a seven-store chain and joined the Ace Hardware cooperative to leverage national buying power. It also eventually eased out of the rental business while also adding paint and wallpaper, and transitioning into home centers, with lumber, building materials, kitchens, baths, doors, and windows — and larger stores to accommodate all that.

With the arrival in the ‘90s of Home Depot, which took much of that business, the company, now with Rocco at the helm, transitioned again, to maintenance and repair as well as lawn and garden supplies — and smaller stores, with the outside lumber yards on Island Pond Road and the Agawam store converted to garden centers.

“People will shop at Rocky’s not for price, but for value, and the combination of the national brands that we feature and the service, knowledge, and advice we can give. That’s a value that brings people back.”

This evolutionary process has continued, as has expansion of the chain across this state and into other states, with more of the same projected in the years to come as new opportunities continue to arise.

Rocco Falcone noted that there are still smaller, independent stores doing business, but far fewer than a few decades ago, especially in this region, which has seen many familiar names disappear from the landscape, with Manchester Hardware in Easthampton, which closed in 2021 after being in operation for 125 years, being one of the latest.

There are more independent stores in other regions and other states, he said, adding that Rocky’s will get calls on a steady basis gauging interest in acquisitions, and the company has let it be known that it’s interested in further expansion — if the fit is right.

“A good source of referrals are the owners of the stores we’ve bought,” he said. “That’s how we ended up with the store in New Jersey; a fellow from Pennsylvania said, ‘my buddy in New Jersey, who’s only 20 minutes away even though it’s in a different state, is ready to sell.’”

And while there are a few acquisition opportunities remaining in the 413, most of them are in other markets, Rocco said, citing those recent additions in Maine and New Jersey as examples of where growth is happening for this company.

“We want to fill in the map,” he told BusinessWest, referring to both gaps between states and gaps between stores in states where there is already a presence. “Between New Jersey and Pennsylvania and up the Connecticut coast is a great place to look; the I-91 corridor would be nice.

“There are still more opportunities in Worcester … we just can’t find good locations,” he went on, adding that the company’s longer-term goal is to cluster stores in the Worcester market, as it has in the 413, with locations in Springfield (two), East Longmeadow, Agawam, Westfield, South Hadley, and Ludlow. “We could have eight stores in that [Worcester] market, but we only have one or two now. And then we can move up the coast of Maine and into New Hampshire; there’s a lot of opportunity there.”

What’s in Store?

Johnny Falcone says Rocky’s continues to adapt to a changing retail landscape and “reinvent what convenience means.”

Continued growth makes sense for many reasons, especially the economies of scale that come with larger numbers, Rocco said, adding that, as with banks, insurance agencies, and other types of businesses, size is certainly an advantage.

Meanwhile, the company continues to adjust and react to that need to continually reinvent convenience, as Johnny Falcone described it.

That includes growth of the company’s online business, which includes the DoorDash option for smaller items and company-coordinated delivery of larger products like grills, serving as an effective complement to the brick-and-mortar stores, which will always be needed in this business.

“The retail space is not going away,” Rocco said. “The online component just brings the product closer to the customer rather than being in an Amazon warehouse 500 miles away.”

While coping with changes on the retail spectrum, Rocky’s, like all businesses, is adapting to a new workforce landscape as well. Indeed, while many young people are still landing their first or second jobs with the chain, many of those patrolling the aisles have gray hair, said Rocco, noting that this has been the trend over the past several years, especially at the company’s Florida stores, but also in other markets, including this one.

It’s a reflection of changing demographics — fewer young people — but also a desire among many seniors to stay active and remain in the workforce, often on a part-time basis.

“They don’t want to work full-time, they want a purpose, they want to come in and be helpful, which is one of our core values,” Rocco said, adding that these older staff members serve as mentors to the younger men and women learning the hardware business.

And many of those young people are staying with the company, he said, noting that, with 52 stores and growing, there are ample opportunities to advance and move into management positions.

 As for those core values, they are being re-emphasized and reinforced — such as at the company’s recent Leadership Summit at the Marriott in downtown Springfield — as Rocky’s turns 100. Other values, Johnny said, include ‘helpful,’ ‘responsible,’ ‘caring,’ ‘excellence,’ and ‘fun.’

That’s not an acronym, but rather an operating philosophy, he said, and one that separates the company from its competitors, especially the large, big-box variety.

“We all focus on ‘helpful,’ especially the customer-facing employees, as the most important value, because that’s really what sets us apart from our competition,” he told BusinessWest. “People will shop at Rocky’s not for price, but for value, and the combination of the national brands that we feature and the service, knowledge, and advice we can give. That’s a value that brings people back.”

As for the 100th anniversary, the company will be marking that milestone in many different ways, from a kickoff at the Leadership Summit to several ‘hometown days’ events coinciding with holidays this spring and summer, as well as a larger celebration in October, including promotional sales.

Mostly though, Rocky’s will be doing what it’s been doing for the last century — changing, adapting, growing, and, well… being helpful.

What’s Behind bankESB’s Pending Name Change to TruNorth Bank

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Features Special Coverage

All Together Now

Dig into the term ‘true north,’ and you’re bound to find multiple definitions — at least when used metaphorically.

The phrase can refer to finding a sense of purpose, or pursuing an important goal, or even adhering to one’s true values.

All of that resonates with the leadership team at Hometown Financial Group that chose the name TruNorth Bank — which, later this year, will be the new name of Hometown’s family of banks.

It is, in fact, the name above the door (and on the checks) at the former North Shore Bank and Abington Bank, two Hometown acquisitions in Eastern Mass.; later this year, bankESB and bankHometown will undergo the same name change, casting a single identity across Hometown Financial’s network of 55 branches.

Matthew Sosik, president and CEO of bankESB and CEO of Hometown Financial Group, said the multi-name approach wasn’t sustainable, so the holding company set out to find a new identity, which it did last year, applying it first to the aforementioned pair of Eastern Mass. banks and eventually moving to convert all of them.

“It’s a lot of work to find a brand that works for you, but we were fortunate to come up with the TruNorth brand,” he told BusinessWest.

“Here we are in little Easthampton, sleepy Easthampton, with a $7 billion company, one of the largest banks in the region, one of the most successful banks in the region. I think our financials speak for themselves.”

This month, bankESB will begin talking to customers about what the bank is doing and why, and what the transaction will look like, Sosik said, adding that the data conversion — moving from separate databases of customers at each bank to one central database — will follow.

“When we’re done with this entire project, the combined company, with the new TruNorth brand, is going to be headquartered here,” Sosik said, before stressing the significance of a Western Mass.-based bank with that kind of reach and scale.

“At $7 billion or so, we’re probably top 200 in the country, while regionally, we’re easily one of the top 10. Here we are in little Easthampton, sleepy Easthampton, with a $7 billion company, one of the largest banks in the region, one of the most successful banks in the region. I think our financials speak for themselves. And regionally, we’re one of the largest employers — all based right here in Easthampton. I think that’s a cool story.”

Sosik said the official transaction is slated for Aug. 21 if everything goes smoothly.

“Obviously, we have separate bank boards, and communicating the rationale to our bank boards and then ultimately our staff, communicating what our strategy was, was all a big part of that. But now we have the green light.

“You might have seen the public notice of our application to merge the banks and rebrand as TruNorth,” he added. “That’s still pending with the two regulatory bodies, the Division of Banks and the Federal Reserve, but we’re not anticipating any issues with that. It’s an internal merger; it’s not something that would particularly catch their attention. So we expect approvals from them within a reasonable time.”

Sosik said he understands that people get nervous about name changes over bank doors. “They go, ‘wait, who’s buying whom?’ Obviously, there’s none of that here, but still people get anxious about it. In fact, it’s a converse story to that — we are pulling this company together, from Boston to Easthampton, and keeping it right here in Easthampton.”

Changes will be minimal for customers, he noted. “Obviously, there will be a new sign over the door and a new debit card with the TruNorth logo. The logo looks similar to bankESB’s and Hometown’s, just with that new TruNorth name. And the mobile app will have a new look to it. But other than that, it’s the same places, same people, new name over the door.”

“This rebrand, while it’s a name change over the door, also represents a significant nod to our history and the combined many hundreds of years of legacies within our company. We didn’t want to — and we don’t want to — forget that. We’re carrying that forward into the future with something that’s aspirational.”

And the idea is to make the transition as seamless as possible for those customers, he added.

“We have an unbelievable team that pulls everything together each time we do one of these. So this one will be no different — except this one’s a lot easier because it’s all internal,” he said.

Meanwhile, from that internal perspective, operating under one brand and one database will make the company easier to manage, he added. “We have been happy to run our multi-bank company, but this company will be a simpler day-to-day operation for us.”

Steady On

As for the TruNorth name, Sosik is grateful the team wound up with a name he considers apt and meaningful.

“Branding is important. And the reality is, in today’s world, in this day and age, unless you’re just going to pick a bunch of consonants and run them together, everything’s pretty much been used or taken in some fashion or form. At the onset of a project like this, a huge governor of where you can go is simply what’s available,” he explained.

“That said, we didn’t want just a word or a name that doesn’t have meaning to our present customers and our prospective customers. So we went through an exhaustive process, and when we landed on TruNorth, it was all about what that connotes to somebody who’s viewing our company, not just from an image perspective, but what do we stand for?”

What emerged was the idea of the true north directional signifying moving forward — in business growth and in the community — and expressing that idea succinctly.

“In marketing, you can’t have five-word name — you want something bite-sized, but that really does mean something and represents what this company is all about, legacy-wise, and speaks to both that legacy and a wide-open future,” Sosik went on. “So when we landed on TruNorth, that’s what it was all about for us. It just means something.

“It’ll be a change, of course. But as I said, this rebrand, while it’s a name change over the door, also represents a significant nod to our history and the combined many hundreds of years of legacies within our company,” he added. “We didn’t want to — and we don’t want to — forget that. We’re carrying that forward into the future with something that’s aspirational.”

With that, he came back to the importance of community connections in a bank’s legacy.

“Think of a vibrant New England community that is really economically successful, that does not have a community bank in it. It’s a small number, if there’s any.”

“One thing that these towns` need — and I say these towns very generically, not Easthampton only by any stretch, but every town that we’re in — they need a community bank,” Sosik said, with everything that definition entails, from the financial services business to how the institution supports local nonprofits and other organizations.

bankESB has done so consistently through its Giving Tree initiative, which distributed more than $716,000 in 2025 and more than $4.4 million over the past 10 years, with a focus on basic needs, financial literacy, economic development, youth and education, and the arts across the region.

“When we think about fulfilling those needs, we don’t think about our business like, ‘are we going to open tomorrow?’ We think about it in much larger chunks of time; at least I do, and our board does,” he added. So when the company makes a big change like the rebrand to TruNorth, “it’s all to ensure our long-term viability and relevance in every single market, Easthampton included, so that we can be here 10 years and 20 years and decades from now. That perspective really drives some of what people see as robust growth — and some might call aggressive growth. To us, it’s absolutely necessary if our goal is to be here for the long term for our communities.

“So, sometimes it takes rebrands and things like this to ensure all that. It’s all in the name of serving the very long-term needs of communities,” Sosik went on. “Think of a vibrant New England community that is really economically successful, that does not have a community bank in it. It’s a small number, if there’s any. So these community banks are super important to the success of communities in general. And, again, our goal is to be committed long-term to these communities. It takes some bold strategies and some difficult decisions, but we’re happy to do it.”

Looking Forward

After growing through multiple acquisitions, Sosik said bankESB — well, TruNorth — isn’t done, though no news of that nature is expected over the next several months.

“We obviously have a full plate of stuff here; you have a certain level of capacity, and you respect that; you don’t stretch it too far, so 2026 is spoken for. But we are working on other projects that will continue to grow us in size and footprint. We’ll have some really cool stuff going on for 2027.”

And that growth is necessary, he said, to provide the kind of scale necessary to be profitable in what he described as a low-margin business. The latest move to the TruNorth name is simply a way to become more efficient as well.

“Our multi-bank holding company strategy served us really well; it’s allowed us to to attract like-minded independent bankers. And now is the time to put it all together, to gain the rest of those cost efficiencies, so we’re getting that,” Sosik explained. “This gives us a jumping-off point to continue to grow, and, as I said, we have some really interesting projects heading into 2027 that’ll allow us to do that. So there’s lots of bright sunshine ahead in our news feed.”  

Northampton Builds Connection Through Arts

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Community Spotlight Community Spotlight Features Special Coverage

Northampton at a glance

Year Incorporated: 1883
Population: 29,571
Area: 35.8 square miles
County: Hampshire
Residential Tax Rate: $13.67
Commercial Tax Rate: $13.67
Median Household Income: $56,999
Median Family Income: $80,179
Type of Government: Mayor, City Council
Largest Employers: Cooley Dickinson Hospital;
ServiceNet Inc.; Smith College; L-3 KEO

* Latest information available

Having been with CLICK Workspace for more than a decade, Mary Yun has seen ebbs and flows in its business, the most notable decline being during the pandemic.
“Like all businesses, we took a huge dip. But by the summer of ’24, we were almost back to our pre-pandemic numbers,” she recalled.
But in the fall of 2024, another drop in numbers began — actually, “a really steep nosedive,” as Yun characterized it. “There were a few reasons. That fall, there were some tech layoffs that affected us. The interest rate dropped a tiny bit in the fall of ’24, and three members were able to get into homes, and had rooms in their homes for home offices. And with the election, there was so much uncertainty about business.”
Now, as CLICK is celebrating 10 years in its current space on Market Street in downtown Northampton — it will host a reception,featuring an art exhibit and live jazz music, to mark the occasion on Friday, June 12 from 6 to 8 p.m. — not all of that business has come back, said Yun, executive director of the facility.
“Co-working spaces are ever-changing, and our membership had a big shift. Before the pandemic, it was predictable: about a third of the membership were consultants, about a third had their own small businesses, and another third were true remote workers, with parent companies that supported their membership. Since the pandemic, it’s less predictable. And with AI coming on, businesses aren’t able to plan as easily, and a lot of businesses that went remote have started to go hybrid. There’s so much uncertainty with the way people are working.”

“We opened not just a co-working space, but a place where people could celebrate their arts and have community activities — and we’ve continued to do that.”

That said, one thing that has not wavered at CLICK is its commitment to connecting the space to the local arts scene. The facility frequently hosts art openings by local and regional artists on Arts Night Out, on the second Friday of each month, complete with live jazz musicians, food, and beverages. Also featured are performance groups from Northampton High School and the Community Music Center. Arts organizations, such as the Northampton Jazz Festival, and music teachers from the area regularly rent the first-floor gallery space for live music concerts and student recitals.

CLICK Workspace has regularly hosted music recitals, art exhibitions (like the one pictured here), and other events.

“We opened not just a co-working space, but a place where people could celebrate their arts and have community activities — and we’ve continued to do that,” Yun said. “Co-workspaces are doing as robust business as they used to be. We’re trying to get support from the community so we can continue to do these events.
“I never thought this space would be just about co-working. I believe it has to have another mission,” she added. “We are mission-driven; we’re a nonprofit, and the arts have always been a part of the mission. We have a wall of art, gallery space, that’s integral to the design of the physical space itself. I always saw the space as bringing art to people, so our membership gets exposed to art. It really is a little microcosm of what Northampton is all about.”

Art and Commerce

Amanda Shafii, owner of the CopyCat commercial print shop in Northampton and president of the Downtown Northampton Assoc. (DNA), agrees that the arts are integral to the city’s identity.
“Northampton is a very special place. We have super unique businesses and a huge concentration of arts and culture,” she told BusinessWest. “Also, Northampton is a lot about relationships — about collaboration and networking and community coming together.”
Meanwhile, she said, the DNA aims to support businesses downtown, and create conditions for businesses to succeed throughout Northampton, through events, marketing partnerships, and other means to draw people downtown.
For example, the Ice Art Festival in January saw a lot of foot traffic, with visitors coming in from as far away as Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Eastern Mass., and even New York, Shafii said. “It brought in a lot of people, and that really sums up one goal of the DNA: to create fun events for people to attend.”
She’s especially looking forward to Taste of Northampton on the weekend of Sept. 12-13, and said the monthly Arts Night Out has become a highlight in the city.
“Where there’s success downtown, everyone benefits,” Shafii said of the DNA’s impact on the entire city. “If you have a thriving, vibrant downtown, whether it’s retail, restaurant, or service businesses, it has an impact on everyone.
“One of the really special things the DNA does is, we host a downtown business owners forum, a space for downtown business owners to get together and discuss things in a safe setting, talk about how last month went, or about upcoming events we should be aware of. Like, if Smith College is having a big event, maybe the downtown restaurants could have more staff to accommodate more foot traffic. We’re keeping everyone in the loop.”
As for music, the Northampton Jazz Festival is slated for Sept. 26-27, with Friday featuring the Downtown Jazz Strut, with jazz emsembles playing at breweries, bars, and restaurants across town, and Saturday featuring a free lineup of performances throughout the day followed by a ticketed evening concert with Lakevia Benjamin at the Academy of Music.
Meanwhile, the Iron Horse Music Hall continues to thrive two years after its reopening, having presented hundreds of shows and generated, according to economic models, more than $2.4 million in annual impact on Northampton’s broader economy.

“Northampton is a very special place. We have super unique businesses and a huge concentration of arts and culture. Also, Northampton is a lot about relationships — about collaboration and networking and community coming together.”

The Parlor Room Collective, the nonprofit that purchased and renovated the historic venue on Center Street, is currently operating an $800,000 “Playing It Forward” campaign to pay off construction debt, build reserve funds, and support free programming, among other goals.

Music to Her Ears

Meanwhile, over on Market Street, Yun is grateful for the opportunity to host the arts, especially the young people who use the space.
“In the school districts, art has been on the chopping block for years now. And no matter what kind of business you’re in — whether it’s tech, industry, financial, not just artistic professionals — it’s so integral to our culture, how we understand the world,” she said.
“Our mission here is to bring art to a nice environment. And when the community comes in and joins together, art and music can be a part of everyday life. The spirit of CLICK is all about making a community.” 

The Reality of Dementia Can Be Overwhelming for Families

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Features Healthcare News Special Coverage

Overcoming the Stigma

When Michele Anstett recently attended an Alzheimer’s Assoc. leadership luncheon called the Power of Now, speakers talked about how so many people with dementia are not identified as such because of a persistent fear of talking to a doctor — or even family members — and the general stigma that exists around those discussions.

It all hit home for Anstett, president of the home care agency Visiting Angels West Springfield, because her father, who lived in Florida and had dementia, recently passed.

“They talked about how people with Alzheimer’s hide it. And that’s exactly what my father did. But I knew. I tried to get him some help. He wouldn’t do it,” she said. “When you’re older, and you’re afraid of losing your independence, when your memory is going, a lot of people are going to try to stuff it away and be the same person they’ve always been.

“They’re scared of losing their independence, that their family members may find out and just stuff them away somewhere, and they’re afraid of losing their entire mind and not being able to recognize people. They’re scared to death.”

“It was frustrating for me, watching him go through each stage, and yet he still wasn’t fessing up to anybody. Even the VA didn’t know he had dementia. I got him to do the very first test, and they said there’s a probability of a memory issue, and we were supposed to go to a neurologist. But he knew, and he wouldn’t go any further because it would be like opening Pandora’s box.”

Mary-Anne Schelb, regional director of JGS Lifecare in Longmeadow, has encountered this reluctance to talk about dementia on numerous occasions.

“One family comes to mind immediately. Their father had passed away a few months earlier, and what they later realized was that he had quietly been compensating for their mother’s cognitive decline for quite some time. Once he was gone, the cracks began to show — but not right away,” she recalled.

The woman was living alone, and on the surface, everything appeared fine, Schelb said; the family visited weekly, prepared meals for her refrigerator, filled her pill boxes, and checked in by phone. Their mother was always well-dressed and could hold a pleasant conversation.

“To them, she seemed independent — until she wasn’t,” Schelb continued, explaining that a urinary tract infection — and resulting hospitalization — left her weak, dehydrated, confused, and no longer functioning at her baseline, and it eventually became clear she likely needed a secure memory-care setting. But even the family resisted that recommendation.

That is, until they learned from a neighbor that their mom had been feeding stray cats with the meals the family prepared, watering her plants instead of drinking enough fluids herself, and had a shoebox overflowing with untouched medications.

Mary-Anne Schelb

“We helped them understand that mom was not being difficult or stubborn intentionally. Her brain was changing.”

Today, she lives within the secure memory-care neighborhood at Ruth’s House Assisted Living at JGS Lifecare, and the family often visits. “They tell us they have never seen her happier. She participates in activities, engages socially, laughs, and has meaningful friendships. In many ways, she regained a quality of life the family did not even realize she had lost.”

They also expressed gratitude that the team there took the time to educate them — not only about memory care itself, but about dementia as a disease process, Schelb said. “We helped them understand that mom was not being difficult or stubborn intentionally. Her brain was changing.”

And that gets to the heart of what people with emerging dementia — and their families — fear when they’re avoiding those tough conversations.

“They’re scared of losing their independence, that their family members may find out and just stuff them away somewhere,” Anstett said. “And they’re afraid of losing their entire mind and not being able to recognize people. They’re scared to death.”

Accepting the Truth

For many families, the signs of dementia do not appear all at once. They emerge quietly — missed medications, forgotten meals, confusion disguised as normal aging, or subtle changes hidden behind familiar routines. Often, families are doing everything they can to support a loved one while still hoping life can continue as it always has.

“Accepting that a loved one has dementia can be one of the most emotional and difficult experiences a family will ever face,” said Kathy Walker, executive director of Ruth’s House Assisted Living. “Frequently, families are trying to balance what they are seeing with the hope that things have not truly changed. Many families wait until they are emotionally or physically exhausted before seeking outside support, and by that point, they are often carrying tremendous stress and uncertainty.”

When they seek help, Walker explained, many families initially focus on traditional assisted living rather than a memory support neighborhood because they are trying to preserve a sense of normalcy for as long as possible.

“There is often fear surrounding memory care because families are unsure what it will look like for their loved one. Part of our role is helping families understand that memory care is not about limiting independence — it is about supporting quality of life in a safe and meaningful way,” she said. “A large part of our role is helping families recognize the cognitive changes their loved one is experiencing while also educating them on how the right environment can do far more than simply keep someone safe — it can help them truly thrive.”

Families often struggle to accept these recommendations, said Stacy Kenworthy, Admissions director of the Jewish Nursing Home at JGS Lifecare — but that’s understandable.

“Dementia is complicated and deeply emotional. Families are often processing grief, denial, fear, and exhaustion all at once,” she explained. “Sometimes families become upset when we recommend a secure unit. Occasionally they tell us they no longer want admission. But many times, after speaking with other facilities or after difficult experiences elsewhere, they come back and realize we were trying to guide them toward the level of care their loved one truly needed.”

Kenworthy added that families sometimes think a secure memory care setting means someone is being restricted, when in reality it is about protection, supervision, and specialized support.

“Memory care units have higher staffing ratios, specialized programming, and activities designed specifically for residents living with cognitive impairment. These environments are created to reduce confusion, anxiety, wandering risks, and unsafe situations.”

Schelb said the team at JGS Lifecare understands families’ concerns and anxieties, and even empathizes with them.

“Families need patience, understanding, and grace — especially for themselves,” she told BusinessWest. “Almost every family experiences guilt. They say things like, ‘we should have known,’ or ‘how did we miss the signs?’ Sometimes siblings blame one another. One child may live closer and feel responsible, while another wonders why something wasn’t noticed sooner.

“But the truth is, families are not healthcare professionals,” she went on. “Dementia can be incredibly subtle in the beginning. Many individuals become experts at masking symptoms. A parent may still appear polished, conversational, and independent in public while internally struggling with confusion, medication management, nutrition, or safety concerns.”

Schelb noted that families also don’t always realize how much routine and muscle memory can compensate for cognitive decline. Someone may function well within the familiarity of their own home because they have repeated the same routines for years. But when they are suddenly hospitalized or moved into a rehabilitation setting, that familiarity disappears, which is often when families first witness behaviors such as increased confusion and wandering.

“We also spend time educating families about sundowning, which can be difficult to recognize if visits typically happen earlier in the day,” she said. “Many families tell us, ‘mom just gets tired early,’ without realizing that increased confusion, anxiety, agitation, or restlessness later in the afternoon and evening can be very common in individuals living with dementia.”

But importantly, she added, “we spend a great deal of time reassuring families that they should not blame themselves.”

Let’s Talk

The Alzheimer’s Assoc. luncheon got Anstett thinking about breast cancer 20 or more years ago, and how far that topic has come.

“I remember when nobody talked about breast cancer. Everyone was hush-hush about it,” she recalled. “And then suddenly, awareness was brought out, and the benefits of being aware and getting checked. Lives were saved, and that stigma was erased. Now, people want to make sure they get that diagnosis immediately while they can do something about it.

“That’s where we need to be with dementia. People now are afraid to get the diagnosis,” she went on, and one of the reasons is an image they have of what a memory care unit looks and feels like — not realizing that the model has come a long way, and there are many more options for care than there used to be.

“There are so many opportunities to keep this at bay and then, maybe in our lifetime, eradicate it,” she said, and in the meantime, it’s going to take a lot of people working together to create a climate in which people seek help earlier and wind up with longer life and better quality of life — not only for themselves, but for their family members.

Kathy Walker

“Frequently, families are trying to balance what they are seeing with the hope that things have not truly changed. Many families wait until they are emotionally or physically exhausted before seeking outside support, and by that point, they are often carrying tremendous stress and uncertainty.”

One of the luncheon speakers, Anstett recalled, was a man in his 50s who wound up with an early dementia diagnosis.

“He was telling us he’s going to fight this thing. He’s going to do every single thing he can do. I love his attitude. So, how can we switch the mindset? How can we do some kind of publicity campaign to say, ‘hey, we see you, we get you are scared to death. However, it is a better solution to tackle it head on right away.’”

After all, she added, “breast cancer was considered a death sentence, and now, how many people survive because women don’t hide it and disappear?”

As the average age of the U.S. population continues to creep up, dementia will only increase in prevalence, barring a cure, Anstett noted. “I don’t believe there’s a person who doesn’t know a person who’s been affected by this.”

And when they seek help? Walker said one of the biggest changes families notice is relief — for both themselves and their loved one.

“Families often tell us they finally feel at peace knowing their loved one is safe, socially engaged, and supported by people who understand dementia care. They are able to step back from the exhausting role of caregiver and return to simply being family again,” she said. “That emotional shift can be incredibly powerful.” 

Great Barrington Remains a Seasonal Draw

By
Features Special Coverage

While soaring gas prices and the rising cost of plane tickets have most people seeing red, Betsy Andrus sees some opportunity.

Indeed, the exploding cost of traveling far away might prompt some people in this region to travel … well, maybe not so far, said Andrus, executive director of the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce, adding that one community that stands to benefit from such a development is Great Barrington.

It already sees large numbers of visitors taking in everything from restaurants, clubs, and hiking trails to the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, an eclectic mix of shops, a few breweries, and a collection of art galleries. And the numbers could move higher, given current trends.

“Because of the price of gas and because of the way the economy is moving, for people to do lavish vacations and fly to Paris or whatever will be more difficult and expensive,” Andrus said. “Instead of spending $4,000 to get to the Caribbean, hopping into the car and spending a few dollars on gas going to the Berkshires seems like an easier choice.”

Great Barrington at a glance

Year Incorporated: 1761
Population: 7,172
Area: 45.8 square miles
County: Berkshire
Residential Tax Rate: $13.24
Commercial Tax Rate: $13.24
Median Household Income: $95,490
Median Family Income: $103,135
Type of Government: Open Town Meeting
Largest Employers: Fairview Hospital;
Iredale Mineral Cosmetics; Prairie Whale

* Latest information available

As noted, there’s always been plenty to do in this town, and now, there’s more, such as concerts and comedy shows at Barrington Hall, the reinvented former Chrissie Farm, which has become what its owners, Dan Baker and Daniel Latzman, expected it to become — a true destination.

Indeed, the new owners have added live concerts, comedy shows, lectures, family events, and more to the mix.

“We like to think of ourselves as a gathering space for the community,” Baker told BusinessWest. “We really try to be community-oriented, both with our public schedule and our private events.” 

As for that mix of stores and eateries, it’s in a seemingly constant of change, and even more so in recent years as many long-time store owners have moved into retirement. That was the case with the Gorhman & Norton package store, a Great Barrington institution that Robbie Robles has transformed into Robbie’s Community Market, another gathering place that offers fresh sandwiches and salads, brick oven pizza, live music Saturdays, and, as the name over the door suggests, community.

“I work hard on making this a quality place that you want to be in — you want to have memories there; you want to go back and have parties and events,” he said, adding that the word ‘market’ is meant to convey the more European definition of gathering place.

And then, there Tom’s Toys, another downtown Great Barrington institution that has been selling specialty items for three decades. Owner Tom Levin said he’s seen a lot of change over 30 years — in the toys that the public is buying at any given time, and in downtown Great Barrington itself.

“Change has been the one constant,” he said, adding that a once-sleepy community started to change and become a destination about the time he went into business, and it remains one today.

Those we spoke with talked about the rhythm of doing business in Great Barrington, which has a slow season, from January until early May. But then, things start to pick as owners of second homes return for the summer and tourists start arriving in larger numbers. Things really pick up when the summer seasons start at Tanglewood in Lenox, Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, and other venues, and it remains steady, if not quite as robust, through the fall and into December.

Understanding and making do through these seasonal ups and downs is one of the challenges of doing business here, said Levin, adding that, since COVID, the winters have been better, and the summers have remained solid.

And this year, Andrus and others are hoping that those aforementioned economic forces — everything from high gas prices to lingering uncertainty about the future — will make this community even more of a destination.

Staying Power

Abdrus noted that, while January to early May is traditionally slow in Great Barrington, the past four months have been slower than normal, despite a strong season for the ski resorts.

Dan Baker, left, and Daniel Latzman in Barrington Hall, which they have transformed into a destination for a wide array of public and private events.

She’s not sure if the closure last summer of the Simon’s Rock of Bard College campus, the future of which remains a large issue moving forward, had anything to do with that, but she’s more certain that the economy and general uncertainty about what comes next did.

She’s hoping for a full rebound during the summer, when the town’s population triples from 7,000 to 21,000, and believes that, if a ‘stay closer to home’ mentality gathers any steam, it will certainly benefit the Berkshires as a region and individual communities where there’s lots to do.

And Great Barrington fits that description, she said, citing everything from a wide variety of shows at the Mahaiwe to Berkshire Busk, the 10-weekend street music and arts festival that makes downtown streets come alive; from an eclectic roster of restaurants to opportunities to hike the Appalachian Trail.

“I think the summer is going to be busy,” she said, adding that the nation’s 250th birthday may bring more opportunities to celebrate the Berkshires’ museums, other cultural institutions, and history, such as the Knox Trail, which winds through several communities in the area, including Great Barrington.

‘Busy’ would certainly suit the many shops in the downtown area, which include a mix of old and new, with Levin now counting his business — located in the heart of downtown, at the corner of Main and Railroad streets — as among the oldest.

“We like to think of ourselves as a gathering space for the community. We really try to be community-oriented, both with our public schedule and our private events.”

“We’ve lost some of our old-time stores, like the photo shop, a hardware store, and a shoe repair shop, and we’ve definitely seen a trend of more upscale shops opening in town,” he said, adding that, for him, business has been generally good as a mix of locals and tourists snap up what’s hot — if he can keep them in stock.

That list includes Japanese blind box toys, Needoh squishy toys for stress relief, and Jellycat stuffed animals, he said, adding that many visitors have specific items on their list, but many come just to browse.

As for Robbie’s Community Market, it is a work on progress, said Robles, a serial entrepreneur with two other businesses in nearby Sheffield, who will mark a year in his storied Great Barrington location — Gorham & Norton was in business for 113 years — later this month.

“I was building the rocket ship while I was going to the moon,” he said of his work to transform the space and add such features as a pizza oven while expanding the overall menu.

Like others who have set up shop in town, he’s experienced a learning curve, especially the ebbs and flows to the calendar.

“It’s a short season, but we’ll be strong until December now,” he said, adding that he’s learning the rhythm of the business year and, thus far, gathering momentum as a place where people gather year-round.

Developments of Note

Baker told BusinessWest that the former Chrissie Farm was mostly a banquet hall, handling weddings, galas, and other gatherings such as corporate outings.

Barrington Hall still hosts such events, but it has broadened the portfolio in dramatic fashion, he said, adding a roster of live, public events that is drawing both area residents and visitors to the region.

This includes live music, including upcoming shows such as “Big Yellow Taxi: The Music of Joni Mitchell,” “Afrobeat Concert with Armo,” “Billy Keane and the Waking Dream,” and “The Rock and Roll Playhouse Plays Music of the Beatles.” There are also comedy shows and events for children and families.

This was the vision that Latzman, a software company owner, and Baker, formerly in the financial services industry, and before that, the entertainment industry (in everything from production to management), brought to their entrepreneurial venture.

The two moved to the Berkshires five years ago and met as neighbors in the nearby town of Egremont and developed a strong friendship.

“We started to align as to our ideals and what it means to live here in the Berkshires, and how there might be opportunities to really establish some roots on the business front,” Baker said. “We then started to look at various venues to accomplish this mission.”

“I work hard on making this a quality place that you want to be in — you want to have memories there; you want to go back and have parties and events.”

In early 2025, when Chrissie Farm came on the market, they gave it a look.

“We walked in, and we knew that we could do what we wanted to do with that space,” he said. “On our side, a lot of this is about a want and need to throw down roots here, grow our families, and create something meaningful for the community, both in Great Barrington and Berskhire County as whole.”

Not quite a year since the sale was completed and several months since the first events were hosted, Baker said the venture is off to a very solid start, with events on both the public and private side of the ledger, especially the former.

“We’ve really packed the schedule with public events,” he said, adding that, beyond the number of events, there has been great diversity as well. “We’ve had rock and singer-songwriter things, jazz, world music like Afrobeat … we’ve really tried to inject some diverse offerings for the people in the Berkshires. We’ve also had a number of comedy shows since the beginning of the year, and some successes beyond that.”

There is a hard focus on local talent — “Live shows. Local energy” is the venue’s marketing tagline — as well as an emphasis on children and families.

“We’ve had at least one kids and family show, and that was a huge success, and we have at least three more lined up for the summer and early fall,” Baker noted, adding that the flexibility of the space provides opportunities to host many different kinds of events. “We can accommodate different setups; that’s one of the beauties of our space, and you might see something different every time you come in here.”

MassCEC Grants Aim to Boost Clean Energy Workforce

By
Workforce Development

Powering the Future

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) recently issued $13.4 million in grants to 13 Massachusetts community colleges to expand career training programs in clean energy fields.

Greenfield Community College (GCC) was awarded $810,000, and Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) received $809,989, both to launch and expand workforce training in HVAC and heat pump technologies, creating new career pathways in the growing clean energy sector.

MassCEC’s latest heat pump and HVAC training grants will benefit students at Greenfield Community College and other institutions.

Meanwhile, Holyoke Community College (HCC) was awarded $455,000 through a different MassCEC grant program to continue and refine its clean energy career training programs. 

“Massachusetts is leading the nation in clean energy and climatetech, and that leadership depends on a strong, skilled workforce,” Gov. Maura Healey said. “These investments will connect residents across the state to good-paying careers while helping employers meet growing demand. We are building a clean energy economy that creates opportunity in every region and real jobs for Massachusetts workers.”

Beyond funding, MassCEC will ensure program quality and consistency through the development of a universal heat pump curriculum, a shared instructional framework, and contextualized English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) resources. Together, these efforts represent a coordinated, statewide push to expand training capacity, improve program quality, and create accessible pathways into clean energy careers for Massachusetts residents.

“We need training that keeps pace with how the energy industry is evolving,” Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Rebecca Tepper said. “These grants give community colleges the tools to deliver hands-on, modern instruction that prepares students for the work happening today and what’s coming next.”

“By pairing funding with a shared approach to curriculum and training, we’re helping to build an integrated system that can better support our workers and a clean energy future.”

MassCEC CEO Ben Downing added that “the Heat Pump and HVAC Training Network is focused on what happens after the investment — more trained workers and closer alignment with employer demand. By pairing funding with a shared approach to curriculum and training, we’re helping to build an integrated system that can better support our workers and a clean energy future.”

Heating Up

Jayshawn Brown, a student in HCC’s solar tech training program, works on a solar panel installation project at Dean Technical High School.

GCC’s grant will provide its division of Workforce Development with funding to train 40 students in HVAC skills. It is anticipated there will be two cohorts of entry-level HVAC training and two cohorts of incumbent worker heat pump training; each cohort will include up to 10 students.

Across the state, this program, supported by the Department of Energy Resources, aims to train 500 additional HVAC workers to meet the Commonwealth’s growing demand for clean heating and cooling systems. Greenfield Community College will use this funding to continue training programs for new HVAC technicians as well as work with local employers to provide heat pump installation and maintenance training for their current workforce.

“This funding allows us to continue to offer a full range of HVAC and heat pump training through our Workforce Development division, creating excellent opportunities for residents to enter and advance in clean energy careers,” said Kristin Cole, vice president of Workforce Development at GCC. “With these programs, we can address the urgent needs of local employers and equip our community with the skills necessary for success in a sector that supports both economic growth and clean energy.”

Since launching the HVAC training program in fall of 2024, GCC has graduated 27 individuals from the program with several industry certifications; 85% of those graduates are currently working in the industry. On May 29, the third cohort of students will graduate and transition into employment or paid internships with local employers. This new grant will fund training for additional students.

“We are building a pathway that supports our community, meets employer needs, and connects workforce training to college and long-term economic growth.”

Meanwhile, STCC’s funding supports a comprehensive clean energy training strategy centered on high-efficiency heating and cooling systems and modern heat pump technologies. 

Through six workforce development programs, STCC will provide Springfield residents and regional workers with free, hands-on training aligned with employer demand, industry certifications, and the Commonwealth’s clean energy goals. Together, these programs prepare both entry-level learners and incumbent workers for employment, advancement, and credential attainment in a rapidly changing workforce.

Gladys Franco, assistant vice president of Workforce Development at STCC, noted that “we are building a pathway that supports our community, meets employer needs, and connects workforce training to college and long-term economic growth.”

The initiative strengthens STCC’s existing HVAC and energy systems programs while creating a flexible workforce training model that helps participants quickly gain skills, credentials, and access to employment opportunities. The program also creates a pathway into STCC’s associate degree programs in energy systems technology and building automation.

MassCEC funding has made it possible for STCC to launch and scale six targeted training programs that would not otherwise be available. Investments in lab upgrades, modern equipment, and instructional delivery are significantly increasing training capacity, expanding access for underrepresented populations and accelerating entry into clean energy careers. Meanwhile, the college is working closely with MassHire, regional employers, and community-based organizations to support recruitment, training, and job placement.

The Next Phase

At HCC, the MassCEC grant will pay for two free training programs for up to 30 individuals: introductory training in construction, electricity, and clean energy systems in the fall of 2026, and a solar installer/electrical pre-apprenticeship program in the spring of 2027.

HCC piloted both programs in 2025 after receiving a $1.42 million grant from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Education for climate-related workforce training initiatives. The new award is part of a $7 million allocation in clean energy and climatech grants announced last month by the Healey-Driscoll administration.

“The first grant was really to design, develop, and essentially figure out what would work in our market,” said Kermit Dunkelberg, HCC’s assistant vice president of Adult Basic Education and Workforce Development. “Now, we’ll not just be continuing, but refining these programs to achieve even stronger outcomes.”

The MassCEC grants will support 17 organizations through four programs: Equity Training Implementation; Climate Critical Training, Equipment, and Infrastructure; Climate Critical Underrepresented Business Support; and Student and Young Adult Career Awareness and Training. They are designed to help local organizations expand inclusive training, career awareness, and business support for jobs such as electricians, solar technicians, HVAC-R technicians, energy auditors, refrigeration technicians, and EV charger technicians.

“Through our programs and partnerships, students are introduced to building trades unions — in particular, the electrical workers union and carpentry union — as well as solar installer and electrical apprenticeship opportunities.”

HCC was the only community college in Massachusetts to receive a dedicated grant, while the Massachusetts Assoc. of Community Colleges, a consortium of all 15 community colleges in the state, received $120,000 to support HVAC programs across the community college system. 

HCC’s key partners in the grant are Holyoke’s Dean Technical High School, where the clean energy training classes meet, and solar industry companies PV Squared and SolaBlock. Other partners include the MassHire Hampden County Workforce Board, the Coalition for Equitable Economy, Springfield Works, Browning the Green Space, and the Entrepreneurship & Business Collaborative.

“Thanks to these grants, we’ve been able to connect students to career pathways that can be very challenging to get into,” said Mary Wagner, HCC’s Workforce and Economic Development training manager. “Through our programs and partnerships, students are introduced to building trades unions — in particular, the electrical workers union and carpentry union — as well as solar installer and electrical apprenticeship opportunities.”

Since 2025, HCC has run the introductory clean energy program three times, the solar tech program once, a weatherization program two times, and recently introduced an Introduction to Manufacturing and Clean Energy Applications pilot program. 

“These programs are creating opportunities for underserved populations,” Dunkelberg said. “It’s not just opening the pathways, but reaching deeply into the community to create the access that’s been missing.”

Speculation Abounds as Hampshire College Campus Hits Market

By
Commercial Real Estate

What Comes Next?

The Hampshire College campus covers roughly 800 acres, and there is already widespread speculation about the many potential future uses of the property.

“Stay tuned. This is going to be fun.”

With that, Barry Roberts, a developer who has reshaped downtown Amherst and handled projects across that college town, summed up what most are thinking about the announced sale of the Hampshire College property.

Elaborating, Roberts said he is expecting this to be an intriguing sale process, and one that could impact this community in many ways depending on who buys the property and what they do with it.

The college announced last month that it was selling the 800-acre campus property to pay off creditors; the school currently carries about $25 million in loans. In response to a series of questions sent to the school by email, a college spokesperson would say only this:

“As part of its transition to closure, Hampshire College is working to sell its land in order to satisfy debt obligations and steward an orderly teach-out process. The college has retained Region as a broker, and the college’s board of trustees is preparing to review any and all offers that enable meeting Hampshire’s fiduciary obligations.”

Region is a West Springfield-based commercial real estate firm led by the father-son team of Mitch and Ben Bolotin (see related story on page 28). Region is preparing a listing for the property, and while it was not available at press time, it was to be available ‘soon,’ according to that college spokesperson.

When asked to speculate about the sale and what might happen with the property, Roberts, who has been involved in retail, housing, and office projects in Amherst, said there has been plenty of talk, and there will be more in the weeks and months to come.

“They would like to get some tax money out of the property, I know that. It will be interesting to see who comes forward and what kind of deal they can work out with Hampshire.”

He told BusinessWest that town officials have expressed interest in “putting the property back on the tax rolls.” Colleges like Hampshire do not pay property taxes, but generally make in-lieu-of-tax payments. Most other uses, other than education and nonprofit initiatives, do pay taxes.

“They would like to get some tax money out of the property, I know that,” he said. “It will be interesting to see who comes forward and what kind of deal they can work out with Hampshire.”

He said there should be ample interest in the property, as there was for a 20-acre strip of Hampshire College-owned land near Atkins Farms that came on the market late last year. Roberts noted that his company submitted a proposal for that property that was under consideration by the school when “the clock ran out,” as he put it, and the college announced it would be closing.

Roberts didn’t want to speculate on whether the campus would be sold as one block or whether it could be subdivided and sold that way. Overall, the site comprises 600 acres in Amherst and 200 in Hadley, he said, but only a few hundred acres are developable, with the rest being wetlands.

And while the development community waits for the listing on the property, there have already been a few proposals forwarded for potential reuse.

One is called Hampshire Next, a coalition comprising alumni, students, families, staff, and community members. Its goal is to raise $21 million by September to retire the college’s bonds and ensure its financial stability.

The initiative’s website explains its mission — “to organize and secure a future where a new expression of Hampshire’s mission can be nurtured under the direct guidance of its community” — and motivation.

“It either stays with the community, or it could become the next data center,” organizers wrote on the site. “If we don’t act, Hampshire’s campus may be used for purposes that have little connection to what Hampshire made possible. Hampshire taught us to think critically, act boldly, and build alternatives. Now we are applying those values to ensure the campus continues to serve Hampshire’s mission through a future that is not yet fixed, but firmly rooted in its purpose.”

“It either stays with the community, or it could become the next data center. If we don’t act, Hampshire’s campus may be used for purposes that have little connection to what Hampshire made possible.“

Another proposal forwarded by Jerome Segal, a philosopher and former candidate for president, calls for a plan to refinance the school’s debt while merging it with his newly created Peace Institute into something that would be called the Advanced Hampshire Institute for Peace, Plain Living, and Conflict Resolution Training.

Whether either of these proposals gains any traction remains to be seen. In the meantime, input from the public will be paramount in the discussions about future uses and what will be permitted there, said Jeff Bagg, Amherst’s director of Planning and Economic Development.

“It’s important for the community to submit their ideas, questions, and concerns,” he said. “Given the size and complexity of the news about Hampshire College closing, the town manager has begun a series of meetings with various stakeholders to understand immediate impacts to students, faculty and staff. We are also taking into consideration the needs of the existing nonprofit organizations and businesses on or adjacent to the college campus,” he noted. “After some of the immediate issues are addressed, the town of Amherst expects to facilitate and be part of broader discussions about future uses of the land.” 

As Roberts said, this should be fun. So stay tuned.

Monson Residents Approve Planned Village District for Former MDC Property

By
Commercial Real Estate

Vote of Confidence

Plans to redevelop the long-idle former Monson Developmental Center took a big step forward recently as town residents resoundingly approved a vote to establish a planned village district (PVD) for the sprawling property.

The plan creates the zoning framework for the redevelopment of approximately 108 acres of the former state hospital campus, enabling a future that includes housing, economic development, open space, and a “renewed sense of place on a historically significant site,” said Jeff Daley, president and CEO of Westmass Area Development Corp., which has been tasked with redeveloping the property.

“It is important to Westmass, the town, and its residents that this redevelopment supports needed housing and regional economic development in a tasteful, responsible, and community-focused way.”

The district also creates pathways for light industrial, research, and commercial uses, reflecting the site’s potential as a hub for economic activity alongside its residential program, Daley noted.

The PVD establishes two subdistricts tailored to the character and potential of different parts of the campus:

• Subdistrict A, 48 acres, allows multi-family housing, office, retail, restaurants, neighborhood-serving commercial uses, and select light industrial and R&D uses at densities appropriate for a walkable village center — up to 15 dwelling units per acre.

• Subdistrict B, 60 acres, calls for a quieter, pastoral setting for single-family homes, townhomes, and cottage cluster developments, with flexibility for up to six units per acre for attached housing types.

Together, the two subdistricts create the conditions for a diverse, mixed-income community that honors the history and landscape of the former MDC campus while opening the door to significant private investment and new tax revenue for the town.

“I am grateful and excited that the town of Monson voted in favor of creating the new Village District Zone and approving the zoning change for the former Monson State Hospital property,” Daley said. “For too long, this former state-owned property sat dormant, creating an eyesore and safety concern for the entire community. With the Westmass team prepared to move forward with demolition of the buildings on site, we can now begin the next phase of predevelopment work and thoughtful planning for the property’s redevelopment.

“As I have said many times to Monson residents, Westmass is committed to developing this site with respect for the town of Monson and the fabric of the community,” he added. “It is important to Westmass, the town, and its residents that this redevelopment supports needed housing and regional economic development in a tasteful, responsible, and community-focused way.”

Demolition work is expected to cost roughly $16 million, and after this phase is done, there is considerable infrastructure work to be undertaken — everything from new roads and utilities to a new, wider bridge over Sawmill Brook, which runs through the middle of the property, to work to repair and upgrade the water tower on the campus (there is no pumping station that can supply water to the higher portions of the campus).

The goal, Daley explained, is to be done with the cleaning and demolition by 2027, with the infrastructure work to follow. Like other projects to redevelop former state properties, such as Northampton State Hospital and Belchertown State School, he expects this initiative to take time and play out over the next
10 to 20 years. 

Introducing BusinessWest’s 2026 Alumni Achievement Award Finalists

By
Alumni Achievement Award Cover Story Features

In 2015, BusinessWest, created a new recognition program that would eventually be called the Alumni Achievement Award (AAA), recognizing those individuals who have most expanded upon the résumés that earned them membership in the now-800-strong 40 Under Forty club.

And while there is usually one winner each year (there have been two on a pair of occasions), we profile all the finalists for the award each year because … well, just being among the handful of top scorers is an achievement of note.

“Last year I was very surprised and honored to have been named a finalist for the 40 Under Forty Alumni Achievement Award,” said Jeffrey Fialky, managing shareholder at Bacon Wilson, P.C. and last year’s AAA winner. “Surprise gave way to astonishment when being named the recipient of the award.

“I was beyond humbled to receive this award among a pool of other candidates and finalists, all of whom represent the highest echelon of excellence throughout our region — personally, professionally, and through their contributions to the community,” Fialky added. “While there is only one named recipient, it is really a distinction that is shared among everyone who works to better our region through their hard work, dedication, and commitment to community — and for that I extend my congratulations to all nominees and finalists.”

The four finalists that rose to the top, according to a panel of three independent judges, including Fialky (see page 22), are James Krupienski, partner at Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C. (40 Under Forty class of 2010); Modesto Montero-Forman, executive director of Libertas Academy Charter School (class of 2020); Adam Quenneville, owner of Adam Quenneville Roofing and Siding (class of 2009); and Ciara Speller, evening anchor at WWLP-22 News (class of 2023).

Their stories on the following pages certainly convey continued excellence in the professional world, continued commitment to giving back to the community, or both. They also provide some looks into the personal lives of some outstanding individuals, each of them worthy of the award known as AAA.

The winner will be announced at the start of this year’s 40 Under Forty gala on Thursday, June 11 at the MassMutual Center. The presenting sponsor of this year’s Alumni Achievement Award is Baystate Health/Health New England.

Meet the 2026 Alumni Achievement Award Judges:

The previous year’s AAA honoree traditionally serves as a judge the following year, and Jeffrey Fialky is no exception, having won the award in 2025 following 40 Under Forty honors in 2008. As managing shareholder at Bacon Wilson, P.C., he chairs the law firm’s corporate and commercial department and is also a member of the municipal department. He specializes in sophisticated business, financing, and commercial real estate transactions, representing the interests of business owners and lending institutions, as well as municipalities and landowners. A board member with the Springfield Regional Chamber and a trustee with the Springfield Museums, he has also been involved with causes ranging from the United Way and the American Cancer Society to the Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield and Leadership Pioneer Valley. 

Rania Kfuri has been a convener, connector, and motivator in many ways over the years, having served in a wide variety of roles, from a stint working for the mayor of Chicago to an entrepreneur who developed a unique travel bag for young parents; from her time at Smith College, which she served in several roles, to a Philanthropy officer for Baystate Health, and her most recent role as vice president for Philanthropy, Sales, and Marketing at Glenmeadow, where she provided leadership and direction to key revenue-producing areas; developed strategies to secure annual, planned, and donor-directed gifts; and pursued partnerships with other local organizations. Named a BusinessWest Woman of Impact in 2025, she is deeply involved with a wide range of community groups and causes, including Revitalize CDC, Girls on the Run, the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts, and the city of Westfield, where she served on a master plan committee. 

Julie Quink is managing principal at accounting firm Burkhart Pizzanelli, P.C., where she is involved in the accounting and consulting aspects of the practice and manages engagements of various sizes and complexity, as well as performing forensic and fraud-related services. Named a BusinessWest Difference Maker in 2026, she is a trustee of Baystate Health and Monson Savings Bank, chairperson of the Pathfinder Regional Vocational Technical High School committee, a finance committee member of the East Quabbin Land Trust, board chair for Greater Springfield Senior Services, and treasurer of Square One, the Quaboag Hills Chamber of Commerce, Hardwick Rescue & Emergency Squad, and the Estate Planning Council of Hampden County. She is also an adjunct faculty member in Elms College’s MBA accounting program and a 2017 recipient of the MSCPA’s Women to Watch awards. 

The Four Finalists for 2026 are:

James Krupienski

Partner at Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C

Modesto Montero-Forman

Executive Director, Libertas Academy Charter School

Adam Quenneville

President, Adam Quennevile Roofing & Siding

Ciara Speller

Evening Anchor, WWLP-22 News

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Cornering the Market

By
Features Special Coverage

Baystate Merger Is a Lifeline for Mercy —
but Poses Some Risks, Too

At a recent community forum where leaders of Baystate Health and Mercy Medical Center discussed why Mercy will be absorbed into the vast Baystate system later this year, Dr. Robert Roose positioned the move as a matter of survival.

“Mercy treats a population with the greatest proportion of Medicaid and Medicare patients of any hospital in the entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts,” said Roose, president of Community Hospitals for Trinity Health Of New England.

“That’s a community that needs care, but it’s one where the reimbursement does not match the cost of care,” he went on. “Medicaid reimburses, on average, about 62 cents on the dollar, Medicare about 85 cents. So there’s a financial equation that can be difficult to sustain. In addition to that, we know, with federal funding cuts and other changes to payments, that revenue will continue to decrease while costs continue to rise.”

Dr. Robert Roose

There’s a financial equation that can be difficult to sustain. In addition to that, we know, with federal funding cuts and other changes to payments, that revenue will continue to decrease while costs continue to rise.

At the same time, he said, Mercy has struggled with recruitment of critical specialties of providers — a reality that played out late last year when Mercy shuttered its obstetrics services, with most of those patients moving to Baystate Medical Center.

“So really, for the last decade, there have been questions around the long-term viability of Mercy Medical Center,” Roose went on. “Even as part of a large system like Trinity Health … it makes sense to strengthen the network of care here in Western Massachusetts.”

For Baystate, having a facility the size of Mercy — with its 191 licensed beds, 7,800 discharges per year, and 45,000 emergency room visits per year — simply close its doors would put far too much strain on other Baystate facilities, said Dr. Scott Lichtenberger, chief operating officer for Baystate Health.

“Springfield needs two hospitals, full stop,” he noted. “If Mercy Medical Center didn’t exist, Baystate could not absorb — not only at Baystate Medical Center, but even across our system — that kind of volume. So, to preserve services in the community and to be able to provide that kind of access, we have to have two hospitals.”

Those, in effect, are the arguments for a merger scheduled to take effect on Nov. 1: if Mercy can’t survive on its own, and if Baystate Health believes bringing a fifth full-service hospital into its system makes economic sense from a scale and efficiency perspective, then the move simply makes sense.

Not everyone is sure, however. Michal Horny, assistant professor of Health Policy and Management at UMass Amherst, told BusinessWest that there’s a good amount of evidence from across the U.S. that, when two hospitals very near each other merge, and are no longer in competition with each other, costs inevitably rise for patients.

“Any health plan that operates primarily in the Springfield area, before the merge, they had some leverage over hospitals — if you don’t strike a deal with one hospital, you can go to the other,” he explained. “After the merger, with two main hospitals in Springfield now part of a single system, no health plan can afford to operate in the Springfield area without having a contract with both those hospitals. So that gives the hospitals some very good bargaining power when negotiating prices.

“So what starts to happen is prices, on average, at both hospitals go up. I don’t know how much, but we’ve seen in other markets an average increase of about 6%. So that affects everyone with private insurance,” Horny explained (more on that later).

Dr. Scott Lichtenberger

“If Mercy Medical Center didn’t exist, Baystate could not absorb — not only at Baystate Medical Center, but even across our system — that kind of volume. So, to preserve services in the community and to be able to provide that kind of access, we have to have two hospitals.”

At the same time, while Baystate and Mercy leaders tout potential efficiencies, he noted, “as far as quality of care, the argument from the hospitals is that there’s better coordination and shared resources. Economists have studied this; it’s theoretically a valid point — but the evidence is not there. There doesn’t seem to be any improvement in quality.”

But for proponents of the merger, the survival of Mercy and its services in a community that needs them is an overriding positive.

“I am pleased that Baystate Health and Trinity Health have reached an agreement that will allow these two vibrant hospitals to continue serving our communities,” U.S. Rep. Richard Neal said, noting that, at a time of serious federal spending cuts, “this acquisition will expand access to healthcare and improve services throughout the Pioneer Valley and beyond.

“Together, these institutions represent more than three centuries of service to Western and Central Massachusetts,” Neal added. “Ensuring their viability and continued success is vital to the health of our families and our local economies, and this announcement represents a critical step in strengthening our regional healthcare system for generations to come.” 

Local Impacts

In their announcement on April 28 that Baystate Health and Trinity Health Of New England had signed a definitive agreement to transition Mercy Medical Center, its joint venture affiliates, and medical group entities in Massachusetts to Baystate Health, pending regulatory approvals, they made it clear that Trinity Health will continue to own and operate Brightside for Families and Children, Mercy LIFE, Mary’s Meadow at Providence Place, Beaven Kelly Home, and Saint Luke’s Home.

They also asserted that “Baystate Health will preserve Mercy’s nonprofit mission, community commitment, and legacy of high-quality care.” Both entities will continue to operate independently until the transition is complete this fall.

“Mercy and the Sisters of Providence have been a fixture in our community since 1874,” said Peter Banko, Baystate Health president and CEO, in a statement on April 28. “This is an investment in both the past and the future of healthcare and economic development in Western Massachusetts. Today, access forces too many patients to leave the region to seek care, and we need to ensure that care is compassionate, high quality, affordable, and local. We have been and will continue to be a pillar of our community — rooted here, serving here, and helping generations thrive here.”

One topic raised at the May 12 community forum — and one discussed at length in the article on page 22 about the region’s workforce outlook — is the difficulty recruiting people into a healthcare system that desperately needs them, and how the Baystate-Mercy merger will impact that equation for both institutions.

During the forum, Tania Barber, president and CEO of Caring Health Center in Springfield, asked what Baystate expects to happen when the most severe impacts from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) come to fruition next year and area residents start losing health coverage.

“The health safety net cannot absorb it. We know that there’s going to be an influx of individuals that will be coming to the hospital, coming to community health centers, and we know there will be staffing shortages — provider shortages, nursing shortages, it goes on and on,” Barber said. “Recruitment continues to be a challenge, so I’d like to learn a little bit more about how you will address the enormous amount of individuals who are going to utilize hospital services because they’re losing their insurance.”

Lichtenberger countered that frontline staffing levels are up at Baystate despite a recent series of high-profile layoffs, mostly administrative, throughout the system. “And as we get bigger, I think it becomes a more attractive place to recruit physicians. We’ve just got to make sure that this remains a destination place that people want to work and that people are proud to work.”

Despite a challenging landscape for healthcare staffing, he noted that Baystate plans to keep Mercy’s critical services operating — and having two hospitals within a mile of each other will bring advantages of efficiency — and even grow them.

For example, “the emergency room at Mercy Medical Center — again, pending regulatory approval — will remain open 24 hours, seven days a week,” Lichtenberger said. “And about half of the beds at Mercy are now available — we want to fill those beds. We want to grow services so that we keep more care here locally. And when we talk about filling those beds, that’s creating jobs.”

But the cost issue for patients — again, when health plans lose leverage in a less competitive environment — is still a matter of concern, Horny said.

“Even when insurance pays for a portion of their healthcare, if prices are higher, that inevitably translates to higher premiums. Insurance doesn’t absorb the increased costs — it shifts them to consumers. So eventually, you can expect premiums for plans in the Springfield area to go up.”

Drawing on data from the Health Care Affordability Lab, a Yale University-based group of economists who study healthcare markets and translate their research for various audiences, Horny noted that, while healthcare consumers and payers initially absorb health cost increases, it eventually hits employers as well.

“Employers usually don’t cut wages, but they’ll cut the number of available positions, so one of the downstream effects is fewer employment opportunities,” Horny said, which eventually translates to decreased state and federal revenues, and more uninsured people going without care — which could increase mortality.

Challenges Continue

Dean Sanpei, chief administrative officer and chief strategy officer for Baystate Health, also addressed the community forum, noting that virtually all Mercy employees that work specifically for that
hospital, and not in an administrative role at Trinity, will come over in the deal.

“We do think this can improve community care and our provision of care in the area,” he said. “There are synergies that are created when institutions are able to come together. You’re able to create more hubs and spokes. You’re able to create centers of excellence and places where you can focus higher specialties of care and get better outcomes. And you’re able to distribute services as needed, and effectively. So we’re hoping to bring all these synergies together and create a better process and better care for our community.”

Michal Horny

“No health plan can afford to operate in the Springfield area without having a contract with both those hospitals. So that gives the hospitals some very good bargaining power when negotiating prices.”

Sanpei also agreed with Lichtenberger that the expanded Baystate footprint in Springfield will make the system more attractive and an easier place to recruit physicians.

“As we recruit more physicians, we can open up more beds, and we can have more capacity,” he went on. “And as we’re able to do that, it enables those who live here, who want to have care here, to get care here — which helps all of us. It helps residents locally, but it also helps the health system because those dollars are not going to go east, they’re not going to go south; they’ll stay here. So that’s an opportunity for us as well.”

That said, Baystate certainly continues to face headwinds, like an expected $150 million impact from the OBBBA.

“This transaction doesn’t occur for us until November. Until that time, we will continue to have the challenges that we’ve had to date, and we’re going to continue to have to do the efficiencies that we’ve done to date. Those things, in many ways, are separate. Those challenges are going to continue,” Sanpei said.

To that end, he continued, “we’re going to have to continue to increase our operating efficiency. We’re going to continue to have to look at our expense structure, and that won’t necessarily change overnight. Once we have the joint entity, the synergies we have then will come into play, and it will be better moving toward the future.” ◆

Hire Concerns

By
Features Special Coverage Workforce Development

Numerous Factors Are Complicating the Region’s Job Market

Whatever else can be said for the job market — both nationally and in Western Mass. — job seekers have lost some leverage. Specifically, job openings aren’t as plentiful (in most sectors, anyway) than they were a year or two ago, meaning it’s tougher to hold out for a better offer, and not as easy to move around.

“What we’re seeing is a retraction of people moving jobs right now. Employees are staying put,” said Allison Ebner, president of the Employers Assoc. of the NorthEast. “We’re seeing that for a variety of reasons today; the economy is certainly one reason why employees are staying with the devil they know instead of jumping ship for a different job.”

Specifically, she noted, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported earlier this month that, for the first time since 2023, the cost of living has outpaced wage growth in the U.S.

“Basically, the inflation rate has outpaced the cost-of-living adjustment, that 3.5% average that many people probably got at the beginning of the year. It’s not even covering the cost-of-living increase today, between the rising gas prices and the rising food prices.”

At the same time, Ebner said, wages are leveling off after jumping up for a while post-COVID. “The only outlier we’re seeing is some variable pay for AI skills in general.”

Kevin Lynn, executive director of the MassHire Springfield Career Center, said the local labor market has seen a broad contraction in job opportunities, and cited a number of factors that have been problematic.

“What we’re seeing is a retraction of people moving jobs right now. Employees are staying put. We’re seeing that for a variety of reasons today; the economy is certainly one reason why employees are staying with the devil they know instead of jumping ship for a different job.”

“We have a benefits cliff here affecting both hiring and retention,” he told BusinessWest. “We have a federal immigration policy that is contracting our labor market. We have population decline locally and outmigration. We have a childcare crisis that is tamping down the available labor market. We certainly have developing AI/automation anxiety out there. We have federal funding uncertainty. We have a local criminal justice issue, getting ex-offenders re-employed. And we have this totally egregious Iran war which is causing our economy to slow.

“Judging from the most recent [BLS] Producer Price Index, we’re running into a really fun June, if not July, with a rise in prices,” Lynn added. “We’ve got all that around us, which gives us a picture of what I would term a struggling regional economy.”

In fact, he said, Hampden County has one of the weakest labor markets in the state, with a relatively high unemployment rate continuing to climb, and average weekly wage rates below the national average.

All this has contributed to a slowdown in employee movement, where both workers and companies are loath to make moves.

“Companies are making slower hiring decisions, when they have hiring decisions to make, and they’re seeing less turnover,” Ebner said. “And from what we’re hearing, the employers that have employee turnover, it’s not because workers are leaving to go to different jobs; the turnover is because of employees’ poor performance, attendance issues, or not meeting the employer’s standards.”

The slowdown in hiring is even manifesting itself in the most recent MassHire job fair at the Basketball Hall of Fame on May 18. When she spoke with BusinessWest the week before the fair, Ebner — who is also president of the MassHire Springfield board of directors — said vendor registration was running at about 60% the usual pace.

“They may pick up a few more, but that’s certainly a telltale sign locally that employees aren’t hiring,” she added. “There are still close to 30 coming, but usually it’s in the 45 to 50 range of employers coming to market their companies.”

Unhealthy Outlook

Lynn noted that the region is struggling with a bifurcation of wages — and a lot of posting activity in positions that are high-churn, low-wage, and not necessarily a living wage. And it’s happening most in healthcare.

Allison Ebner says employee engagement — even at the managerial level — is a rising problem for employers.

“Locally, healthcare is our dominant sector in terms of employment, and it’s contracting,” he said, pointing to struggles at local hospitals to employ frontline staffers, even before the recent announcement of Mercy Medical Center merging into Baystate Health later this year.

“What is that going to look like? What does that mean for employment?” he asked. “Crucially, a lot of healthcare workers — home health aides, CNAs, those lower kinds of lower-paying positions within the healthcare system, have an issue with a living wage. Can people survive on those wages?

“It’s really kind of an existential question for healthcare, where so much of what they do depends on Medicare and Medicaid funding to pay the bills, and they’re not doing a great job paying as it is,” he went on. “So, are they in a position to increase wages? I’m guessing not, so there’s a tension going on: people tend to think of where the jobs are, who’s hiring, what the jobs are — but increasingly, people are taking the next step and asking, ‘does this job pay a living wage?’”

It’s a question the healthcare industry must deal with sooner than later, said Ebner, who pointed to data from Lightcast, a global leader in labor market intelligence and workforce analytics, that notes that healthcare openings nationally currently outnumber unemployed job seekers by a five to one margin, and two-thirds of all job growth over the past year is in healthcare and social assistance.

“There was a predicted gain of 60,000 jobs in April, and it came in closer to 105,000, but it’s being skewed by a couple of industries; it’s not a true picture of all industries,” she said, and at the top of the list is healthcare. In fact, in 49 of 50 U.S. states, nursing is currently the top open job category. And that trend of healthcare demand outpacing staffing bodes poorly not just for the economy, but in broader ways.

“Healthcare is going to be a problem for us as people are living longer and Baby Boomers are retiring. They’ve done the math, and there’s simply not enough people to fill those healthcare jobs,” Ebner noted. “There’s a huge opportunity in home health and PCAs; they don’t have enough people to fill those positions. But it’s not a high-paying job.

“There’s a lot of talk right now about how about how the trades are working to draw students from high schools and colleges into electrical, HVAC, plumbing,” she added. “Those are considered AI-proof, and they’re high-income-earning. You could start as an apprentice and make a great wage very quickly. You can’t say that about PCAs.”

Data researcher Hannah Grieser, writing for Lightcast, cited a 2026 survey finding that 73% of healthcare executives say staffing shortages negatively affect their ability to provide high-quality care, pointing to several specific roles as acutely difficult to fill: among clinical roles, 98% of healthcare executives named physician specialists, and 86% primary care physicians. And among allied health roles, a majority of executives said radiology techs and ultrasound techs are tough to find.

“But across the healthcare workforce,” Grieser noted, “labor shortages are an ongoing challenge that’s expected to intensify.”

Meanwhile, Ebner continued, “COVID burnt out a lot of the healthcare workers. A lot of people opted out of that profession. They don’t have the same appeal post-COVID. So, healthcare is going to be in trouble and, with the level of urgency we’re at, needs immediate attention at the state and federal levels for sure.”

“Crucially, a lot of healthcare workers — home health aides, CNAs, those lower kinds of lower-paying positions within the healthcare system, have an issue with a living wage. Can people survive on those wages?”

Kevin Lynn says the main problem for companies isn’t finding people to hire, but finding the right people.

MassHire’s mission is to connect employers with skilled, motivated employees, Lynn said, but, increasingly, those workers aren’t finding the wage levels they need.

“Employers are in a push-and-pull position right now, and it’s been heightened with inflation and rising rents and mortgages,” he explained. “The cost of living in general has been escalating. People are saying, ‘I can’t take a job if I can’t find a home,’ or ‘I can’t take a job if I don’t make enough money to stay in my home.’ There’s more of that going on than ever now.”

That said, he noted, certain positions in healthcare — RNs, LPNs, and allied professionals come to mind — can find decent wages, and other sectors are similarly tiered when it comes to who’s making what.

“Also, the nonprofit sector continues to hire — again, it depends on the position, but they often do pay decent wages and have outstanding benefit packages to make up the difference. So that’s good. But on the flip side, human services, nonprofits, and healthcare are being hit by reductions in federal spending.”

Other sectors are relatively stable as well, including retail, logistics, and warehousing, but Lynn is concerned that the overall regional wage picture is outpacing what’s being seen locally.

“Read the national economic news, and you see economic numbers that are not great, but don’t look too bad, either. You get the sense locally we’re in a different ballgame.”

The Right Stuff

Lynn reiterated that matching employers with job seekers is much easier than finding the right workers, in terms of both skills and engagement. “We talk to different companies who are hiring, but struggling to hire at the same time because they don’t just want a body, but the right person.”

Ebner agreed. “Employers are definitely discouraged about the quality of the candidates they have. They’re not seeing the caliber of candidates that they’ve seen in the past from a customer service standpoint, from an innovation standpoint; they’re still struggling with employee engagement.”

Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace study recently reported a 21% employee engagement rate, she noted. “That means 21% of employees are fully engaged with their jobs. That’s a problem. An even bigger issue was manager engagement, which dropped from 31% to 22% over the last two years.

“These are the people that teach and educate and coach your employees,” Ebner went on. “This is something we talk to our members about regularly — manager development, and to be very careful about who gets to be a leader in your organization. Just because somebody did a great job working on the line as a project manager, or in an individual capacity, doesn’t mean they’re going to be a great leader. You’ve got to have someone with qualifications who shares your mindset, and then take those high-performing individuals and try them out in those roles to see if they’ll be a good leader.”

Meanwhile, among all the negative factors impacting the regional job market, Lynn pointed to immigration enforcement as a thorny one, though fewer people are talking about it right now.

“It’s definitely impacting healthcare, especially looking at long-term care; a lot of immigrants work in that field, and now that pool has started to dry up. When you see these ICE pickups, the optics don’t make people feel comfortable going out to find work.

“It’s almost like we put everything into a blender, and we’re not coming out with a great drink,” he added, referring specifically to decisions being made in Washington, D.C. “I’m worried about a potential recession. I lived through that in 2008; I don’t want that to happen. It’s tough to hire right now because there’s so much craziness going on.” ◆

Region Real Estate Brings Together Father and Son Mitch and Ben Bolotin

By
Commercial Real Estate

It’s Now a Family Business

Ben Bolotin was working in Boston, handling office leases and coping with the many forms of turmoil that came with the pandemic, when his father, Mitch, called and said he was busy, in a mostly good way, and could use some help.

So Ben headed west — “back home,” as he put it — to provide that help to Mitch, then a principal with Colebrook Realty Services in Springfield. The two worked together at Colebrook for a few years before Ben decided to start his own firm, which he would call Region.

Mitch stayed at Colebrook, where he had been a fixture for more than 30 years, but came to miss the way he and Ben worked together, so he eventually decided to leave and join him at Region.

That’s the condensed version of the story of how the two are building this emerging company together, assembling a diverse portfolio that includes a wide array of industrial, retail, and office properties; former churches; and, most recently, the Hampshire College campus, which recently went on the market in one of the region’s most closely watched stories.

The client list is intriguing and includes the owners of Tandem Bagel, who continue to add locations across the region, including the most recent addition in South Hadley, as well as ServiceNet, PeoplesBank, and myriad others.

“I had such a positive impression of my dad’s work. He was selling and leasing commercial real estate, but I also enjoyed the people he worked with, the people who were making things happen for Western Massachusetts.”

Region is an intriguing business story, one that has a number of starting points, if you will, beginning with a young Ben growing up watching his father, learning, gaining an appreciation for the business, and eventually deciding he wanted to join it.

“I had such a positive impression of my dad’s work,” he recalled, adding that he attended many meetings and many showings with his father. “He was selling and leasing commercial real estate, but I also enjoyed the people he worked with, the people who were making things happen for Western Massachusetts. He was great about introducing me to that world and introducing me to his clients, and I grew up respecting a lot of his clients.”

These include Jeb Balise, president of the Balise Auto Group — Mitch has worked with him for more than 25 years and has handled the sale of property he owned in Chicopee, among other projects — as well as Tom Dennis and Bill Stotler, developers who own several properties across the region.

These business leaders helped instill in Ben both an interest in real estate and an entrepreneurial spirit, and both come together in Region, which didn’t start out as a family business, but it is now, with the two generations, boasting 50 years of combined experience, working together and making each other better at what they do, as we’ll see.

And experience is just one of the key ingredients the two are bringing to the table with this venture. Others include expertise with certain types of properties, such as churches, which are coming onto the market in growing numbers, and technology.

“In this day and age, what commercial property owners and commercial tenants are expecting is really timely, high-quality service, paired up with a lot of experience and a very digitally native approach,” Ben explained, adding that this is what the Bolotins and a growing team are committed to delivering.

For this issue and its focus on commercial estate, we take an in-depth look at Region and how this father-and-son team developed a fondness for working together — and didn’t want to work apart.

Developing Story

Both Ben and Mitch stressed that operating a business together, as they are now, was never really the plan.

“The plan was no plan,” joked Ben, who noted that he was always interested in real estate and actually interned one semester at Colebrook while he was in college. And early on after graduating, he explored different paths within the industry, including work for a firm based in Boston that handled properties across the country.

“I was assisting in managing malls in California, retail properties in Georgia, downtown office buildings in the Loop in Chicago, and I was helping negotiate leases from an office tower in Boston,” he said. “I decided I was not close enough to the action.”

So, after a few other career stops, including one with a startup — a nod to his interest in business and entrepreneurship — he got much closer to the action, albeit at a challenging time and in a challenged place.

“I was doing downtown office leasing in the financial district of Boston in 2020, and very quickly it became businesses talking about ‘how much space can we give back?’” he recalled. “There was a long year of that.”

Things were a little different in Western Mass., he recalled, adding that this market doesn’t see the huge swings that larger metropolitan areas do.

“Western Mass. has a way of humming along and doing its thing,” he told BusinessWest. “Whether it’s people having access to their cars and not relying on public transit … there were certain aspects of the Western Mass. economy that I found to be very resilient, and my father was very busy and needed another set of hands.

“COVID actually brought us back together in a great way and allowed me to come home,” he went on, noting that the two worked together for a few years at Colebrook.

“What we found is that Ben and I worked really, really well together,” Mitch added. “We rounded each other off in a way that made me better at my job, and I loved working with him; we were on that path together.” 

“I was assisting in managing malls in California, retail properties in Georgia, downtown office buildings in the Loop in Chicago, and I was helping negotiate leases from an office tower in Boston. I decided I was not close enough to the action.”

In late 2023, Ben launched what would be considered his own startup, Region. “I was really interested in investing in a business, and it became clear that, for me, it was the right thing to do,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Mitch was staying put at Colebrook — for a while, anyway.

“That was the plan — Ben was going to leave, and I was going to stay,” Mitch said. “But I missed working with him — we did a lot of good things together. I wanted to continue working with him.”

Mitch eventually transitioned to Region in mid-2024, and he and Ben have been building the company together since then, investing in technology and adding new team members, while also building the book of business in many ways.

Overall, while they say the 413 faces the same challenges as other parts of the country, the two are optimistic about this region and its prospects moving forward.

“People are having to be a lot more thoughtful about how they’re spending their money and how they’re choosing to invest,” Ben said. “But I think there’s a lot of drive and will to continue to invest in Western Massachusetts.”

Space Exploration

As noted earlier, Region has a diverse portfolio of clients and properties. The firm handles leasing for two Colebrook-managed properties — 1441 Main St. in downtown Springfield (co-owned by Jeb Balise) and the PeoplesBank building in Holyoke — and also does work for PeoplesBank, including the securing of office space in downtown Hartford and branches in Hartford and Avon, Conn., and the sale of a closed branch on Sumner Avenue in Springfield to Arrha Credit Union.

The company also handles 11 Interstate Dr. in West Springfield, where its own offices are located. Region has succeeded in retenanting the large office building, which was vacant only a few years ago, but is now more than 60% occupied, with a diverse array of tenants.

Region is now also handling some work for ServiceNet, the mental health and human services provider with facilities across the region.

“We’ve been working with them to source a number of different needs of theirs up and down I-91,” Mitch said, adding that the Region portfolio now includes a wide array of clients, some with ongoing needs and others with “one-off real estate deals,” as he described them.

And the portfolio of properties runs the gamut, from industrial properties in Springfield and Leicester to medical office space in West Springfield; from retail space in Belchertown, West Springfield, and Longmeadow to a former church in Littleton, as well as several parcels of land. Actually, the firm has developed a niche with former churches and has handled the sale of several of them.

“There are not of folks who have a lot of experience working with congregations, so we’ve gotten referred to many groups,” Ben said. “A lot of congregations are struggling post-COVID, and many of them are looking for guidance. It’s a very specific part of the marketplace, and there’s not a lot of folks that are finding ways to help those groups.

“They approach us oftentimes, asking for insight and advice on how to dispossess a property when they no longer have a congregation to support it,” he went on, adding that the company has sold churches in Acton, Lowell, and other communities well outside the region, evidence of how the company’s reputation in this realm is growing.

The Hampshire College sale represents another important opportunity for the company. Region, which has been doing some work for the college for a few years, is putting together an offering memorandum for the property, Mitch said, noting that the assignment represents an important assignment for Hampshire College and the town of Amherst.

“There hasn’t been a college sold in the Pioneer Valley,” he acknowledged. “That said, we have worked on larger and equally complex, multi-dimensional commercial and specialty properties. We combine deep local market knowledge with national reach, and we’re well-equipped to manage a transaction of this scope.

“We’ve also worked on behalf of Hampshire College for several years, so we know the property and the institution well,” Mitch went on. “We’re from here and have a strong vested interest in a successful outcome for Hampshire College and the community.”

“What we found is that Ben and I worked really, really well together. We rounded each other off in a way that made me better at my job, and I loved working with him; we were on that path together.”

Getting back to the business and the dynamic the two have created at Region, the two stressed, again, that there were never plans to work together — until they decided to do just that.

And Mitch believes Ben’s experiences with businesses of different sizes and in different markets helped create a positive family business environment, when tension generally rules in so many other cases of generations working together in the same space.

“Ben came to the party with his own work experiences and his own capabilities,” Mitch said, adding that he brought different perspectives to the company.

Ben agreed. “From those years working in Boston, I had a lot to bring to the Colebrook team right away and how we worked together,” he recalled. “There’re so many other experiences about how offices work and how Boston teams function. Immediately, I was able to add value from a different perspective.”

Added Mitch, “I tell people this: I think I’ve done a good job over the years, but Ben has made me a better broker with the things that we’ve have brought to the team in terms of client satisfaction, a technology base, systems, an efficiency base — from his business experience, he learned a lot of different things that have funneled and shaped our region in many ways.”

Bottom Line

As for returning to this market from Boston — something that rarely happens, and that area economic development leaders would certainly like to see more of — Ben said that, contrary to what might be popular opinion, there are opportunities for young people in the 413.

“A lot of my friends and young people have gotten sucked into the major cities,” he told BusinessWest. “I think there’s a lot of opportunity here for people my age because business owners are aging out.”

New UMass Research Could Reduce Home Heating Use

By
Education

Sweater Weather

Trisha Andrew (left) and Carolina Aragón (second from right) with their research team members. (Photo by UMass Amherst)

Trisha Andrew (left) and Carolina Aragón (second from right) with their research team members. (Photo by UMass Amherst)

Researchers at UMass Amherst recently unveiled a tool to combat climate change, fossil-fuel dependency, skyrocketing home heating bills, and gentrification all at once — a simple fabric treated with a photothermal dye that, when placed on outside walls, can help keep a home almost 9 degrees warmer over the course of a day.

“Sometimes, a simple solution works best,” said Trisha Andrew, professor of Chemistry at UMass Amherst, and one of the paper’s senior authors, along with Carolina Aragón, associate professor of Landscape Architecture, and Ho-Sung Kim, senior lecturer in Building and Construction Technology.

“When you’re cold, you put on a sweater,” Aragón added, “so we started thinking: what would you do if you’re a building?”

Heating buildings is a huge driver of fossil-fuel consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and energy insecurity. More than 33 million homeowners in the U.S. report trouble keeping their houses warm, and more than 24 million people — often renters — report skipping food or rationing energy in order to pay for heat. Meanwhile, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, residential and commercial buildings account for 39.1% of the primary energy used in the U.S. Reducing heating costs also translates into an enormous reduction in CO2 emissions.

The typical way to address an inefficient home is to tighten it up: new windows and doors, more and better insulation, etc. But renters don’t necessarily have these options open to them. Worse is the phenomenon of ‘reno-viction,’ where a landlord upgrades a property and then raises rents beyond what’s affordable for current tenants. “Too many people have to choose whether they heat or eat,” Aragón said.

But what if keeping a house snug were as easy and affordable as putting on a sweater?

Andrew, whose specialties include inventing high-tech fabrics that can mimic animals adapted to extreme cold — like polar bears — and Aragón, who has long worked at the community scale to tell the story of climate change, teamed with Kim, who is an expert in modeling architectural designs for energy usage.

The team initially thought of a building blanket, but ultimately what they designed and tested looks much more like jewelry: a series of removable tiles or panels that can be hung on any surface, which not only conduct the sun’s warmth, but insulate the building.

The key is a photothermal dye that Andrew invented. “We can put this dye on anything,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be on an expensive fabric. We chose to test it on umbrella fabric — something that was rugged and robust but still affordable.”

When they modeled their design, the results were eye-popping. “We saw up to a 15% decrease in energy costs for a residential building in a northern climate, like Massachusetts,” Andrew noted, “and up to 23% reduction in a large, 16-story apartment building.”

By comparison, a well-done traditional home renovation might yield a 2% reduction in energy costs.

“When you’re cold, you put on a sweater, so we started thinking: what would you do if you’re a building?”

These panels could even be sold as do-it-yourself projects that any renter could complete. The team imagines a scenario where people head to their local hardware store, buy a roll of the fabric and a few 2x4s, and, in an afternoon, have a cheap and effective way of helping to heat their homes.

“Because the heart of this technology is a dye, we can use it to make panels that are beautiful and blend in with the specific culture and aesthetics of an area,” Aragón said. “It’s important to get the architectural and aesthetic part of this right, in addition to the science.”

But before consumers rush out to ask for the miracle fabric, the team needs to conduct additional, real-world testing. Though they’ve proven the concept in the lab, they need more data and field tests with life-sized prototypes.

“This could have an enormously beneficial societal impact,” Andrew said, and Aragón agreed, noting, “there’s a role for anything that is empowering at the individual scale.”

The research appears in the journal ACS Applied Engineering Materials.

Colleges Face Looming Enrollment Crunch

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Education Special Coverage

Keeping School in Session

When Michael Dodge, provost at American International College (AIC), surveys a higher-education landscape that has seen two Massachusetts institutions, Hampshire College and Anna Maria College, announce their imminent closures in the coming weeks and months, he hears warning bells — and a call to action.

“We are seeing more disruption in the market, including institutional closures, which create both uncertainty for students and instability in regional enrollment patterns,” Dodge said. “When a college closes, it is not just about numbers. It is about students needing continuity, clarity, and trust in where they land next. Institutions that cannot respond quickly and transparently in those moments will struggle.”

American International College Provost Michael Dodge

Michael Dodge says colleges that want to survive and thrive must focus on matching their offerings to workforce needs.

When Hampshire College announced it will shut its doors at the end of 2026, it wasn’t the biggest surprise; the unconventional Amherst institution had been struggling with low enrollment and other challenges for some time.

“We worked aggressively to increase enrollment, refinance existing debt, and realize new revenue via the sale of a portion of our land. We have long known that addressing these issues is essential to establishing a stable financial foundation, supporting long-term operations, and meeting regulatory requirements,” President Jennifer Chrisler and the board of trustees noted in a letter to the Hampshire community. “We are faced with the clear, heartbreaking reality that progress on each of these three key factors has fallen far short of what we had hoped.”

Still, it was a jolt to a college community that has long prided itself as a successful model of an alternative, largely self-guided education that has produced numerous high-profile graduates over the decades, from Ken Burns to Liev Schreiber to Elliott Smith.

“Higher education is entering a period where demographic pressures are real, but they are only part of the story. The more immediate challenge is a shift in how students and families evaluate value. Cost sensitivity, clarity of outcomes, and speed to degree are all under greater scrutiny than they were even a few years ago.”

The Anna Maria announcement may have been more of a jolt, as it is shutting down the Paxton campus this month, following the end of the spring semester, rather than at the end of the year.

“For months, the board of trustees, our leadership team, and the Sisters of Saint Anne walked a distressing road together, examining every option and hoping at each turn that something might change,” President Sean Ryan and the board of trustees wrote, also in a community letter. “The decision reflects years of financial pressure that we were ultimately unable to overcome, and the honest recognition that continuing would not be responsible to the students, faculty, and staff who depend on us. We tried to find a way. We are grateful to everyone who tried alongside us. And we are deeply, genuinely sorry we found no viable path forward.”

The closures are sounding alarm bells because a looming ‘demographic cliff’ already has colleges and universities nationwide concerned. According to a recent study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, about 60 of the nation’s roughly 4,000 colleges are closing, on average, each year — a number that could double in any given year if the bottom falls out of enrollment, according to a recent analysis in the Atlantic by Jeffrey Selingo.

“If the harm were only to the institutions forced to close because they’re running out of customers, that would be unfortunate, but not tragic. But the causality runs in the other direction too, as students who otherwise would have gone to college find themselves with no viable option in the place where they live,” Selingo wrote.

He explained that American higher education has long consisted of two markets: one where high-achieving, typically affluent students compete for seats at national universities, and one where mostly middle- and lower-income students study closer to home. “Members of the first group will be fine even as college closures accelerate. The second group will suffer. After many decades of democratization, higher education could once again become a luxury good.”

However, Dodge noted that the demographic trends are just one element among numerous looming issues for colleges.

“Higher education is entering a period where demographic pressures are real, but they are only part of the story. The more immediate challenge is a shift in how students and families evaluate value. Cost sensitivity, clarity of outcomes, and speed to degree are all under greater scrutiny than they were even a few years ago,” he explained.

“At the same time, traditional pipelines are evolving. High school populations are changing, adult learners are expecting more flexibility, and employers are placing greater emphasis on skills and credentials that align directly with workforce needs,” he went on. “Institutions that remain overly dependent on a single student population or a static program portfolio will face increasing pressure.”

Return on Investment

Molly Miner, vice president of Enrollment Management and Marketing at Elms College, told BusinessWest that most private colleges, especially in New England, have experienced enrollment challenges, as the demographic cliff has already created increased competition among the shrinking pool of traditional first-time students. Meanwhile, the majority of Elms students come from the New England region, which is among the hardest-hit regions due to these shifting demographics, and its leaders have adjusted their recruitment strategy to broaden our applicant pool.

“The declining international student enrollment at schools nationwide, coupled with the changing domestic demographics, has created challenges for all colleges, particularly small colleges,” Miner noted. “There is a trickle-down effect when the most selective institutions, which have traditionally had large international enrollment, shift their strategy and expand their reach more broadly into the domestic pool, increasing competition for other institutions.

“Another challenge is the broader national conversation around the cost of higher education and student loan debt, which influences how students and their families think about college,” she added. “More than 30% of high school graduates do not enroll in college immediately after graduation, which further compounds the enrollment challenges.”

The cost factor should actually benefit community colleges, especially in Massachusetts, where residents can attend for free, thanks to a two-year-old program called MassEducate, which has resulted in enrollment increases at those institutions across the state.

“We have strong partnerships with employers, both nationally and regionally, to ensure their current and future employees have the education and training needed to succeed in a rapidly changing professional landscape, while also informing program development.”

But four-year, private colleges have to attract a shrinking pool of potential enrollees in different ways. James Birge, who is retiring as president of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, acknowledged the current pressures, but is optimistic.

“The demographic enrollment cliff is here. It’s already hitting small, private colleges hard. Sadly, more will close in the next five years as the recruiting market contracts and institutions struggle to attract students,” he told BusinessWest.

“But public institutions like MCLA are in a genuinely strong spot. We’re affordable. And we’ve spent the last few years making deliberate moves to become a college of choice,” he went on, noting, as examples, that MCLA has added nursing, radiologic technology, and music industry and production because that’s what students are looking for, as well as adding athletic programs in lacrosse and ice hockey.

“We’ve built up endowed scholarship funding so more students can afford to come here,” Birge went on. “We’ve strengthened academic and personal support so students don’t just enroll — they stay and finish. We’ve put smarter investment strategies in place to keep operations funded. And we’ve maintained our accreditation, meeting every standard, including the financial ones.”

Miner points to Elms Promise, an initiative at the Chicopee college that aims to reduce cost as a barrier for students who demonstrate strong academic performance and financial need. She also points to the institution’s strong relationships with community colleges in Massachusetts and beyond, enrolling their graduates into its undergraduate programs through transfer and continuing education pathways.

“At Elms, we are able to leverage our small size to remain nimble and responsive in the face of these challenges,” she said, noting that its undergraduate curriculum combines a strong liberal arts foundation with real-world learning opportunities.

“Experiential learning is a core component of the student experience. Nearly 100% of Elms undergraduate students participate in experiential learning, including internships, clinical placements, research, service learning, and creative scholarship. Students engage in real-world learning from day one,” she added, noting that these efforts begin in the first semester with something called the Innovation Challenge, which encourages students to work together to find solutions to real-world problems.

“These initiatives lead to strong outcomes,” Miner said. “Ninety-seven percent of students who completed our most recent graduation survey reported that they are employed or enrolled in a graduate program after leaving Elms.”

Even at the graduate and continuing education levels, she noted, academic programs are tailored to meet the needs of the evolving workforce.

“We have strong partnerships with employers, both nationally and regionally, to ensure their current and future employees have the education and training needed to succeed in a rapidly changing professional landscape, while also informing program development,” Miner said, citing as examples recently added programs like graduate degrees in social work and applied behavior analysis, as well as an online bachelor of social work degree. “These programs are intentionally designed to align with workforce demand and address critical shortages of care providers throughout Massachusetts and New England.”

At Springfield-based AIC, Dodge agreed that colleges that want to survive and thrive must focus on matching their offerings to workforce needs.

“Maintaining an edge comes down to alignment. We are continuing to align our academic programs with workforce demand, particularly in high-need areas such as health sciences, public service, and emerging fields like data analytics. We are also expanding flexible delivery models, including online and accelerated formats, to meet students where they are.

“Equally important is strengthening our pipeline,” he added. “Partnerships with schools, transfer pathways, and employer-aligned programs are helping us reach students earlier and support them more effectively throughout their journey. Finally, we are focused on clarity. Students want to understand where a program leads and how quickly they can get there.”

Focus on the Future

Both the Hampshire College and Anna Maria College announcement letters noted that, for students unable to complete their degrees, transfer agreements with partner institutions are being created; indeed, AIC, Elms, and MCLA all announced such partnerships and outlined ways to smoothly transfer displaced students to their own communities.

“We planned and prepared for this by adding programs students want and employers need, building endowed scholarship funding, strengthening support, and making smart financial moves to keep us on solid ground.”

“At AIC, the focus is on being both responsive and intentional,” Dodge said. “In the immediate term, that has meant acting quickly to support students … by creating clear, student-centered pathways that allow them to continue their education with minimal disruption. The priority has been reducing uncertainty and providing stability during a challenging moment.”

Added Miner, “at Elms College, we have the resources and support systems in place to provide a seamless transition so students can stay focused on achieving their academic and professional goals within a caring and supportive environment.”

In the meantime, Birge said MCLA will take the appropriate lessons from the closings and continue to focus on ways to move forward as the demographic landscape continues to evolve.

“We planned and prepared for this by adding programs students want and employers need, building endowed scholarship funding, strengthening support, and making smart financial moves to keep us on solid ground,” he added. “Challenges ahead? Of course. But I like where we stand.” 

Salute to Nurses

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Left to right: Maddy Gray, Dick Easton, and Jolene Alexander.
Healthcare News Special Coverage

This Career Brings Plenty of Challenges, but Also Rewards

Left to right: Maddy Gray, Dick Easton, and Jolene Alexander.

Left to right: Maddy Gray, Dick Easton, and Jolene Alexander.

Behind every nurse, there’s a story — in many cases, several stories. They involve why the individual in question chose to get into this profession, how their work inspires others, and, very often, how they overcame different kinds of adversity to get where they are. For its annual salute to nurses, BusinessWest tells three such stories. They typify the resilience and passion of all those who choose this profession and are as compelling as they are inspirational.

Click on each name to read their story:

Maddy Gray

Despite a Cancer Diagnosis, She Refused to Let the Dream Die

Dick Easton

This Nurse Proves That Age Really Is Just a Number

Jolene Alexander

‘Earn-and-Learn’ Initiative Has Helped Her Realize Her Dream

Southwick Thrives as a Recreational Community

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Community Spotlight Features Special Coverage

They called it the Woods O’Cross.

That’s the name that was affixed to a recent event at Motocross 338 in Southwick, a.k.a. ‘the Wick.’ And as that name suggests, it’s a race that takes participants onto the vaunted track behind American Legion Post 338 on Powdermill Road, and also into the woods nearby.

“It was really well received; we were amazed at how many people came out for it; the feedback was phenomenal, so we’re going to another one this month and another at the end of the year,” said Rick Johnson, who, with his son, Keith, is now coordinating events at the Wick, which has, for most of the past 50 years, been a destination as well as a driving force, literally and figuratively, in the local economy.

The Ranch Golf Club has become a draw for players across the state and beyond.

The venue now hosts more than 40 events each year, capped by the Nationals, the three-day event that has become a tradition in Southwick, with dates that are circled by many business owners in town because the population of people in town swells from roughly 9,000 people to more than 30,000.

The nationals will be in July this year, said Johnson adding that, because Southwick doesn’t have any hotels, attendees must stay in surrounding communities. But many other types of businesses in town see and feel the surge, he said.

“You need to have a passion for it. If you handle it properly, you’ll pay the bills and make a few bucks. But you’re never going to retire in the Bahamas and drive a Lamborghini.”

The Wick is one of many recreation and hospitality-related businesses that give Southwick its unique flavor. People come here to eat — there are many restaurants and institutions such as Mrs. Murphy’s Donuts in town — and to play.

They do so at the Congamond Lakes (North, Middle, and South) which offer boating, fishing, swimming, and lakeside dining, and also at several parks, the Wick, and two golf courses (there used to be three), including The Ranch Golf Club.

Now celebrating its 25th year, the Ranch, on Sunnyside Road, is a higher-end course that was designed to be a destination layout that would draw players from across the state and beyond, and a sought-after venue for weddings and other events.

And it has become just that, said Nick Tamburini, the Ranch’s general manager and former golf professional. He told BusinessWest that the club has enjoyed a solid run on both sides of the ledger, with golf continuing to ride a COVID-induced wave of new interest and renewed interest, and events bouncing back from the turmoil prompted by COVID.

On the golf side, the course, among the best and most challenging in this part of New England, continues to draw players from well beyond Western Mass., while maintaining a steady local membership.

“We have a ton of non-local play,” said Tamburini. “Every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, we’ll get players who say, ‘I drove an hour and a half,’ or ‘I drove two hours;’ ‘I’m coming from the Cape,’ ‘I’m coming from New London.’ Obviously, we get a lot of play from Hartford and from Worcester. Once the member play ends, there’s not a lot of play on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from people in Southwick or Westfield; it’s people coming from all over.”

“You have to try things like this; you have to freshen things up and give people new things to do.”

Some of these players will make the Ranch part of a Western Mass. golf trip, with Crumpin Fox in Bernardson and Taconic in Williamstown among the other stops, he went on. But many are coming just to play the Ranch, which has received good reviews over the years, and continues to draw both first timers to the venue and repeat customers.

On the events side, the venue continues to draw a solid mix of gatherings, and its barn has become increasingly popular with couples planning weddings, as we’ll see.

For this, the latest installment of its Community Spotlight series, we take an in-depth look at Southwick and the some of the institutions that help create its recreational quality.

 

On the Right Track

When asked about the business of motocross, Johnson paused for a minute, searching for the right words.
“I’ve been in business all my life — I’ve been in the footwear business and was president of New Balance for Kids,” he explained as he set the tone. “Motocross is not kind of business that you get into thinking it’s going to lucrative to the point where you’re dancing naked in the streets.

“You need to have a passion for it,” he went on. “If you handle it properly, you’ll pay the bills and make a few bucks. But you’re never going to retire in the Bahamas and drive a Lamborghini.” 

Passion is something the Johnsons brought with them as they helped resurrect motocross in Southwick after a few years of decline more than a decade ago.

But they brought some other traits as well, including imagination and a willingness to try new things to keep the product fresh and bring more people to the track — meaning competitors and spectators alike.

Which brings us back to the Woods O’Cross.

“It brings in not just the motocrosser, but the trail rider as well — you get a good mix of people, and they had a great time,” Johnson explained, adding that this was the first new event that organizers have run, and it drew close to 600 participants. And it was followed up a few weeks later by another new offering — a Massachusetts state championship.

“We’ve been racing since the ’70s, and we never realized that Massachusetts never had a motocross state champion,” he said, adding that the Wick rectified this with an event that drew good crowds and hundreds of competitors to the track.

“You have to try things like this; you have to freshen things up and give people new things to do,” he explained, adding that the Wick has a full slate of events on tap for the year.

The Johnsons brought another trait to this venture — a willingness to re-invest in the facilities and continually upgrade the facility, known hills and overall stern challenge.

Indeed, over the years, they’re added a new scoring tower, a new starting line, new irrigation lines to water the track and make it safer for riders, and more.

“We’re the only national track in the Northeast, and we have a reputation, and we have a commitment to maintain the highest level that we can,” he explained. “When you are national caliber and you’re on NBC television (for the nationals), you can’t slack off, you have to make sure you do it the best you can.”

 

Round Numbers

“Barns are in … people want old, rustic, charm.”

With that, Tamburini started to explain why the Ranch has been doing well on the events side of the operation’s ledger, specifically weddings.

Indeed, couples are looking for different kinds of venues these days, and barns have become a popular choice. The Ranch has two of them — extensively renovated — that date back to the late 1800s; one houses the pro shop and restaurant/pub, and the other is used for functions.

“We’ve had the same number of rounds every year since COVID, which is good. COVID created a boom, and we were worried that we couldn’t maintain those numbers, but we have; it’s been really good.”

This trend, coupled with a resurgence in gatherings following COVID has helped the Ranch put more events on the calendar, he noted.

“We’re not the busiest venue in Western Mass., but we do between 40 and 50 weddings a year, on average, and probably the same number of other events, like retirement parties, baby showers, and bridal showers.” 

Tamburini said the Ranch benefits from strong, hands-on ownership — Pete and Korby Clark and a partner living in the Boston area — and a team that has remained intact for the past several years, a rarity in this business.

“We’ve had the same superintendent, the same event coordinator, the same front-of-house manager, the same chef,” he said, adding that this continuity helps the operation provide consistent, high-quality services, from the course to the event facilities. “At a golf course, that’s extremely rare; I’ve been around a little bit, and I know that’s hard to keep the same people for an extended period of time in our industry.”

As for the course itself, while it’s pricey — $125 for 18 holes and a cart, peak season, among the highest fares in this part of the state — it continues to be a strong draw, and because it’s semi-private (although Tamburini doesn’t like that phrase) it’s more playable that private venues such as GreatHorse and Longmeadow.

“We’re a public golf course,” he said, adding that players can book tee times all seven days of the week, although there are often tournaments on Mondays and early Saturday morning is reserved for members.

Overall, golf enjoyed a surge from COVID because so many other activities were put on ice, and the Ranch, like many venues, has been able to maintain the momentum generated by that unique moment in time.

“We’ve had the same number of rounds every year since COVID, which is good,” he noted. “COVID created a boom, and we were worried that we couldn’t maintain those numbers, but we have; it’s been really good.”

And many businesses in this recreational community can say the same thing. 

Maddy Gray

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Healthcare News

Despite a Cancer Diagnosis, She Refused to Let the Dream Die

Maddy Gray

Maddy Gray

Maddy Gray decided to attend the nurse-pinning ceremony at Holyoke Community College a year ago. She described it as an attempt at finding some type of closure.

She should have been up on the stage getting her pin, but instead, she was in the audience looking up at her classmates and coping with a sea of emotions resulting from a cancer diagnosis and ongoing treatment that left her firm of the opinion that her decade-long dream of becoming a nurse had come to a bitter end one semester short of the finish line.

“At that point, I was so sure, so positive that this job wasn’t for me anymore,” said Gray, who told BusinessWest that it was a big hug from Johanna Kassidi, one of her professors, that night and her simple comment, ‘I hope that you’re coming back in the spring — we need more nurses like you in this field,’ that made her think that maybe, just maybe, the dream wasn’t dead after all.

Fast-forwarding through six months of chemotherapy, an eventual diagnosis that she was in remission, and that last semester at school, Gray will be back for another nurse-pinning ceremony in a few weeks, and this time she will be on stage, dealing with a completely different set of emotions that could not have been imagined a year ago.

When her name is called, it will mark the climactic end to a truly remarkable story of perseverance that began almost a decade before it was confirmed that she had cancer and, actually, long before that, when this foster child who was abandoned by her mother while her father was serving a life’s sentence, fought an ongoing battle with thoughts that she couldn’t achieve the goals that most others take for granted.

Gray spent many years not really knowing what to do with her life. Fighting through the stigma of foster childhood, she obtained her GED and began her college journey in 2012, not really knowing which direction it would take. She thought about early childhood education and other realms where she could work with children. But things changed when a friend talked enthusiastically about her nursing degree and the work she would be doing.

So, she decided to pursue a Nursing degree herself. But there would be life challenges to confront, including young children and the availability of childcare, forcing her to attend at night, a course or two at a time.

She was making her way toward her degree, when she was confronted with a challenge that was formidable as it was unforeseen.

Indeed, Gray told BusinessWest that she was driving to class when she felt a strange lump on her neck. It would take months before it was officially determined that she had a large mass in the center of her chest and it was cancer, specifically Hodgkins Lymphoma. She remembers telling a close friend that she would have to drop out of nursing school to battle the disease.

And it was early in the treatment stage that she ventured to the nurse-pinning ceremony, a time when she was not at all sure she would survive the cancer, let alone return to school and complete her degree program.

“I was so close … I was one semester away from graduating, I was crossing that finish line,” she recalled. “And I got hit with that. I was pretty depressed for a long time, and I was convinced that I was never going to be a nurse; I had worked toward something since 2016 that was my dream, and now it was ripped out of my hands and gone forever.”

Until it wasn’t, thanks to those words of encouragement from Kassidi and Gray’s own determination to move forward with her last semester of work, even as she was still waiting to find out conclusively if she was in remission.

As the 2026 nurse-pinning ceremony approaches, Gray has been doing some reflecting, while also getting on with the next stages of her journey.

Indeed, as she braces for the National Council Licensure Exam (NCLEX), she has been offered a job on the mental health unit at Baystate Franklin Hospital in Greenfield and is expected to start in August, if not sooner.

As for that pinning ceremony itself, she knows it will be an emotional time, one a world apart from what she was experiencing a year ago.

“I’ll be standing in the front getting pinned, looking out toward where was I was standing a year ago, feeling hopeless, that my dreams were unfairly ripped away from me,” she said. “This year, I’m going to be standing there, thinking about all the things I’ve endured in my life. Being able to get back up and do it … I’m grateful for that, so it will be a very emotional moment.”

Putting her long journey into perspective, she said there are lessons for others — about not giving up and not letting go of dreams, even when the obstacles seem insurmountable, but also about listening to those who provide encouragement and taking full advantage of the many resources available to those who want to pursue their own goals.

Her message to all is summed up in a scholarship essay she wrote and read at a ceremony for scholarship recipients in 2024, well before her cancer diagnosis. Here’s a passage:

“Thinking back to all I’ve survived, the common denominator is clear, it’s resilience. Life has thrown many curveballs my way and I’ve had to fight like hell to get back up each time. Some hit way harder than others, which made getting back up increasingly more difficult, but the alternative seemed worse. Staying down meant giving up on myself, and for a time, I did give up. … Thankfully, I woke up and decided that enough was enough. I had finally come to the realization that the only thing holding me back was myself.”

She stopped holding herself back long ago, and in the years to come she determined that nothing else would her hold her back. Not even cancer.

Dick Easton

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Healthcare News

This Nurse Proves That Age Really Is Just a Number

Dick Easton

Dick Easton

Dick Easton attended nursing school at UMass Amherst with students roughly one-third his age.

He started work as a nurse at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton when he was 62, the age when many in this profession are retired or thinking seriously about it. He was nearly 70 when COVID hit, and while that ultra-challenging time prompted many in the field to head for the exits, it only deepened his passion for this second career.

“It brought even more meaning to my life — it just motivated me to stay at it,” he told BusinessWest. “It was a very trying time, but when you met the challenges, it was incredibly satisfying. There was a lot of heartache because of deaths in the hospital, but it had incredible meaning to me every single day, and never once did I say ‘God, I can’t take it, I’m going to quit.’”

Easton’s story is certainly an inspiring one, a saga that drives home the point that age really is just a number, and not a limitation or a boundary to anything that one might want to do.

It’s a story — well, this chapter, at least — that begins in late 1997, when Easton’s older son was severely injured in a skiing accident. It turns out that this would be the first of three incidents — Dick’s own heart attack a few months later and his younger son’s back injury while at work a few months after that being the other two — that enabled him to see all that nurses and other healthcare professionals did for patients and family members. And it compelled him to start thinking seriously about a later-in-life career change.

“I credit the nurses that took care of myself and my family with instilling in me the desire to help people through health crises; I started thinking, and I started assessing where I was in my life,” said Easton, who was in his late 40s when these health incidents changed the trajectory of his career and his life. “It made me realize that nurses did much more than take care of patients; they were also taking care of the surrounding family.”

So, Easton, a small-business owner — one of his ventures shipped shoring timbers to Boston for the Big Dig — started shadowing nurses in many different settings and departments, from private physicians’ offices to the ER, and after nearly two years of … let’s call it research, came away determined to join the profession. That’s what he told his wife in a far-reaching conversation that would prepare the ground for what was to come.

“I told her I wanted to become a registered nurse and explained to her why, and she said, ‘I think that would be great,’” he recalled. “But we had obligations to both our children, and we said we would see them through their college and graduate school if they so desired, and we had a mortgage on our house; we agreed that I could pursue a nursing career once we had paid off all our debt.

“And so, for the next nine years, we did nothing but pay down debt,” he went on, adding that when they reached the end of that road, he enrolled in what’s known as the Second Bachelor’s program at UMass Amherst, a nursing program for individuals who already have a four-year degree, in 2010. He was 60, and some of the students around him were still in their early 20s. But they made him fit right in.

“It was unbelievably satisfying,” he said of going back to the classroom and entering a taxing program at that age. “Was it challenging going back to school? Yes, but it was incredibly fun; I had a great group of students I was with, and they treated me as if I was their age — it was amazing, and I made really strong connections with people in that class.”

He started working the night shift at CDH on the med-surg unit in 2012 and took a job on the cardiac-telemetry unit three months later.

COVID arrived in late 2019 and certainly changed the landscape, he said, noting that days were challenging and very stressful.

“But I never came home from work any day I worked saying ‘that was a horrific day,’” he noted. “I would come home and say, ‘today was a real challenge, but it was a very good day.”

Now 76, Easton is semi-retired, working per-diem maybe eight days a month (he was full time until just a few months ago), and handling some nursing education “whenever they have a need.” He told BusinessWest he would still be at it full time if not for a compromised immune system that limits his time in the hospital.

Putting things in perspective, he said that his career change is about much more than someone merely joining the nursing profession around the same time as he starts qualifying for most senior discounts. It’s about getting a first-hand look at all that healthcare professionals do and the many rewards they receive and deciding to be a part of all that.

And it’s also about growing as a person and continuously learning.

“When I was younger, I was fairly intolerant, I would say,” he told BusinessWest. “If someone was a smoker and they got lung cancer, I would say, ‘they brought it on themselves, what can I do?’ That all changed when my kids and I became patients with serious injuries; the nurses supported you no matter what.

“That made a deep impression on me and completely changed my intolerance to total tolerance,” he went on. “I treated a lot of patients in the hospital who were there because of lifestyle choices they made, but that doesn’t mean they don’t need help. They need support, they need assistance to get back to the best possible outcome that be achieved. That’s what nursing is all about.

Whether you start your first shift at age 22 or 62.

Jolene Alexander

By
Healthcare News

‘Earn-and-Learn’ Initiative Has Helped Her Realize Her Dream

Jolene Alexander

Jolene Alexander

Jolene Alexander says her father suffered his first heart attack when she was 10 years old. He had another one a year later.

It was a scary time in many ways, she recalled, adding that it was made easier — for her father and the rest of her family — by the care and compassion provided by the team at Baystate Medical Center’s cardiac intensive care unit.

“I just remember how pleasant those nurses were to my family; they were very empathetic toward the situation, and they were very thorough, and he ended up pulling through, even though they weren’t sure what the outcome would be,” said Alexander, adding that the experience helped instill a desire to join the healthcare profession and serve in that environment.

And she did, eventually serving as a certified nursing assistant (CNA), and more recently as a cardiac monitor tech.

The dream, though, was to become a nurse — a dream that was put on hold for the better part of two decades by that thing we call life.

“I’ve always wanted to be a nurse — I did all the pre-requisites, but life just kept getting in the way,” said Alexander. “I left it at the pre-reqs, and I didn’t continue; I decided to just move forward with life as a mom.”

Things were further complicated by ongoing heart issues for her father, including several incidents in 2022, that compelled her to cut back on her hours and focus on family, including care for her father.

But the dream was resurrected — and put on a path to fruition by the Workforce Planning & Development team at Baystate Health and an ‘earn-and-learn’ initiative that blends education, hands-on experience, and paid employment, enabling individuals to enter and advance within healthcare careers without the traditional financial barriers.

In Alexander’s case, she was paid her salary as a cardiac monitor tech while attending the LPN program at Holyoke Community, from which she will graduate this June and then begin the next chapter in her career.

As she tells the story, when she was ready to come back to work full time in 2023, her unit supervisor encouraged her to attend a networking event off campus with someone involved with workforce development at Baystate.

I blindly went into it not knowing what it was all about,” she recalled. “Eventually, I learned it was about a grant they were trying to receive to help some employees get through LPN training.

“That was perfect for me, and it was perfect timing,” she went on, adding that the grant was secured, and she soon started in the LPN certificate program at HCC, thus becoming part of larger initiatives at Baystate and elsewhere to put more nurses in the pipeline at a time when many are retiring from the profession.

She noted that LPNs (licensed practical nurses) do not earn as much as registered nurses (RNs), who must complete a two- or four-year degree program to receive that designation, but the salary represents a significant step up from her present work. Meanwhile, LPNs handle most, but not all, of the same duties as RNs, she noted, adding that this change represents a significant step forward for her.

And she’ll take that step in a familiar setting, her current cardiac unit. There was an opening there, she applied for it, and was hired, she said, adding that she expects to start in mid-August.

“It’s exciting, but at the same time, I’m a little nervous about it, just knowing that now, I’m the one who’s going to have to make those critical decisions,” she said of her next challenge. “It’s more exciting than anything, but also a little intimidating.”

And while this has been a rewarding experience on many levels, it is certainly not without its challenges, said Alexander, adding that balancing life and school is difficult, and she could not have taken this step forward career-wise if Baystate didn’t pay her to learn.

“Every day I got up I said, “I’m not going today, I’m not going through this, it’s too stressful,’” she recalled, adding that she was balancing her classes with parenting responsibilities and helping to manage her father’s care. “It’s a lot, but it’s more manageable not having to work full time; that’s the biggest helpful piece in this program.”

While looking ahead, Alexander also did some looking back, noting that she got her start at Baystate nearly 20 years ago through something called the Baystate Springfield Educational Partnership, or BSEP, as it’s called. This is a health school career pathway program for high school students in Springfield. It includes exploration of health careers, a teen mini-medical school, and summer work employment opportunities to give students interested in healthcare careers direct access to people currently employed in the field and health careers training, which often leads to internships and employment.

That was the case with Alexander, who participated in the program as a springboard to her work as a CNA, and now, two decades later, her daughter is participating in the BSEP program.

“She had an introduction to many units within the hospital to see if she had interest in those,” Alexander explained, adding that she will be involved again next year as a senior, with the goal of landing an internship.

And then possibly taking one of many pathways into a career in healthcare, as her mother did.

This latest pathway has enabled her to take a dream that was delayed and turn it into a dream realized.

Local Cannabis Industry Leaders Concerned About Repeal Effort

By
UpInSmokeCannabis
Features Special Coverage

Up in Smoke?

UpInSmokeCannabis

Meg Sanders calls it “a huge threat.”

She’s referring to a question that might be put to Massachusetts voters on Election Day in November, seeking to undo the state’s 2016 legalization of recreational, or adult-use, cannabis.

“We’re concerned if nobody comes out and votes; it’s an off-year election, and overall, America is not great about voting,” said Sanders, CEO of Canna Provisions, which just opened its third Massachusetts dispensary this month in Pittsfield, to complement its existing stores in Lee and Holyoke.

“If you’re in cannabis, you have to understand how civics and government policy work,” she added. “Anti-cannabis groups have raised $10 million for this battle. And if we do nothing, if we don’t raise the dollars they have, they have a very good chance of winning.”

The ballot measure’s main goal is to end legal, recreational cannabis by repealing the laws that made the trade permissible in the Bay State. That means closing adult-use dispensaries and ending the regulated retail market, eliminating home growing, banning personal cultivation, and scaling back possession; adults could still possess around 1 ounce without criminal penalties, while larger amounts could bring civil fines instead of full criminal charges.

Medical marijuana would remain legal; the proposal generally keeps the medical cannabis system in place, though potentially with tighter rules. As a result, Massachusetts would shift from a fully legal, taxed, commercial cannabis market to one with no legal recreational sales, limited personal possession, and medical-only legal access.

The name of the repeal initiative is “An Act to Restore a Sensible Marijuana Policy,” and that’s problematic on its own, Sanders said.

Meg Sanders

Meg Sanders

“We have to be aware that, if we do nothing, or do the bare minimum, it could pass. Full legalization didn’t have that big a margin. There are people in Massachusetts who don’t love this particular product, who don’t support the industry, who have fears about it, concerns about it. And I get that — but our job is to educate them.”

“The complexity of the legislation, and the title of the bill, are so misleading. People think, ‘of course I want common sense,’” she noted, adding that there’s no reason to relitigate cannabis legalization at all.

“For us as an industry, and people who support this industry, and people that believe in freedom, this question has been asked and answered,” she said — but that doesn’t mean it’s safe from repeal, especially if midterm election turnout is low and the pro-repeal faction is more motivated to get to the polls.

“We have to be aware that, if we do nothing, or do the bare minimum, it could pass. Full legalization didn’t have that big a margin. There are people in Massachusetts who don’t love this particular product, who don’t support the industry, who have fears about it, concerns about it. And I get that — but our job is to educate them.

“Sending this back underground is not what constituents want,” Sanders went on. “I don’t think people want folks to start going back to jail because of a plant. And if we ban all adult-use stores, the revenue loss would be huge. The industry has proven time and again that it’s doing the right thing, carding people correctly, not advertising to children, being very thoughtful with how we present ourselves in the community, and doing the best we can to be good corporate stewards.”

 

Behind the Campaign

The ballot campaign is being led by Wendy Wakeman, spokesperson for Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts, who opposes recreational cannabis on numerous grounds, from public health impacts, especially on young people, to crime and corruption, to even the pervasive smell of weed in public places.

“We don’t have a lot of information on the public health effects, on what it does to people who smoke marijuana, in the same way that we have information on people who use alcohol or people who use nicotine. And at the same time, it just makes everyday life a little bit more difficult,” she told a legislative hearing in March, adding that the ballot question is being driven by “parents, teachers, employers, public health professionals, and doctors who have seen the effects of legalized marijuana in a way that is not positive.”

Jessica Troe

Jessica Troe

“The cannabis industry in Massachusetts, as in the rest of the country, continues to evolve and mature, and revenue for the state and cities and towns has started to plateau slightly.But there is potential for future increases in revenue and more opportunities to advance social equity via the cannabis industry with the rollout of social consumption and cannabis cafés coming to the Commonwealth.”

According to the Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts, “the Cannabis Control Commission has been a disaster. The state-run organization has faced significant problems for years, including widespread mismanagement, a toxic internal culture, financial oversight, and regulatory non-compliance.

“A recent state audit found regulatory non-compliance created public safety issues, such as the sale of contaminated products to persist and put consumers at risk,” it added. “There were products that had previously passed testing but were later found to contain unacceptable levels of contaminants that can cause severe health issues, including serious lung infection. Stopping recreational sales would protect consumer health and safety by eliminating the ongoing risks from untested and mislabeled products in the recreational for-profit market.”

Jessica Troe, deputy director of Research and Policy Analysis for the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, spoke before the recent legislative panel as well, touting the economic benefits of legal cannabis — specifically, a statistic that about $2 billion has flowed into state and local coffers between 2018, when adult-use dispensaries opened, and 2025.

Those funds come from fees, fines, licenses, and permits, as well as a state excise tax, local sales taxes and environmental impact taxes, and other sources, much of it earmarked at the state level to public health and social equity program spending, and locally to whatever cities and towns prioritize.

“This typically goes into the general fund for cities and towns, and that goes to local spending to support various local services and programs,” she noted, later noting that some of these revenue streams have leveled off somewhat.

“The cannabis industry in Massachusetts, as in the rest of the country, continues to evolve and mature, and revenue for the state and cities and towns has started to plateau slightly,” Troe said. “But there is potential for future increases in revenue and more opportunities to advance social equity via the cannabis industry with the rollout of social consumption and cannabis cafés coming to the Commonwealth.”

By social equity, of course, Troe refers to the effort to use cannabis regulations and revenue benefits to help communities that were disproportionately harmed by the War on Drugs. To illustrate those impacts, she noted that, in 2017, the last year before recreational cannabis sales began, Black and Latino residents comprised 22% of the Massachusetts population, but 57% of its prisoners, and 75% of those convictions were mandatory minimum sentences for drug possession.

 

Relief and Accountability

Amid the ballot anxiety, for those who work in the cannabis industry — or support it — there was some good news out of Boston last month, when the Senate and House both overwhelmingly passed a cannabis reform bill, quickly signed by Gov. Maura Healey, that “the industry is pretty happy with,” Sanders said.

It doubles purchasing limits — one ounces to two ounces, five grams to 10 grams, etc. — on each transaction. “Although it’s exciting, New York is still triple that,” she noted.

The main change in the law, however, is a reset of the Cannabis Control Commission, dissolving the existing CCC and rebuilding it with new guidelines. It shrinks from five commissioners to three, all appointed by the governor, instead of a mix of officials. The goal was to fix an agency said to be plagued by infighting, delays, and weak oversight, and make it more efficient and accountable.

“The only way you can keep revenue up is to have more stores. I’m only going to get so much revenue out of each store. So the way to grow the business is to add more stores to the business.”

The law also increases the license cap per company from three to six stores, a change aimed at helping struggling companies survive by spreading costs and stabilizing a market grappling with falling prices and closures — although critics worry it could favor large corporations over small, local operators.

“That’s very exciting,” Sanders said, calling the move a means of survival in a world of too much cultivation and too many stores, where businesses are cannibalizing each other. “Holyoke, for instance, has 10 or 11 dispensaries. The only way you can keep revenue up is to have more stores. I’m only going to get so much revenue out of each store. So the way to grow the business is to add more stores to the business.

“I hear all the time, ‘let the free market figure it out,’ but this is not the free market, when you limit retail and price compression happens,” she added. “In January 2025, according to the CCC, the price per gram was over $5. It’s dropped to $4. You signed a lease for X amount of months, and you need X amount of people in the store, so you can see how the math becomes problematic if you’ve got price compression.”

The new law also removes the rule that medical cannabis operators must be vertically integrated (growing, processing, and selling everything themselves); clarifies classifications around seeds, hemp, and other gray areas; creates new oversight, transparency, and safety measures (from reporting of illegal activity to more robust public health reporting to workplace safety studies); and prepares the industry for the coming of cannabis cafés and broader retail models.

“It’s really exciting,” Sanders said. “I’m hopeful about the new structure, which dissolves the old commission and creates a new one that reports to the governor. We’ll see what happens, but hopefully we’ll see that progress has been made. There have been a lot of positives, and we hope we can keep the momentum going.”

Area Institutions Ready Programs, Exhibits to Mark the 250th

By
Special Coverage Tourism & Hospitality

A Milestone Celebration

It’s a big word that’s hard to pronounce: semiquincentennial.

It’s a lot easier to say ‘250th birthday,’ and that’s what the nation will be celebrating this summer. Only, in many ways, the celebration has already begun, especially in this region, which is eager to showcase the many ways in which Western Mass. played a vital role in the nation’s fight for independence.

Indeed, whether it’s stops along the Knox Trail, the so-called Noble Train of Artillery that Col. Henry Knox brought from Fort Ticonderoga in New York to Dorchester Heights in Boston; or programs at the Springfield Armory, the region is already commemorating its strong role in the formation of a new nation.

And the celebrations will continue — with everything from special exhibits at area museums to lectures to an Independence Day celebration featuring fireworks viewing from the Armory grounds.

Area museums and other institutions are expecting an influx of visitors, from this region and well beyond, and they’re hoping the many 250th anniversary celebrations can bring opportunities to introduce, or reintroduce, people to all that they offer.

For this issue, BusinessWest talked with three area institutions — Springfield Museums, the Norman Rockwell Museum, and the Springfield Armory — about what they have planned for the semiquincentennial, the planning that went into these exhibits and programs, and what they expect visitors will take home from these experiences.

To read more about the three institutions click here:

Springfield Museums

Norman Rockwell Museum

Springfield Armory

 

How to Control Business Costs While Reducing Risk

By Contributor
Law Special Coverage

When Savings Aren’t Savings

By Tanzi Cannon-Eckerle, Esq.

When employers cut costs, the wrong cuts can get expensive fast.

As employers head into the second quarter of 2026, a lot of businesses are in the same mode: cut costs, stay lean, keep moving. The problem is that some ‘savings’ decisions don’t save anything; they just shift the spend from payroll to legal fees, investigations, back pay, and distraction. Here are five cost-cutting moves I’m seeing right now that can blow up fast, and what to watch before you make them.

 

1. Cutting Payroll by Restructuring Too Fast

Layoffs, role consolidations, and schedule cuts are classic budget levers. They’re also where employers make avoidable mistakes. Massachusetts final-pay rules are strict, and wage and hour claims can come with automatic treble damages. If you’re moving fast, slow down just enough to get the basics right: final pay timing, earned vacation where required, clean documentation, and accurate time records.

 

2. Reclassifying Employees as 1099s to Save on Benefits and Taxes

This one looks like an easy win on a spreadsheet. In practice, it’s a liability magnet. Massachusetts uses a tough independent contractor standard (the ABC test), and misclassification can trigger wage claims, tax exposure, and insurance issues all at once. If the job walks and talks like employment with a set schedule, supervision, and core business work, then the 1099 label won’t hold.

 

3. Handling Complaints Off the Record (and Triggering Claims)

When budgets tighten, HR becomes everyone’s side job. That’s when a small issue turns into a big one. Many retaliation claims start with a simple complaint about wages, safety, leave, or discrimination/harassment, followed by a rushed manager move: hours cut, schedule changed, discipline, or termination without a clear record. And if you treat similar employees differently (or a decision hits a protected group harder), you’ve also created discrimination risk. The low-cost fix is boring but effective: consistent process, tight documentation, and manager discipline.

 

4. Treating Accommodations as ‘Nice to Have’ to Keep Staffing Efficient

When every head-count line matters, accommodation requests can feel like operational chaos. But obligations for disability, pregnancy, mental health, and schedule flexibility are expanding, and Massachusetts law is more strict, and accommodation requirements are broader, than federal law. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act adds another layer. The cheapest path is a consistent, documented interactive process. The expensive path is a quick ‘no,’ a delay, or radio silence.

“The problem is that some ‘savings’ decisions don’t save anything; they just shift the spend from payroll to legal fees, investigations, back pay, and distraction.”

5. Cutting Website Spend (and Getting Tagged with an Accessibility Demand)

Website updates are often first on the chopping block. Plaintiffs’ firms know it, and they look for easy targets: missing alt text, inaccessible menus, unlabeled forms, and non-compliant PDFs. Massachusetts is a hotspot for ADA website accessibility claims, and there’s no small business exemption. Basic fixes usually cost far less than responding to a demand letter or lawsuit.

 

Where Smart Prevention Pays Off

Even in a cost-cutting cycle, a few targeted investments pay for themselves because they prevent the disputes that drain time, money, and leadership bandwidth:

• Payroll and classification audits catch problems before they become claims (and stop payroll leakage).

• Manager training prevents the one bad conversation that turns into a retaliation or leave claim.

• Structured accommodation processes improve retention and reduce ‘quick no’ risk.

• Website accessibility updates reduce demand-letter exposure and improve usability (and often SEO).

• Simple documentation habits make decisions defensible and keep issues from snowballing.

• Fractional general counsel support gives you a senior legal sounding board without the full-time overhead. Just make the phone call so you catch risk early, negotiate smarter, and avoid emergency outside-counsel spend.

 

Tanzi Cannon-Eckerle

Tanzi Cannon-Eckerle

“Even in a cost-cutting cycle, a few targeted investments pay for themselves because they prevent the disputes that drain time, money, and leadership bandwidth.”

 

Why Fractional General Counsel Is a Cost-control Move

A fractional general counsel is designed for businesses that need experienced legal coverage, but don’t need (or can’t justify) a full-time inhouse hire. The ROI is straightforward: you’re buying fewer surprises and faster, cleaner decisions.

Here’s what that looks like in real life and where engaging a fractional GC typically pays for itself:

• Restructure triage before you push ‘send.’ Use sanity-checking layoff selections, documentation, and final-pay steps so a cost-cutting RIF doesn’t turn into a wage claim or discrimination case.

• Clean up classification before it becomes back pay. Review a ‘convert to 1099’ plan and flag the roles that fail the ABC test so you fix the model (or pricing) before you create misclassification exposure.

• Stop the retaliation claim at the manager level. Step in when a complaint comes in to script the next steps (what to document, what not to say, and what actions to pause), so a simple issue doesn’t become a termination plus a lawsuit storyline.

• Replace one-off legal fires with reusable tools. Build offer letter language, separation checklists, accommodation forms, and investigation templates so you’re not paying outside counsel to reinvent the wheel.

• Create contract and vendor leverage. Tighten vendor terms (auto-renew, indemnity, limitation of liability, data/security) and negotiate faster, avoiding the ‘sign now, fix later’ premium.

• Ensure accessibility demand readiness. Create a response plan and coordinate quick remediation so a demand letter doesn’t spiral into expensive, time-sensitive outside counsel work.

• Focus on cost avoidance. Spot wage-and-hour, leave, classification, and documentation issues early before they become claims, audits, or back pay.

• Reduce outside counsel spend. Reserve outside counsel for true specials (litigation and complex deals), not routine day-to-day calls.

• Make faster decisions. Get real-time guidance on terminations, restructures, policies, and vendor contracts so leadership doesn’t stall or improvise.

• Create cleaner documentation. Tighten records, templates, and manager practices so your decisions hold up if challenged.

• Make better risk tradeoffs. When you do take risk, do it with eyes open and with a plan.

For Massachusetts employers trying to lower overhead without creating new liability, the goal is simple: don’t ‘save’ money today and spend more money tomorrow cleaning up the fallout. A little structure, plus the right legal support at the right time, goes a long way.

 

Five Quick Fixes to Reduce Risks and Save Money Now

1. Audit Payroll and Timekeeping. Spend 30 minutes pressure-testing overtime calculations, meal break deductions, and final-pay procedures, and make sure your handbook explains the your compliant procedures properly. This is one of the most expensive categories of Massachusetts employment claims.

2. Re-evaluate Contractor Classifications. Apply the state’s strict ABC test to every 1099 role. Fixing misclassification early beats defending it later.

3. Train Frontline Managers. Most retaliation and accommodation claims start with one poorly handled conversation. Short, targeted training reduces risk fast.

4. Document the Accommodation Process. Use a simple, repeatable form to track ADA and pregnancy-related requests. Consistency is one of your strongest defenses.

5. Fix Website Accessibility Basics. Add alt text, label forms, caption videos, and update PDFs. These are low-cost improvements that can reduce ADA exposure and improve customer reach.

 

Tanzi Cannon-Eckerle is a local business and labor & employment attorney operating as fractional general counsel for businesses in the New England area; [email protected]; (413) 369-9220; www.gcbycannon.com

 

Greenfield Seeks Downtown Momentum

By
Sarah Little (left) and Nismah Osman want people to walk into Greenspace CoWork and think, “I belong here.”
Community Spotlight Special Coverage

Community Spotlight

Sarah Little (left) and Nismah Osman want people to walk into Greenspace CoWork and think, “I belong here.”

Sarah Little (left) and Nismah Osman want people to walk into Greenspace CoWork and think, “I belong here.”

 

For Nismah Osman, acquiring Greenspace CoWork late last year with business partner Sarah Little feels like a full-circle moment.

After relocating from Boston to Gill, her first job in the area was at Hawks & Reed. She used Greenspace, which Jeremy Goldsher and Jeff Sauser launched in 2018, almost daily for printing and overflow work and felt drawn to the space from the start.

“When we learned the space might be available, it just felt right,” Osman said. “Greenspace had already played a role in my journey here. We wanted to honor what Jeremy and Jeff created while expanding what’s possible.”

Little, who grew up in Gill in a small business family, sees the space as a natural extension of Franklin County’s entrepreneurial culture.

“We want this to be a place where people can build something meaningful — not just a place to sit and work, but a place to connect, collaborate, and feel supported,” she said.

“We want this to be a place where people can build something meaningful — not just a place to sit and work, but a place to connect, collaborate, and feel supported.”

Jessye Deane, executive director of the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce & Regional Tourism Council, noted that entrepreneurs and remote professionals are an increasingly important part of Franklin County’s economic future, and Greenfield is no exception.

“We’re thrilled to see Sarah and Nismah leverage their own venture to support other small business owners,” Deane said. “Greenspace attracts career-oriented professionals to downtown Greenfield who might otherwise be working from home. That translates into increased foot traffic, stronger connections, and more commerce for our local restaurants, retailers, and service providers. It’s a win for Greenspace CoWork members and for the entire downtown ecosystem.”

That downtown foot traffic is something Hannah Rechtschaffen thinks about a lot. As executive director of the Greenfield Business Assoc. (GBA), she said her organization’s efforts to drive and promote downtown activity fall into a few buckets.

“First, we’re tending to what is visible on the surface — downtown, but all over Greenfield, too — where we can. That’s a multi-pronged approach around cleanliness, beautification, and activation of vacant storefronts, and really bringing business owners together to have more communication and connection among themselves,” she explained, adding that some of those are new businesses in town, like Victoria Bar, Freedom Café, the Sparkle Cave, and Ja’Duke.

“We’re working with business owners in different ways to pull people together and have some collaboration going on,” Rechtschaffen told BusinessWest. One is an effort to encourage downtown businesses to stay open until 8 p.m. during Arts Walk events, which happen the last Friday of every month, and on certain Saturdays throughout the year that coincide with big Greenfield events.

“We’re targeting activation. Business owners are not being asked for the moon; they’re just being asked to lean into things that have a lot of structure,” she said, adding that the GBA is also working to activate vacant storefronts and encourage businesses to liven up active windows.

Rechtschaffen noted that attendance at Greenfield events has been a concern, even though social media engagement with local organizations is up.

“We continue to hear things like, ‘there’s nothing going on downtown.’ And that disconnect, for us, feels like a responsibility,” she told BusinessWest. “We’re continuing to amplify things on social media, share things broadly, work with our partners. What’s keeping people from going out? Maybe it’s been overstated, but post-COVID has seen such a behavioral change in how people engage, and maybe there has to be something to our approach that’s different.”

To that end, a downtown business meet-up group will gather for the first time on April 30 to crowdsource what’s keeping people from going out, she added. “It’s not just marketing. Clearly we see more traffic to the websites, but attendance is still shaky.”

“They’re looking for the kind of life that we offer in Western Mass. — and they’re leaving the state for it. So it would be wonderful to see the state looking at how they can leverage Western Mass. to solve one of our major issues, which is people leaving the state.”

In this latest installment of our Community Spotlight series, we take a look at progress being made in Franklin County’s largest municipality — and how local leaders plan to generate more.

 

On the Move

Another of the GBA’s buckets of focus is economic development; Rechtschaffen and her team are working closely with the Office of Community and Economic Development and its executive director, Amy Cahillane, as well as with the Franklin Regional Council of Governments. The GBA also recently hosted Aaron Vega, president and CEO of the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council, for a day visiting local businesses.

“That was amazing,” Rechtschaffen said. “We’re working to make sure Greenfield gets attention and gets focused on. We’re proud to be the heart of Franklin County, but we oftentimes fall outside certain advocacy efforts and funding efforts. We’re not a rural place, in a county that’s largely rural, so Greenfield doesn’t fall under certain funding structures, and we need to step up our advocacy for Greenfield and our connection to Franklin County in a healthy way.”

Hannah Rechtschaffen

Hannah Rechtschaffen

“We have 100 units of affordable housing coming online in downtown Greenfield in the next two years. That’s going to be huge for us.”

She told BusinessWest there’s been a national trend of people moving to rural and bucolic places, but in many cases, they’re moving out of urban areas in Massachusetts to Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and elsewhere.

“They’re looking for the kind of life that we offer in Western Mass. — and they’re leaving the state for it. So it would be wonderful to see the state looking at how they can leverage Western Mass. to solve one of our major issues, which is people leaving the state.”

Mayor Virginia Desorgher recently wrote on Greenfield’s website that expanding the city’s tax base through development is its best long-term solution for stabilizing taxes and stimulating the economy, and housing is one place where the city is making significant strides.

That includes the continuing development of the former Wilson’s department store into a mix of retail and housing, as well as a project undertaken by Rural Development Inc. (RDI) — an arm of the Greenfield Housing Authority — to develop 32 units of mixed-income housing at 176 Main St.

MassDevelopment acquired the Wilson’s property at 242-262 Main St. in 2022 with plans to expand and relocate Green Fields Market to the building’s first floor, while turning the upper floors into 65 mixed-income rental apartments. The RDI project site includes an existing single-story commercial building and a 22,000-square-foot surface parking lot to the rear of the buildings, all in the heart of downtown Greenfield. Also in the works is the city’s plan to develop a property at 53 Hope St. into a residential or mixed-use development.

“We have 100 units of affordable housing coming online in downtown Greenfield in the next two years. That’s going to be huge for us,” Rechtschaffen said, noting, again, that development can be challenging in the city because of certain state funding restrictions.

“Our population is too high to be considered rural in the eyes of the state, which excludes us from certain funding pools, but we’re also too small to be considered a gateway city, which is also an amazing program.”

Still, she added, we continue to see small developers in Greenfield really step up, going above and beyond turning old office space into apartments. We have folks up here working hard and investing in ways that, for them, don’t always make financial sense; it’s because they care deeply about people being able to live up here and be part of what’s happening here.”

 

Street-level View

Desorgher noted that the city is building a downtown that meets everyday needs in part by upgrading infrastructure and incentivizing the occupation of vacant storefronts.

“In 2026, we should see the results of a new tax credit grant designed to revitalize long-vacant spaces,” she said. In terms of infrastructure, “we are focused on the basics that impact daily life: better sidewalks, smarter recycling, and parking improvements. We have replaced roughly 10% of our total sidewalk mileage since 2018, including nearly 4,000 feet replaced in 2025 alone.”

Greenfield at a Glance

Year Incorporated: 1753
Population: 17,768
Area: 21.9 square miles
County: Franklin
Residential Tax Rate: $19.31
Commercial Tax Rate: $19.31
Median Household Income: $33,110
Median Family Income: $46,412
Type of Government: Mayor, City Council
Largest Employers: Baystate Franklin Medical Center, Greenfield Community College, Sandri
* Latest information available

Through June 1, the city is accepting applicants for its Storefront Improvement Program, which provides resources for storefront upgrades to elevate downtown aesthetic appeal and economic vitality, with the ultimate aim of enhancing the area as a welcoming place to visit, shop, and work.

The program is funded through the federal Community Development Block Grant Program and administered by the city’s Community and Economic Development Department, and businesses located in the central commercial zone can apply for up to $10,000. While funding is prioritized for signage and awnings, other visual storefront improvements may be eligible.

“We are putting federal funds to work in our effort to improve downtown vitality and support small, local businesses,” the mayor noted. “The Storefront Improvement Program is a great opportunity for local businesses and organizations to improve their curb appeal while contributing to the overall health of our downtown.”

Meanwhile, Osman and Little are excited to be overseeing Greenspace CoWork’s two locations on either side of 289 Main St., hoping to deepen partnerships with local organizations; continue collaborations such as the Take the Floor competition with the Franklin County Community Development Corp.; and host incubators, retreats, workshops, mixers, and conferences that further strengthen the downtown sector’s business network.

Goldsher and Sauser originally designed Greenspace to elicit calm and focus, incorporating wood, abundant natural light, and a variety of real plants throughout the space. Under Osman and Little’s leadership, that aesthetic foundation remains intact while the mission evolves.

Under their ownership, Greenspace has introduced several updates, including a streamlined, automated booking system; a more affordable and flexible membership option for those who do not need full-time access; complimentary monthly yoga sessions for members; and expanded amenities.

“These details might seem small, but they make a difference. We want people to feel seen and considered when they’re here,” Osman said, adding that, as BIPOC and LGBTQ+ women business owners, they’re committed to creating spaces that feel welcoming and inclusive to all.

Added Little, “we want people to walk in and think, ‘I belong here’” — a sentiment certainly shared by many city business and municipal leaders striving to make Greenfield more of a place people want to live, work, and visit.

Events Will Capture the Landmark’s Place in Country’s Development

By
Alan Amelinckx stands by a map tracing the path of Col. Henry Knox’s Noble Train of Artillery.
Tourism & Hospitality

Springfield Armory

Alan Amelinckx stands by a map tracing the path of Col. Henry Knox’s Noble Train of Artillery.

Alan Amelinckx stands by a map tracing the path of Col. Henry Knox’s Noble Train of Artillery.

Alan Amelinckx says there is one overriding goal for the Springfield Armory National Historic Site and its many programs and events to commemorate the nation’s 250th birthday — to educate the public about the importance of that location, and this region, to the birth and development of the country.

Many people know the story of the Armory, which was closed in 1968, with many of its buildings becoming home to Springfield Technical Community College, said Amelinckx, program manager for Interpretation and Education at the Armory, adding quickly that too many do not. And a year’s worth of exhibits and programs will address that reality.

“We really wanted to focus on this site and its role in the American Revolution,” Amelinckx said, adding that not only was the site chosen for what became known as the Continental Arsenal of Springfield, and later the Springfield Armory, but it was also known for innovation and manufacturing milestones, such as the first real assembly line. It was a site through which Col. Henry Knox passed with his Noble Train of Artillery — it was Knox who suggested to Gen. George Washington that the property on a hill overlooking the growing city of Springfield would be the ideal site for an arsenal — and it was the site of Shays’s Rebellion in 1786.

“This site was on a hill, it was easily defensible, and Knox liked the fact that, while it was on the Connecticut River, British warships could not attack the site,” Amelinckx noted, citing the dam in Enfield as a barrier to those ships. “It was on the Boston Post Road, so that made it a convenient spot.

“Meanwhile, Shays’s Rebellion was one of the big turning points in American history,” he went on. “The founding fathers realized that the Articles of the Confederation weren’t working, and they needed a stronger central government.”

To educate and entertain the public about all this and more, the Armory, as noted, has a full year of exhibits and programs on tap for the 250th.

“We really wanted to focus on this site and its role in the American Revolution.”

These include a temporary exhibit at the Armory Museum which includes a map tracing the Knox Trail as well as information about how and why the Springfield site was chosen for the arsenal, said Amelinckx, adding that there is also a French cannon within the exhibit that is on display for the first time.

They also include programs late last year and earlier this year commemorating the Knox Trail, including a recreation of the trek through Springfield that drew more than 1,000 onlookers, as well as a lecture on the Battle of Saratoga and a discussion earlier this month titled “The Most Proper Spot in America.” Led by Armory Curator Alex MacKenzie, it focused on the Continental Arsenal, why the site in Springfield was chosen, and the arsenal’s contributions to American independence.

Other events include everything from an Independence Day celebration — visitors can watch the Springfield fireworks from the Armory grounds — to a Heritage Pops Concert on July 25 featuring a big band performance in front of the Springfield Armory Commandant’s House, to Forging Freedom on Aug. 29, a day of re-enactments and demonstrations celebrating American manufacturing.

Based on the strong turnouts for the Knox Trail recreation and program on the Battle of Saratoga, Amelinckx said there is keen interest on the events of the Revolutionary War period, and he expects this to translate into stronger visitation numbers for the Armory throughout the year and solid attendance at those upcoming events.

“The interest is palpable,” he told BusinessWest. “Our events are drawing people from across the region, but they’re also attracting people who live in the area and have never been to the Armory. There’s definitely a lot of interest in celebrating the 250th in this area.”

—George O’Brien