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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

By
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

By
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

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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

The winner will be announced at the start of the 20th annual 40 Under Forty gala on Thursday, June 11 at the MassMutual Center.
Click here to reserve your tickets today!

Presenting Sponsor:

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

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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

By
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

By
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

Exhibit Tells the Nation’s Story Through Illustration

By
Tourism & Hospitality

Norman Rockwell Museum

“American Stories, from Revolution to Rockwell” includes James Montgomery Flagg’s “I Want You for U.S. Army” (1917, chromolithograph on paper, private collection).

“American Stories, from Revolution to Rockwell” includes James Montgomery Flagg’s “I Want You for U.S. Army” (1917, chromolithograph on paper, private collection).

 

Russell Lord says planning for the nation’s 250th birthday at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge began several years ago, and kicked into a higher gear when he arrived as chief of Curatorial Affairs in late 2024. Eventually, a mission emerged.

“As a museum devoted to not only Norman Rockwell, but also the history of illustration, we felt like we had something unique to offer at this moment in time,” Lord said. “Also, we understood that it might be somewhat expected of us to do something because Norman Rockwell is so closely associated with American identity and this vision of America.

“We wanted to both embrace what people expected of us and also add a little bit of the unexpected,” he went on, adding that both will come together in “American Stories, from Revolution to Rockwell,” which explores how artists from the Revolutionary era to the present “shared the ideals and evolving story of the United States in pictures and captured the American imagination in the process.”

Organized around a series of thematic chapters — including industry and innovation, immigration, the Civil Rights Movement, and civic life — that cut across time periods, the special exhibit, which runs from June 6 to Oct. 26, will bring together a wide range of works. These include illustrations, textiles, ceramics, paintings, prints, drawings, books, posters, advertisements, and digital media, from the nation’s founding to the present day, with each object telling a story.

“The United States is young enough to have its entire history extensively illustrated,” Lord said, noting that early works by engravers such as Paul Revere and Benjamin Franklin issue calls for unity against, and independence from, an oppressive monarchy.

“In the 19th century, artists served as visual journalists, entertainers, and advocates for reform,” he went on. “In the 20th century, illustrators captivated the public with idyllic scenes of American life, while also confronting the realities of racial injustice and political division. Today, in the 21st century, artists continue the legacy — engaging critically with the past and imagining possible futures — circulating images faster and more widely than ever through digital platforms.”

Among the items assembled from the museum’s extensive holdings (some 30,000 works representing 350 illustrators), as well as loans from institutions and private collections worldwide, are James Montgomery Flagg’s “Uncle Sam Wants You for the U.S. Army” and Howard Miller’s “We Can Do It!” posters, as well as Rockwell’s portrayals of American presidents and politicans such as Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan, said Lord, adding that the goal is to blend some familiar works with others that visitors have likely not seen before.

“Two of the things I wanted to explore with this exhibit are history and myth, which is to say pictures that tell us about the actual history, and then pictures that are so famous — like ‘Uncle Sam Wants You’ — that they’ve taken on this kind of mythical status, and in some ways, that often means we don’t think about them as deeply as we might; we see them, and we say, ‘we’ve seen that, we recognize that.’”

Russell Lord

Russell Lord

“As a museum devoted to not only Norman Rockwell, but also the history of illustration, we felt like we had something unique to offer at this moment in time.”

And while the exhibit, which will occupy nearly all of the museum’s exhibition space, was created to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday, there is another purpose as well, said Lord, adding that the times call for a collection of works that show that this complicated era in the nation’s history is not without precedent.

“American Stories, from Revolution to Rockwell”

“American Stories, from Revolution to Rockwell” includes, above, Norman Rockwell’s “Ben Franklin’s Sesquicentennial” (cover illustration for the Saturday Evening Post, May 29, 1926),

“When I put together an exhibit, I like to ask the question, ‘why this exhibit now?’” he told BusinessWest. “Obviously, there’s an anniversary, but that’s not the only reason for this to have relevance right now.

“No matter where you sit on the political spectrum, I think everyone would agree that this is a very complicated moment for our own identity in the world,” he went on. “I always like to think that it can be somewhat unsettling to think that this is an unprecedented moment, and I also like to think about how there might be a precedent for this. A lot of the conversations we have today about our own identity in the world — about how other countries view us and how we view ourselves — are not new discussions.”

Image makers have wrestled with many of these identity crises from the very beginning, he continued, adding that this is one of many things he expects visitors will take away from an exhibit that offers both a visual journey through American history and a timely reflection on the enduring power of pictures to shape national identity.

—George O’Brien

Exhibit Will Focus on How Revolutionary Ideas Come About

By
Elizabeth Kapp says the Springfield Museums’
Tourism & Hospitality

Springfield Museums

Elizabeth Kapp says the Springfield Museums’

Elizabeth Kapp says the Springfield Museums’ exhibits will focus as much on revolutionary ideas as the Revolutionary War period itself.

Elizabeth Kapp says she’s long had a passion for history.

“I’ve always been fascinated by the stories of the past and how many of them seem so improbable because things have gone wrong so many times along the way,” Kapp, curator of History for Springfield Museums, told BusinessWest. “It was the determination and innovation of the people on the ground that opened up so many doors for us today.”

She would put the birth of this nation firmly in that category, and determination and innovation are just two of the qualities that will be celebrated with exhibits and programs as the Museums mark the Semiquincentennial.

Kapp joined Springfield Museums two years ago and immediately made the 250th celebration a priority for the institution. Such occasions are rare, she went on, noting that, while she was born well after the Bicentennial in 1976, she has studied that event and what it meant for history museums, house museums, and similar facilities.

“There was truly a boom of opportunity and interest in 1976, and it actually helped shape the modern museum world in a professional sense,” she said, adding that she is anticipating something similar this year.

And as Kapp talked about what the Museums have planned, she said she and other organizers began with a purpose, or mission. “It’s an opportunity to collectively visit the past,” she said of the 250th. “And see how the decisions and actions of groups and individuals in the past led us to where we are today.”

“I thought it was important to give our visitors an opportunity to see how revolutionary thinking can come in a lot of different ways, shapes, and forms.”

With that in mind, the Museums — specifically, the Wood Museum of Springfield History — are planning exhibits that will focus not so much on the Revolutionary War, as other institutions are, but rather on “revolutionary ideas.”

“I thought it was important to give our visitors an opportunity to see how revolutionary thinking can come in a lot of different ways, shapes, and forms,” she told BusinessWest. “If we look at the past, time and time again we see that anyone can be revolutionary.”

Elaborating, Kapp said the Museums’ exhibit for the 250th, slated to open May 16, will have three historic themes, or time periods, with one centered on what Springfield was like at the time of the Revolution, but with a focus on what she called the “domestic side” — an approximate interior of a typical home from the 1770s.

“There will be slight inspiration from a Colonial-era coffeehouse,” she said, “because, historically, that’s where a lot of these discussions of revolutionary ideas took place.”

A second component on the exhibit will be called “Defining the Dictionary,” and it will focus on the revolutionary (there’s that word again) Merriam-Webster dictionary, the work of Noah Webster and the Merriam brothers, George and Charles. The company they founded is still creating dictionaries today.

“As a young man, Noah Webster was one of the few who were in a position to influence and help the new nation figure itself out,” Kapp explained, adding that this section of the exhibit will focus on the dictionary and the “power of words.”

“Revolutionary ideas often come with revolutionary words and phrases that need to be recorded,” she went on, adding that the exhibit will enable visitors to explore the words of early America and see how the work of Webster and the Merriam brothers helped establish the American language.

Visitors will have the opportunity to guess the definition of words like ‘macaroni’ (which was much different 250 years ago than it is today), ‘unalienable,’ and ‘patriot.’

The third segment of the exhibit will focus on the Industrial Revolution and how Springfield came to be the home to countless innovations and inventions that have had a profound impact worldwide, she said, listing everything from the development of interchangeable parts and the assembly line to ‘firsts’ that include the Duryea automobile, the motorcycle, and the GB aircraft.

And, like the other segments of the exhibit, this one will be interactive, Kapp said, adding that visitors will get an opportunity to work on a mini-assembly line and handle interchangeable parts used in the production of some of the vehicles on display at the museum.

“Again, the foundation that we built off is that anyone can be revolutionary,” she said. “And my goal is that people walk away with an understanding that these ideas and actions that we historians call revolutionary were people thinking outside the box — and we want to encourage them to do the same.”

—George O’Brien

How to Approach Data Security Concerns — and Compliance

By Contributor
Law

Safety First

By John S. Gannon, Esq.

 

Workplace privacy and data security are growing concerns for employers as they contend with advanced cybersecurity and ransomware threats, instant transfers of sensitive personnel information, an abundance of employee and medical information that needs to be protected, and laws that protect employees from intrusions into their privacy.

Employees regularly provide their employers with sensitive personal information, such as health records, Social Security numbers, and tax and payroll information. Businesses that fail to implement adequate security measures to safeguard this information can be held liable if this data is compromised.

For example, although not an employment case, in 2022, T-Mobile agreed to pay $350 million to settle a class action lawsuit focused on a 2021 data breach impacting more than 76 million people. And in 2023, Whole Foods paid $300,000 to settle a class action lawsuit brought by employees who claimed the grocery giant unlawfully collected voice data from employees who worked at the company’s distribution centers.

John S. Gannon

John S. Gannon

“Employees regularly provide their employers with sensitive personal information, such as health records, Social Security numbers, and tax and payroll information. Businesses that fail to implement adequate security measures to safeguard this information can be held liable if this data is compromised.”

In Massachusetts, the state’s Data Security Law and Regulations set stringent standards for the protection of personal information of Massachusetts residents (including employees) and mandate compliance from businesses handling such data. The law and regulations establish minimum standards to be met in connection with the safeguarding of personal information contained in both paper and electronic records. They are aimed at ensuring the security and confidentiality of sensitive data and protecting against unauthorized access to, or use of, such information that may result in substantial harm or inconvenience to any Massachusetts resident.

 

The WISP Requirement

Under the Massachusetts Data Security Law and Regulations, if your business (wherever it’s located) collects, stores, or uses personal information about a Massachusetts resident, the business is required to implement and maintain a comprehensive written information security program (WISP). This includes employers who collect personal information about their workforce, which virtually all of them do.

The WISP is required to include administrative, technical, and physical safeguards for protection of personal information (PI) about a resident of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

For the purposes of the WISP, PI means a Massachusetts’ resident’s first name (or initial) and last name, in combination with the resident’s Social Security number, driver’s license number or state-issued ID card number, or financial account number or credit/debit card number. According to the state regulations implementing the Massachusetts Data Security Law, a WISP must include:

• Designating one or more employees to maintain and supervise WISP implementation and performance;

• Identifying and assessing reasonably foreseeable internal and external risks to the security, confidentiality, and/or integrity of any electronic, paper, or other records containing PI;

• Evaluating and improving the effectiveness of the current safeguards for limiting security risks, including proper training of employees on the importance of data security and reviewing means for detecting and preventing security system failures;

• Developing security policies for employees relating to the storage, access, and transportation of records containing PI;

• Imposing disciplinary measures for violations of your WISP rules;

• Preventing terminated employees from accessing records containing PI;

• Taking reasonable steps to select and oversee third-party service providers who have access or your PI; and

• Reviewing the scope of the security measures at least annually or whenever there is a material change in business practices that may reasonably implicate the security or integrity of records containing PI.

We typically encourage employers to work with counsel when they are developing a written information security program, as it must be designed to address the businesses’ risk profile while considering compliance obligations under the Massachusetts Data Security Law and Regulations.

 

What to Do If You Experience a Data Breach

If your business experiences a data breach, having a compliant WISP in place — while helpful — is not enough to meet your obligations under the Massachusetts Data Security Law. If a business knows or has reason to know they have experienced a data breach, the business must promptly notify the state Attorney General’s Office as well as all affected employees with written notice.

The notice to the Attorney General’s Office must explain the nature of the security breach or unauthorized access or use of PI, the number of Massachusetts residents affected by such incident at the time of notification, the person responsible for the incident (if known), the type of PI compromised, and all the steps the business has taken or plans to take relating to the incident, including maintaining and updating the WISP.

As for the employee notice, that must include information regarding he resident’s right to obtain a police report; how the resident can request a credit freeze, the information a resident will need to request a credit freeze; and that there is no fee for requesting, temporarily lifting, or permanently removing a security freeze with any of the consumer reporting agencies.

When a breach occurs, we recommend working with those who are experienced in supervising and conducting a prompt and effective data breach response. This may involve interviewing employees, working with IT staff or external forensics investigators to determine the nature and extent of the breach, drafting and submitting required notices to affected individuals and the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, and revising policies and procedures to prevent future data breaches.

 

John Gannon is a partner with Skoler, Abbott & Presser, P.C., a Springfield-based law firm exclusively practicing labor and employment law for more than a half-century, focusing on litigation avoidance, employment litigation, and labor law and relations. He specializes in employment law and regularly counsels employers on compliance with state and federal laws; (413) 737-4753.

How to Reduce Massachusetts Estate Taxes for Married Couples

By Contributor
Law

A Matter of Trusts

By Gina M. Barry, Esq.

 

In Massachusetts, if you pass away owning assets worth more than $2 million, your estate will likely owe Massachusetts estate tax. Fortunately, given a relatively recent change in the law, Massachusetts estate tax would be paid only on the amount over $2 million, as opposed to on the entire estate.

Many people think that their estate is not valued at more than $2 million; however, it is very easy to reach this level of value when you consider that every asset you own is valued for estate tax purposes. The focus of this article is on how married couples can use trusts to minimize, or possibly eliminate, the Massachusetts estate tax that would be due without this planning.

Under Massachusetts law, for deaths in 2026, there is no estate tax due so long as the decedent’s estate is not valued at over $2 million. Moreover, there is no estate tax due when all assets are left to a surviving spouse, as there is an unlimited marital deduction that applies regardless of how much money one spouse leaves to another.

The potential trap is that, upon the second death, when the surviving spouse is holding the entire estate, their estate will likely be taxed at a larger percentage. This is because the $2 million Massachusetts estate tax exemption is not portable between spouses. When the second of the two spouses dies, their exemption is still only $2 million.

Gina M. Barry

Gina M. Barry

“Many people think that their estate is not valued at more than $2 million; however, it is very easy to reach this level of value when you consider that every asset you own is valued for estate tax purposes.”

A common estate planning technique to minimize, or possibly eliminate, Massachusetts estate tax is creating credit shelter trusts, which would allow both spouses to pass up to $2 million without paying estate tax.

As assets left outright to the surviving spouse would qualify for the marital deduction instead of using the estate tax exemption, it is necessary to use a system of trusts to cordon off the $2 million exempt from tax in Massachusetts from the surviving spouse’s direct and unfettered access.

Thus, the surviving spouse is forgoing control of the assets held in their deceased spouse’s trust to realize the goal of paying less or no estate tax when both spouses have passed away. Although the surviving spouse does not have unfettered access to the trust funds, they would have access according to the trust’s rules.

 

How It Works

Upon the passing of the first spouse to die, a subtrust will hold the $2 million exemption amount for Massachusetts purposes. With respect to the assets held in this trust, the income (money earned on trust assets) would automatically be distributed to the surviving spouse.

The surviving spouse may also be given an annual ‘5 and 5’ power that allows them to demand a distribution of 5% of the principal or $5,000, whichever is greater. In addition, should the surviving spouse require more monies to live in the manner they were accustomed to living when their spouse was alive, principal (trust assets) may be distributed at the trustee’s discretion.

A second subtrust, for Massachusetts purposes, will include the remainder of the estate, meaning any assets over and above $2 million. This trust will also provide the surviving spouse with all income and with principal distributed at the trustee’s discretion — and, again, the surviving spouse may be given the option to exercise a ‘5 and 5’ power as described above.

When the second spouse passes away, any monies in the first subtrust ($2 million), as well as any growth, will not be taxed in their estate. Thus, the trust has made these monies available to the surviving spouse for their needs without giving that spouse the direct ownership that would cause inclusion in their estate for estate tax purposes when they pass away.

As the surviving spouse will interact extensively with the trustee of the trust following the death of the first spouse, it is very important to choose a successor trustee that will get along with the surviving spouse. The successor trustee may be the surviving spouse, but it is highly recommended that there be a co-trustee serving along with them, such that the surviving spouse can be insulated from participating in making discretionary distributions of principal.

Very often, married couples choose to name their children as successor trustees to serve with or without the surviving spouse. When both spouses have died, the balance of the trust property would be distributed as set forth in the trust, usually outright to the married couple’s children or held in a continuing trust for their benefit.

 

Bottom Line

A credit shelter trust can also help to reduce or eliminate federal estate tax; however, for 2026 deaths, federal estate tax only impacts estates greater than $15 million. Couples with assets valued at $15 million or more would also want to explore additional planning opportunities that are beyond the scope of this article.

Any married couple wishing to take advantage of estate tax planning is encouraged to schedule an appointment with an attorney who works primarily in the area of estate planning. It is imperative that you plan now to avoid estate taxes later.

 

Gina M. Barry is a shareholder with the law firm Bacon Wilson, P.C. She is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, the Estate Planning Council, and the Western Massachusetts Elder Care Professionals Assoc. She concentrates her practice in the areas of estate and asset protection planning, probate administration, guardianships, conservatorships, and residential real estate; (413) 781-0560; [email protected]

Retailers, Consumers Adjust to Decline of the Penny

By
Karen Randall says Randall’s Farm is resisting when it comes to retiring the penny, but she’s not sure how long it can keep doing that.
Features

Making Cents of It

Karen Randall says Randall’s Farm is resisting when it comes to retiring the penny, but she’s not sure how long it can keep doing that.

Karen Randall says Randall’s Farm is resisting when it comes to retiring the penny, but she’s not sure how long it can keep doing that.

 

 

Gerald Friedman says he’s been advocating, quietly, for the death of the penny for more than 30 years now.

Indeed, while he’s certainly not a fan of the Trump administration, he believes this is one thing it got right.

“It just makes sense; they’ve done the right thing,” said Friedman, a professor of Economics at UMass Amherst, adding that, if he was in charge, he wouldn’t stop there, and would also phase out the nickel and convert to a dollar coin, which he believes would be far more convenient than bills.

But for now, let’s focus on the penny, which is no longer being produced and is being phased out of use. Consumers are coping, said th ose we spoke with, and so are retailers, many of which have implemented systems of rounding sales up or down so that no pennies need to be exchanged.

Springfield-based Rocky’s Ace Hardware implemented such a system a few months ago, said Johnny Falcone, director of growth for the company and the fourth generation of the Falcone family to lead the business, started almost exactly 100 years ago.

“We tried to prolong it as long as we could, but our local banks started running out of pennies,” he explained, adding that the chain worked with its software company to implement a rounding system.

He acknowledged that rounding doesn’t permit a totally accurate account of total sales, something businesses prefer to have, but assuming a roughly equal amount of rounding up and down, it’s basically a wash.

“Our accounting team likes to refer to it as ‘an immaterial amount,’” he went on. “That said, from an overall sales perspective, we’ve seen a very minor decline because, when in doubt and to take care of the customer, we’ll err on the side of rounding up the customer’s change or rounding down the sale.”

When asked to quantify this impact, he said it might be a few dollars a day, a figure that reflects the downward trend in the use of cash.

GERALD FRIEDMAN

Gerald Friedman

“It just makes sense; they’ve done the right thing.”

Meanwhile, Ludlow-based Randall’s Farm is “resisting for the moment,” said owner Karen Randall, noting that the company is still dispensing pennies, though she’s not sure for how much longer. The banks have stopped supplying pennies, she noted, adding that she has been encouraging employees to roll what pennies they have, and the store holds on tight to the few pennies that come in from customers during the day.

“I think we might be able to hold out a few more weeks — it depends on how many pennies people bring us,” she said, adding that the company, which dispenses maybe 500 to 600 of them a day, has a system in place for rounding cash transactions up or down and will put it to use when it can no longer meet demand.

There are fewer pennies seemingly every month, she noted, adding that cash is involved in fewer than 20% of transactions. Falcone put the number at closer to 10% to 15%, adding that the number has continued on a downward trajectory for years now, with most consumers using debit and credit cards, Apple Pay, Venmo, and other methods of payment that don’t involve cash.

And those we spoke with expect that trend to continue and even accelerate as members of all generations move away from cash. But retail establishments need to meet consumers where they are when it comes to how they pay, and that means continuing to handle cash.

As for the penny … they don’t make it anymore, so its days are numbered, said Friedman, adding that he’s not sure how many days.

“On the outer edge, it will be until pennies wear out, and most pennies will wear out in a decade,” he explained, adding that most consumers and businesses will stop dealing with them long before then.

 

Much Ado About … Very Little

Friedman said he doesn’t believe many people are bemoaning the demise of the penny.

“It only hurts the people who make them,” he said with recognizable cynicism in his voice, listing zinc mine owners whom he suspects have been behind successful efforts to lobby for continued production of the coin for years now, even as inflation has rendered it all but worthless. “It helps everyone else.”

By that, he meant retailers who will no longer have to devote a cash register drawer to the coin or count them at the end of the day, as well as banks, which will no longer have to supply them, and consumers, who will no longer have to carry them around or figure out what to do with those they’ve accumulated.

Indeed, he said the penny is not worth the aggravation it creates — figuratively and quite literally.

“From an overall sales perspective, we’ve seen a very minor decline because, when in doubt and to take care of the customer, we’ll err on the side of rounding up the customer’s change or rounding down the sale.”

“We produced 3.5 billion pennies in 2024; they were worth $35 million, and they cost $100 million to make,” he said, adding that this simple math explains why the penny should have been discontinued long ago. “We’re going to save money, and that’s a good thing. Businesses will save because who wants to deal with pennies — you have to sort them, you have to count them … it’s an expense for business.

“And consumers … I used to have quart containers filled with pennies; I used to put them in wrappers and bring them to banks, but it’s not worth it to do that anymore,” he went on. “It costs the Treasury money, it’s a hassle to business, and most cash registers have a limited number of drawers. If we got rid of the penny, we could use that drawer for dollar coins.”

Drawing on what he’s seen when other countries, such as Canada and France, have discontinued their lowest-value coin, Friedman said the phasing out of the money should be a relatively painless exercise, and there is little impact on consumers, although he acknowledged that rounding generally favors business.

“The Federal Reserve had a paper on this a while back, and their expectation was that doing away with the penny would lead to a small increase in prices paid by consumers,” he said, adding that the overall impact will be mitigated by the continued downward spiral in the use of cash.

That trend brings conveniences for businesses — fewer trips to the bank and fewer change orders, for example — but also expenses, in the form of the fees charged on debit card purchases (just under 1% on average) and credit card transactions, generally 2% of each sale, with American Express charging closer to 3%.

“It’s the reality of the digital world we live in, and we need to make sure that we’re ready to accept payment however the customer is most comfortable making it,” Friedman said, adding that this will always include cash.

Randall agreed, adding that, for some younger employees, this means training that would not have been necessary a decade or so ago. Indeed, she said many younger employees simply don’t know how to use cash because they’ve never had to. Many don’t know how to write a check, either, but that’s another story.

“We’ve sent people home to learn how to count money before we’d hire them,” she noted. “We tell them, ‘talk to your parents and learn how to count cash and understand money,’ because they don’t have any conception — because they’ve just sent the money. It’s a little scary, but it’s reality.”

Penny for Your Thoughts

Speaking for most retailers, Randall said that, when it comes to the phasing out the penny, “the consumer will get used to it.”

Speaking from what certainly appears to be the minority perspective, she added quickly, “I don’t like it — I don’t mind the penny, and I still use cash.”

Most probably don’t mind the penny, but they also don’t give it much thought. And soon — how soon no one really knows — they won’t have to give it any thought.

Because, in most respects, as Friedman said, it’s just not worth it.

Contractors Electrical Plus Emphasizes Education, Peace of Mind

By
Company owners Kristin Wampler (left) and Kristen Sgroi.
Construction

Beyond the Quick Fix

Company owners Kristin Wampler (left) and Kristen Sgroi.

Company owners Kristin Wampler (left) and Kristen Sgroi.

When Kristin Wampler and Kristen Sgroi met, they became fast friends. And now, they’ve turned that friendship into a women-owned electrical contracting company that has carved out an intriguing niche in Western Mass.

Specifically, they met while working for a commercial electrician, and they hit it off immediately. So when they started talking about launching a business of their own — Wampler has a long entrepreneurial background — an electrical firm made sense. Even though they’re not electricians themselves, they knew enough about the trade — and plenty more about running the back end of a business — to give it a go.

But as they launched Contractors Electrical Plus in Westfield, they quickly pivoted away from the commercial and industrial side, instead planting a flag in what they felt was an undertapped market in residential jobs.

“My husband does home improvement, a lot of remodeling, and he’s always looking for electricians and plumbers and HVAC people,” Wampler said. “So I said to Kristen one day as we were driving, ‘you know, with all the knowledge that we’ve gained, we can open up our own residential service and repair business.’”

So they did — and their model proved to be a successful one.

“Our motto is that we protect your most valuable assets, which are the people in your home,” Sgroi said, adding that they aim to be a more relatable company for women.

“My husband does home improvement, a lot of remodeling, and he’s always looking for electricians and plumbers and HVAC people.”

“Who tends to call for services? It’s more often women who call,” she noted, adding that she and Wampler stress peace of mind in customer interactions, as all technicians are thoroughly background checked and drug tested, scheduled times are strictly kept, and all pricing is detailed up front, with no surprises later — with the same price offered weekdays, nights, or weekends.

Also, “one of us usually comes out, and we introduce ourselves. That puts the homeowner at ease, too,” Wampler said. “When another woman is coming to the house, you have that commonality. We understand what it’s like to be a woman home alone when somebody comes knocking at your door. It’s been awesome, the people we’ve met, and some of our customers have become good friends of ours.”

The company offers an annual membership plan as well, which offers perks like always having an electrician on call, services warrantied for the life of the membership, and discounts on the work itself.

But where Contractors Electrical Plus really sets itself apart is the way it educates customers.

“A friend of mine lost her home to an electrical fire,” Wampler said. “So we really want to educate customers on the risks of their electrical panel — because she actually had some rodents coming in the wintertime; they built a home in her panel, which caught a spark and ignited the house.

“With our program, we do home safety inspections. Once a year, we’ll come through your house and educate you on your electrical system — because you’re using electricity 365 days a year. That’s the heart of your home.”

Even during routine jobs, the company’s technicians make a point of pointing out and clearly explaining issues — and how to prevent them in the future.

Master electrician Gary Martineau, a former teacher, has been effective at educating customers and mentoring younger employees.

Master electrician Gary Martineau, a former teacher, has been effective at educating customers and mentoring younger employees.

“When you’re working in the big industrial space, everything is kind of open, where, in a house, everything is behind walls. Nobody sees it,” Wampler said. “When you go into parking garages, you can see all the conduit, but nobody gets to showcase their good work in residential. When we do new builds, we’ll take pictures, but once the panel goes up, you never see it again. But there’s so much that happens behind the walls.”

As an example, she noted that a customer recently had some bathroom fans changed out. “You wouldn’t believe how disgusting they were. When we took it down, it was just corroded with stuff. The homeowner was like, ‘wow.’ It’s the dust, and you don’t realize that’s coming back into the air. So with our home inspections, we’re checking all of that, and we’re making sure you’re breathing clean air, your smoke detectors are up to date, and all your safety hazards are taken care of.”

She shared other electrical hazard stories — of a smoking thermostat, improper phone chargers, and other small issues that had the potential to turn into bigger issues, and even fires.

“There could be a million electricians out there, but what’s going to set you apart from the other ones is being relatable, being empowering, and the customer knowing that they’re actually talking to somebody who cares enough to educate them. They don’t just come to your house and say, ‘OK, that’ll be $150’ or ‘that’ll be $300,’ and not tell you what made that happen, so you can prevent it in the future.”

 

Knowledge Is Power

The business partners take their motto seriously.

“This really is about protecting our most valuable assets,” Wampler told BusinessWest. “Like I said, my friend lost everything in that fire. Thank goodness she didn’t lose her kids or anything. But there are sentimental pieces that you can never get back.

“Electrical fires happen. Just recently, there were six fires in Springfield, and they were all from electrical malfunctions,” she went on. “So I really want to educate the homeowners on the safety risks. If we see something, we educate the homeowner. It doesn’t matter if you’re in our plan or you’re not in our plan, it does not matter. We educate the homeowner.”

“Electrical fires happen. Just recently, there were six fires in Springfield, and they were all from electrical malfunctions. So I really want to educate the homeowners on the safety risks.”

She noted that the company includes an actual teacher, Master Electrician Gary Martineau, a veteran of Westfield Technical Academy. “He’s a great educator when he goes out to homes and talks to homeowners. He’s also a great mentor to our apprentices. He takes his time with them and educates them. He’s been amazing.”

The mention of Martineau and his experience training teenagers got Wampler and Sgroi talking about the challenge of introducing young people to the trade, as her own son has been.

“The trades in general — that’s one thing AI is not going to replace,” Wampler said. “Like, plumbers are a dying breed. I feel like these young kids need to be more involved in getting into plumbing because there are so many old-timers in plumbing, and when they retire, they’ve got to pass this down — because AI is not going to replace them. Same thing with electrical or HVAC or carpentry.”

In that way, teaching young people the trades, including electrical work, is a way to empower them, she went on.

“Do something with your hands, because that’s never going to go away. You can always make money. You’re never going to be without a job because you can always do side stuff. My son has always loved electrical. He’s always wanted to know how things work. So he liked the flow of this work.

“Not everybody’s meant to sit behind a desk and do computer stuff,” she added. “They’re meant to be out there, and they want to build things. And that’s the future, building.”

Wampler said she and Sgroi plan to visit area vocational schools in an effort to bring more girls into the trade.

“If you’re in trade school, you don’t have to go into cosmetology; you can choose this. We want to empower them to choose a different path than they might have thought about.”

 

Team Players

Meanwhile, they continue to go into the field themselves, delivering parts, generally helping out, and talking to customers.

“It really shows your employees that you’re a team player — you’re not just the boss, you’re not just the one in the office, you’re not a dictator, but you’re out there with us,” Wampler said. “So we do that quite often.”

“And,” Sgroi added, “we try to keep open communication with all of our employees. It’s an open door policy, if they have any concerns.”

The bottom line, Wampler said, is that “we make sure we take care of our employees because our employees take care of us. That’s huge, knowing and appreciating the people that work with you. And they don’t work for us, they work with us. That’s what we try to instill — we’re here for you, and we’re doing this all together.”

They employ a team of six right now and provide constant opportunities for training, including how to sensitively talk with customers, but also be firm when an issue needs to be fixed.

“It’s communicating with the the homeowner on what things are urgent and what things can wait, and how to deal with somebody who hems and haws and is just looking for a Band-Aid,” Wampler said. “I’m not about a Band-Aid because the minute that we touch it, we now own it. And if we’re the last person to touch it, we’re going to fix it right the first time, or you can call somebody else.”

Evolving Technology Is Changing How Businesses Operate

By Contributor
Technology

Straight Talk About AI

By Sean Hogan

AI is everywhere right now. I have never seen a new technology move as fast as this. The pace of change is hard to keep up with, and it is already changing how businesses operate on a daily basis.

In our office, we have been using AI across several areas. Like most companies, we started with the basics. We used tools like Chat and Copilot to help with content writing, documentation, and internal processes. These tools helped us build standards and procedures faster than before.

The impact was immediate. Tasks that used to take hours, like drafting documents or editing content, could now be done in a fraction of the time. We used AI to create job descriptions, prepare presentations, and clean up written communication. It did not replace our work, but it removed a lot of the repetitive effort that slows teams down. That was what I would call phase one of AI.

The next step came when we introduced meeting transcription and summaries. We started using Otter to capture our meetings and generate notes automatically. This was a turning point for us. Instead of worrying about who was taking notes or what might be missed, we had a full record of every conversation.

This made our meetings more productive. People could stay focused instead of trying to write everything down. After the meeting, we had clear summaries, action items, and records we could refer back to. It saved time and reduced confusion. It also helped with accountability because everyone could see what was discussed and what needed to happen next.

Sean Hogan

Sean Hogan

“AI is not just for fun. It can support real marketing efforts, from content creation to visual design to campaign planning. It helps teams move faster and test ideas more easily.”

As useful as that was, AI did not stop there. We quickly moved into what I would call phase two.

AI has become a major force in marketing and design. When we first experimented with AI-generated images and branding, the results were rough. Tools struggled with basic things like spelling and consistency. Logos looked off, and text often did not make sense.

That has changed very quickly. Today, these tools are far more capable. They can generate clean visuals, help brainstorm campaign ideas, and support content creation at scale. My kids actually introduced me to Grok, and we had some fun turning still images into short videos. While that started as entertainment, it showed me how fast the technology was improving.

More importantly, it showed how we could use these tools in a business setting. AI is not just for fun. It can support real marketing efforts, from content creation to visual design to campaign planning. It helps teams move faster and test ideas more easily.

 

Next Steps

From there, we expanded AI into our broader technology stack. We are no longer using it just for administrative tasks or marketing support. We are using it to improve productivity and efficiency across the business.

One of the biggest changes has been in our help desk operations. We have introduced AI into our tier-one support process. With the help of an AI management layer, we can now resolve and remediate common support tickets using a proprietary AI tool. This allows us to handle routine issues quickly and consistently.

The benefit is clear. Our technicians are no longer tied up with repetitive tickets. They can focus on more complex problems that require deeper expertise. This improves both the quality of our service and the development of our team.

It also allows us to deliver a higher level of support to our clients. Instead of spending time on basic issues, our team can focus on solving bigger challenges and providing more value.

Our most recent addition is an AI-powered auto attendant. This is not the old style phone system that most people are used to. This is an agent that can answer calls, ask the right questions, and gather the information we need to help the client. It acts as the first point of contact and sets the tone for the entire interaction.

This has been a major improvement for both our team and our clients. Instead of sending calls to voicemail, clients can speak to an agent right away. The agent collects the necessary details, understands the request, and documents the conversation. That information is then passed along to the appropriate person or team.

Anyone who has ever had to repeat the same issue to multiple people knows how frustrating that can be. This process reduces that problem. The full conversation and transcript are captured and shared, so the next person already has the context they need. If a client needs to open a support ticket, the agent can guide them through the process step by step. It ensures that all required information is collected up front.

There is also a level of consistency that is hard to achieve otherwise. The agent does not forget to ask key questions. It does not miss details. It does not have a bad day or get distracted.

For years, I have emphasized to our team the importance of collecting and confirming information on every call. Do we have the correct phone number? The right email address? The proper contact details? These are simple things, but they matter. The AI agent handles this every time without fail.

We are also looking ahead at how AI can integrate with other systems, including CRM platforms, ERP systems, and inventory management. The goal is to create a more connected environment where information flows smoothly and processes are more efficient.

 

Risk and Reward

This is an exciting time to be in technology. AI represents a major shift, and we are choosing to embrace it.

That said, AI is not without risk. You need to be careful with how you handle data and personal information. Security and privacy should always be a priority. AI tools are powerful, but they need to be used responsibly. That is a much larger topic and one worth discussing in detail on its own.

AI is not perfect, but it is very capable. It can handle complex tasks, support decision making, and free up time for more important work. The key is to use it as a tool. Challenge it. Test it. Find ways to apply it that make your business stronger and more efficient. If you ignore it, you will fall behind. If you use it wisely, it can give you a real advantage.

One last note: I still write my own blogs. But once I am done, I run them through AI to proofread and clean things up. It turns out AI is pretty good at that, too.

 

Sean Hogan is president of Hogan Technology Inc.

These Seven Trends Are Shaping Behavioral Health Benefits

By Contributor
Healthcare News

Meeting a Critical Need

By UnitedHealthcare

 

Behavioral health has become a strategic priority over the past five to 10 years. As utilization rises and employee expectations shift, employers are navigating new pressures: managing costs, meeting demand for specialized support, and demonstrating that their benefits actually drive value.

For organizations trying to support workforce well-being while keeping benefits costs sustainable, understanding these trends is essential. Here are seven trends defining behavioral healthcare in 2026 — and why they matter now.

“One-size-fits-all approaches to mental health are losing ground. Employers are increasingly focused on offering benefits that reflect their employees’ specific circumstances.”

1. Behavioral Health Care Utilization Is Up — and So Are Costs

More employees are seeking mental health support than ever before. In fact, a recent survey found that nearly half of Americans (48%) plan to seek therapy within the next year — a 5% increase from last year. Although this utilization is a positive sign that the stigma continues to decline, it comes with financial consequences. Behavioral health claims have been rising rapidly and are predicted to increase by 10% to 20% in 2026.

The challenge for employers isn’t whether to invest in behavioral health — it’s how to invest wisely. Not every employee needs traditional treatment-first therapy, which can be unsustainable. An estimated 50% of members seeking mental health support may be good candidates for lower-severity options, such as behavioral health coaching or self-help apps. Navigating employees to the right level of care can help manage costs while still getting people the support they need.

 

2. Specialized Support Is Becoming the Expectation

One-size-fits-all approaches to mental health are losing ground. Employers are increasingly focused on offering benefits that reflect their employees’ specific circumstances.

For example, most benefits leaders want to better support neurodivergent employees and families, such as those with autism, dyslexia, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. In addition, employers are becoming increasingly aware of the disproportionate mental health burden women tend to be under, whether that’s from the added stress many women tend to take on as the main decision makers for their families or the impact that the maternal health and menopause life stages can have on their bodies and minds.

Similarly, employers are realizing that caregivers more broadly need targeted behavioral health resources. Whether supporting aging parents, children with behavioral health needs, or both, caregivers often face significant stress that spills into the workplace. Organizations that can meet these varied needs may see stronger engagement and retention.

 

3. Increased Burnout Is Impacting Mental Health — and Costs

Burnout has reached a six-year high among American workers. According to recent workforce surveys, 66% of employees reported experiencing burnout in the past year. Gen Z has now surpassed Millennials as the most burnt-out generation.

Return-to-office mandates are adding to the pressure. Seventy percent of employees reported feeling heightened anxiety about the shift back to the office. Working parents, especially mothers, and the ‘sandwich generation’ who are caring for both children and aging relatives are feeling the strain most acutely.

For employers, the takeaway is straightforward: behavioral health costs don’t exist in a vacuum. Workplace policies — including decisions about remote work, flexibility, and workload expectations — shape whether employees thrive or struggle. Organizations that want to manage behavioral health spending may need to look beyond their benefits package and consider how the work environment and culture they create either support emotional wellness or undermine it.

 

4. Employers Want ROI, Not Just Access

Access to care was once the primary metric for evaluating the success of behavioral health benefits. That’s no longer enough. Today’s employers want evidence that their programs are working. They’re looking for measurable outcomes: reduced absenteeism, improved retention, and demonstrable return on investment.

Research suggests that well-designed behavioral health programs can deliver. One analysis found that comprehensive behavioral health benefits generated a pooled ROI of 2.3 times program costs — with every $100 invested yielding roughly $190 in medical claims savings.

As behavioral health usage rises, organizations that can measure and demonstrate impact — without adding administrative complexity — may be best-positioned to meet workforce needs. Working with a carrier that not only has a continuum of behavioral health options to meet different severities of needs, but also the care navigation strategies to help ensure employees are being guided to the most appropriate support, is important.

 

5. AI and Advanced Technologies Are Reshaping Access to Care

Artificial intelligence is transforming how employees find and receive behavioral health support. From AI-powered triage tools to predictive analytics that identify employees at risk, these technologies are helping close gaps in care.

Importantly, AI isn’t replacing clinicians; it’s supporting them. Used responsibly and with appropriate oversight, AI can streamline administrative tasks like documentation and surface needs earlier through digital screening tools to help match employees to the right support. For employees in areas with mental health provider shortages — more than a third of Americans — AI-enabled tools can help expand access without increasing wait times.

As AI tools proliferate, employers should look for carriers and solutions that abide by clear ethical frameworks — with human oversight, accountability, and transparency built in.

 

6. Whole-person Healthcare Is Becoming the Norm

The industry is moving away from siloed treatment models toward integrated approaches that connect behavioral and physical health. This shift reflects growing evidence that mental health conditions affect chronic disease management, medication adherence, and overall health outcomes.

The connection runs in both directions. Employees managing chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, or chronic pain often experience higher rates of depression and anxiety. Addressing both physical and behavioral health together can improve outcomes and reduce overall costs.

For employers, this creates an opportunity to rethink how benefits are structured. Rather than treating behavioral health as a standalone category, organizations can look for solutions that embed mental health support into primary care pathways, chronic condition programs, and care navigation.

 

7. Continuous Care and Digital Tools Are Gaining in Popularity

Mental health needs don’t stop when a therapy session ends — and, increasingly, neither does support. Employers are investing in digital tools that extend care beyond scheduled appointments, helping employees stay engaged between sessions and access support whenever they need it.

These tools take many forms: guided self-help exercises, session summaries that reinforce key takeaways, and 24/7 talk-based support for in-the-moment needs. When integrated thoughtfully, these technologies create a continuous care experience that keeps employees connected to their mental health goals.

For employers, continuous care models offer the potential for better outcomes without proportionally higher costs.

Area Landscapers Say Business Is in a Growth Mode

By
Brian Campedelli says the harsh winter benefited landscapers in a few ways; it gave a solid start to those that plow snow, and it created great anticipation for spring.
Construction Special Coverage

Spring in Their Step

Brian Campedelli says the harsh winter benefited landscapers in a few ways; it gave a solid start to those that plow snow, and it created great anticipation for spring.

Brian Campedelli says the harsh winter benefited landscapers in a few ways; it gave a solid start to those that plow snow, and it created great anticipation for spring.

 

After the long, hard winter of 2025-26, Brian Campedelli notes, “people are saying, ‘get me outside — I don’t want to be in my house anymore.’”

And not just get out there, but enhance their outdoor spaces and make it so they can spend more quality time there.

He knows this because of the number and nature of the phone calls to his Easthampton-based business, Pioneer Landscapes, and also because of the turnout at the company’s booth at the recent Home & Garden Show at the Eastern States Exposition and the eagerness of many visitors to do something with their backyards.

“We got a lot of quality leads,” he said. “And these are people who came prepared; we saw people who came in with sketches, photos on their phones, and the ones who didn’t have photos were bringing up their ring cameras and showing us their yard. They knew the sizes of the patios they wanted, the water features … everyone was driven this year; they were ready to go.”

An overwhelming desire to move on from this past winter is just one of the many factors likely to contribute to a good year for businesses in the broad landscaping category in 2026. Another factor is that winter itself; indeed, many companies in this realm, like Pioneer, also handle commercial and residential snow removal, and Campedelli counted 14 plowable events and dozens more salting events over the past four months, helping the bottom line in 2025 and getting 2026 off to a solid start, much better than many recent winters.

“Everything that takes your weekend away from you throughout the summer … we can handle that for you.”

Other factors include a still-strong market for everything from patios and retaining walls to waterfalls and koi ponds, the need for many residents to put a fresh face on work done years ago, and an improved labor market generated by slower times in other sectors. The landscape professionals we spoke with also describe a growing reluctance among homeowners to give up quality time to mowing, fertilizing, and trimming, and a growing desire to let someone else do all that.

“Everything that takes your weekend away from you throughout the summer … we can handle that for you,” said Campedelli, noting that, while a segment of the population has always been willing to pay to let professionals tend to their lawn and gardens, that constituency is growing, based on interest in the different packages offered by the company (more on them later).

Jacob Hall, an enterprising 17-year-old Minnechaug High School student who started his own landscaping business with two friends two years ago, agreed.

“They just don’t have the time to it, and they don’t want to get dirty,” he said, adding that this trend has helped him grow the mowing client list at Caesar’s Lawn & Landscape to more than 50. “In many cases, it can be cheaper in the long run to hire someone, and people are really busy; it just takes one thing off their plate.”

As for those backyard elements, everything from pavilions to firepits to waterfalls large and small, Stephen Roberts says they are part of an ongoing trend toward making these spaces entertainment centers that meld technology with comfort. And the list of what goes into backyards today continues to grow and evolve.

“There’s a lot that goes into creating a nice backyard with all the amenities,” the owner of Springfield-based Stephen A. Roberts Landscaping told BusinessWest. “There’s the shed, the pool house, fencing, retaining walls, paving, lighting, sound systems, and structures that can protect furniture from the elements.”

Roberts said his firm has a full slate of projects for the months to come — all of them booked last fall — and he’s spending his time now scheduling projects for later in the summer and fall, while also managing the expectations of those who thought they could call in March and get a pool put in by the start of summer.

 

Overall, he said the volume of work has declined from the boom times during the COVID years, when seemingly everyone was investing in their backyard. But it has picked up from a few years ago, when he was in “downsize mode” and doing more of the work himself.

If there is a concern heading into the meat of the landscaping season, it involves whether residents and businesses will continue to spend on their outdoor spaces amid rising prices for many items and general uncertainty about the economy and global conflicts, said Dan Ziomek, general manager of Sugarloaf Gardens in Sunderland, the retail arm of Snow & Sons Landscaping, which sells to the general public as well.

“People are investing more in their yards and gardens, but given the price of gas and the price of groceries, are people going to spend their disposable income with us?” he asked rhetorically. “We’re just going to have to see as we go along.”

But, overall, he and others we spoke with were generally optimistic that 2026 will be a year to grow — literally and figuratively.

 

A Cut Above

As he talked with BusinessWest, Roberts was working with a repeat customer — a Holyoke resident who was replacing a pool put in 20 years ago while also putting in a new backyard complete with retaining walls — and coping with a tight deadline.

“It’s a big project, and a lot goes into it because he wants to be swimming by May, and there’s a lot of pressure to get it done,” said Roberts, adding that this project typifies the opportunities and challenges facing those in this business.

“People are investing more in their yards and gardens, but given the price of gas and the price of groceries, are people going to spend their disposable income with us? We’re just going to have to see as we go along.”

There are many homeowners putting in new installations or upgrading old ones, he said, adding that managing expectations for many of these customers is now a big part of the job.

“A lot of people call and want miracles done in the spring,” he explained. “They need to realize that we’re booked up with projects that were signed up in the fall.”

Overall, business is good across the broad spectrum of the landscape business, from mowing lawns to designing and building those backyard elements.

Pioneer Landscapes does all of that, Campedelli said, adding that, on the design side, much of the project work involves designing and building what the industry calls outdoor rooms.

“They give you a space that makes you feel relaxed and cozy, between using all the elements such as lighting and music, waterfalls, and fire rocks — if you can dream it, we can do it.”

And what people are dreaming about are spaces where they can entertain, but that are also easy to maintain and protect from the elements, said Roberts, adding that many homeowners are moving from gazebos to pavilions.

“We’re seeing the outdoor rooms, the covered space outside, more than just a gazebo, which was a quick fix — those were mostly underutilized because there’s only so much you can do under a gazebo,” he explained. “People are putting in outdoor entertainment systems — maybe a drop-down TV, a fireplace, some nice couches that don’t get wet, sound systems, and outdoor lighting systems that are controlled by Wi-Fi so they can change colors and dim the lights.”

And, by and large, there remains strong interest in these big investments, said those we spoke with. While demand is not as strong as it was at the height of the pandemic, when the backyard was the only place people could go for vacation, it remains solid.

The Home & Garden Show provided ample evidence of this, said Campedelli, adding that most visitors to the Pioneer booth were driven and ready to move forward with projects.

“They were saying, ‘I want a fence,’ or ‘I want irrigation,’ or ‘I want a backyard makeover’ … there was a lot of that,” he said, adding that, while there is some uncertainty with the economy and concern over recent events globally, many consumers still have the requisite confidence to move forward with what can be a big-ticket item.

Roberts agreed, but said there is certainly some lingering angst concerning inflation and tensions overseas.

As for the businesses handling this work, the hard winter of 2025-26 was the best in years when it came to plowing, generating solid cash flow, and creating momentum for the seasons to follow.

“We’re rolling right now, and I hope it just keeps on going,” Campedelli said, adding that he expects it will, given all those factors he listed earlier.

 

Mow of the Same

These include that trend toward letting someone else mow the lawn and trim the hedges, he told BusinessWest, adding that, in addition to their backyards, people also value the time they spend in them.

And this has translated into growing interest in the company’s maintenance programs, which range in price from $130 to $995 a month, such as the ‘carefree weekend package,’ which includes mowing and trimming around beds, fences, and walkways, and blowing off driveways, sidewalks, and patios; the ‘outdoor living protection package,’ which includes a fertilization plan and mosquito and tick control services; and the ‘complete outdoor care and seasonal maintenance bundle,’ which includes spring and fall cleanups, aeration and overseeding, irrigation maintenance, and much more.

“These programs are becoming more popular,” he explained. “We just started offering the packages, and so far, they’re a hit.”

This trend helps explain the fast, steady growth of Caesar’s Lawn & Landscape, a company that, like many in this sector, started with a young person mowing lawns for family, friends, and neighbors, and eventually turning it into a business.

And like most entrepreneurs, Hall has been involved in all aspects of this endeavor, from naming it — Caesar is his middle name, and “I thought it had a nice ring to it” — to taking calls and giving estimates; from mowing lawns himself to doing the legwork on forming an LLC.

He started in 2024 with a small portfolio of 10 to 12 lawns and has since worked with partners Trevor Plante and Jonathon Knight to grow the venture and its list of services to include hardscape work such as patios and retaining walls, tree trimming, brush removal and land clearing, lawn maintenance, and, starting a few months ago, snow removal, using snow throwers and a salter on his truck.

“Those two big storms really helped us get that side of the business going, and we’re going to get more into that next year,” said Hall, a junior at Minnechaug, who works after school and on weekends, with his Ford F-250 serving as his workhorse vehicle and office.

Long-term, he and his partners plan to continue growing the venture, build on the momentum they’ve generated, and, for the short term, at least, find ways to balance school and work.

“It’s definitely fun, but also challenging to have your own business,” he said, noting that most high-schoolers work for someone else. “It’s rewarding to work hard and build something like this.”

The same can be said of homeowners and their gardens, said Ziomek, adding that gardening has always been a release for people, and he expects this will continue amid the economic uncertainty and global tensions of the moment.

“We’re hopeful that gardening remains an outlet for people to get away from all the noise happening the world,” he said. “And they’ll garden more because of that.”

Elaborating, he said that, in tough or uncertain times, people will grow more of their own vegetables and fruits as a hedge against higher prices, and he expects to see more of that this year.

“The other thing we notice is people just wanting to build a small oasis, if that’s the right word, to escape from all the stuff that’s going on in the world,” he went on. “It might just be a small perennial garden, or a few flowers in a spot where they see them all the time — just something to make them smile as they go in or out of the house.”

If these trends and the others mentioned above continue into 2026 and beyond, it will be all those in the broad landscape sector who will be smiling.

New Series Launches by Examining the Role of AI in Manufacturing

By
John Fazzio of Pilot Precision Products leads a breakout session.
Special Coverage Technology

The Future Is Now

John Fazzio of Pilot Precision Products leads a breakout session.

John Fazzio of Pilot Precision Products leads a breakout session.

 

Ben Grande spends $20 a month on a ChatGPT subscription. It’s a small expense with an occasionally very high return on investment.

“We’re making a huge capital purchase right now, and I wanted to knock the price down, so I hopped on ChatGPT,” said Grande, general manager of Meridian Industrial Group, a precision machine shop in Holyoke. “ChatGPT knows me and my company very well. I said, ‘here’s what we’re buying, here’s what we want to buy it for — but I want the price lower. Can you write me an email?’ It wrote the email, and five minutes later, I got $25,000 off the price. That’s well worth the $20.”

In his day job and also as president of the Western Massachusetts Chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Assoc., Grande has become well-versed in the potential of artificial intelligence in the manufacturing field, and he joined about a dozen other industry experts in sharing those insights on March 26 at the first installment of Strategy+Ai, a quarterly series BusinessWest has launched that dives into how AI is used — and could potentially be used — in a host of sectors, and by businesses of all kinds.

“You’re here in this room because you’ve heard about this thing called AI, and you’re somewhere on the journey from AI-curious to implementing it in your organization and wondering how it’s going to change everything — because it is changing everything.”

“You’re here in this room because you’ve heard about this thing called AI, and you’re somewhere on the journey from AI-curious to implementing it in your organization and wondering how it’s going to change everything — because it is changing everything,” said Paul Silva, CEO of Innovate413, one of BusinessWest’s partners in the AI series.

SEE: Scenes from the event below

“There are things possible now that five years ago would have been considered impossible,” he went on. “And if we embrace those opportunities, it’s going to have a profound impact on our businesses. If we don’t, there’s a fair bit of peril. So that’s why you all chose to come here today … to help you figure out what the next step in that journey is.”

Laura Teicher, president of FORGE — a nonprofit with a mission to help innovators navigate the journey from prototype to commercialization, and another partner with BusinessWest in the new AI series — noted that 57% of manufacturers are already using AI in some way.

Fletcher Conlon (left), 3D modeler and concept artist, and Greg Dumas, senior project manager, of RP Masiello, one of the event sponsors.

Fletcher Conlon (left), 3D modeler and concept artist, and Greg Dumas, senior project manager, of RP Masiello, one of the event sponsors.

“Now, is that always the most efficient way or the safest way? I think it depends on the manufacturer,” she said. “We want this event to help make AI feel more accessible and less scary because it’s happening; we’re all working on it. So many people in my network have been doing cool stuff with AI in their factories, but have been shy about talking about it because we’re all in the experimental phase. So today, we’re hoping to get some actionable insights. We want this to be a value add for all the manufacturers and ecosystem builders in the room.”

The inaugural event in the series was sponsored by RP Masiello and the Western New England University (WNE) FinTech program.

Greg Dumas, senior project manager at RP Masiello, told BusinessWest that the Boylston-based commercial building and construction management firm, which has an office in Amherst, has been increasingly busy with projects in Western Mass..

“We’re interested in tying in how AI could potentially help us in our construction fields and how we could better serve the clients and the end users, and how to tie it all together,” he said.

“The reason why we have our panelists here is they’ve taken that first step on that journey. These are people who’ve had the courage to reach out and begin to figure out how they can use it, and they’re starting to use it to their benefit.”

Meanwhile, Charles Mutigwe, associate professor of Business Analytics at WNE and director of its FinTech program, said the program wants to work with manufacturers, and this event was a good way reach out to more of them.

“We’re looking at it as an opportunity to build a bridge between our AI teams, with our supercomputer on campus, and companies that may need solutions or partners to do some of this.”

 

Sharing Success Stories

The event featured four breakout sessions, including one with John Fazzio, president and chief operating officer of Pilot Precision Products, a manufacturing company in South Deerfield.

“We have been using AI for the last few years, but most importantly, in the last year, we’ve actually implemented our first two AI agents,” he said, referring to autonomous software entities that companies use to solve problems and streamline processes.

Charles Mutigwe of Western New England University’s FinTech program, another sponsor, says the event is a way to build a bridge between the college and local companies.

Charles Mutigwe of Western New England University’s FinTech program, another sponsor, says the event is a way to build a bridge between the college and local companies.

The first such agent at Pilot is a customer service agent. The business gets anywhere from 60 to 80 phone calls a day, and the agent is currently handling 30 to 40 of those, thus saving almost 50% of typical phone call time daily.

“I just feel like the last thing I want a customer to do is call and get stuck in the loop of some automated phone system where they can’t really get to a person. So I didn’t really want to make the agent talk on the phone. Instead, I just decided to put the agent right on my website,” Fazzio explained.

“A couple of great things came from that. One, I get to drive traffic to the website, and I get to monitor all the traffic that comes in and where they go and what they look at. But on the flip side, people can go in, they can put in their customer information, part number, quantity, what they’re looking for. It will literally go into our system, look up that customer, pull their customer-specific pricing … find out how many we have in stock, and can give them an answer right over the website in about two minutes. It’s just like a chat box that sits and floats on the website.”

“Manufacturing was actually one of our top two industries for many, many years. And I believe that we can become that once again, moving forward with all of you.”

Vinny LaRocca, chief technical officer at Tetra, an AI software innovation firm, said he thinks about AI as a modular library of capabilities that can be deployed at various companies.

“A good example is in machine maintenance. You may have a spreadsheet that you’re doing work orders on. In that case, you probably need a ticketing system. And we can deliver an AI agent to help you with root cause analysis and corrective action of all of your maintenance systems,” he explained. “So as soon as something happens, you get step-by-step instructions on what to actually do to fix the problem.”

Scott Longley, a manufacturing expert in residence for FORGE, told the attendees that they likely came because they have an idea about what AI is and how they can use it — and want to know what the next steps are.

“The reason why we have our panelists here is they’ve taken that first step on that journey. These are people who’ve had the courage to reach out and begin to figure out how they can use it, and they’re starting to use it to their benefit,” he said. “We always talk about how it’s a great wave coming of AI, but these are actually people who are starting to build that foundation. And I think we all need to realize that that foundation starts locally.

Gavin Giguere of REIGN Manufacturing speaks with attendees at a breakout session.

Gavin Giguere of REIGN Manufacturing speaks with attendees at a breakout session.

“We have all the tools in this community we need to build a great foundation for future growth,” Longley added. “These are people who have been courageous enough to reach into that toolbox and figure out how to use those tools. Our goal today is to get you to hang out with them and find out if what they’re doing can actually help you.”

 

Continuing the Conversation

As noted, BusinessWest’s new Strategy+Ai series will be presented quarterly, each event focusing on a different sector, Associate Publisher Kate Campiti said.

“For the first, we wanted to bring the manufacturing community together to learn about some of these AI strategies. We’re going to be focusing in May on professional and financial services, in August on construction and building trades, and in November on nonprofits.”

The assembled guests on March 26 certainly see value in continuing the conversation about a technology that isn’t going away — that, in fact, poses risks for businesses who choose to ignore its potential.

Aaron Vega, president of the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council, noted that he is the only representative from Western Mass. serving on Gov. Maura Healey’s Massachusetts Competitiveness Council — and he constantly touts this region as a potential hub for fledgling businesses to grow and innovate in evolving technologies, including AI.

“It’s not easy doing business in general. It’s not easy doing business in Massachusetts. There are some headwinds,” he said. “There are a lot of advantages to doing business in Massachusetts, but we know that you’re being courted by other states, and we appreciate that you’re staying here. And we’re trying to build a better ecosystem and support system for you.”

State Rep. Orlando Ramos added that “it’s always great to be in a room with people who don’t just talk about the future, but people who are actively building for the future.

“Manufacturing was actually one of our top two industries for many, many years. And I believe that we can become that once again, moving forward with all of you. So I encourage you all to continue doing what you’re doing. This is the perfect place for this to be taking place,” he went on. “Continue to innovate, continue to believe in yourselves, continue to build, and continue to prepare for the future.”

 

The inaugural edition of BusinessWest’s new Strategy+Ai series featured presentations, breakout sessions, and plenty of networking (Staff Photos): 

 

 

Area Mental Health Organizations Tackle Growing Community Demand

By
Lois Nesci says Gándara Center has its finger on the pulse of where regional mental health needs exist, and strives to meet them through a broad array of programs.
Healthcare News Special Coverage

Mindful Approach

Lois Nesci says Gándara Center has its finger on the pulse of where regional mental health needs exist, and strives to meet them through a broad array of programs.

Lois Nesci says Gándara Center has its finger on the pulse of where regional mental health needs exist, and strives to meet them through a broad array of programs.

 

When Shelley Zimmerman arrived at MiraVista Behavioral Health Center in Holyoke in 2023, the facility had 56 inpatient adult beds.

Now, with the opening of 10 new beds only a few weeks ago, there are 98 in all, including 16 for adolescents.

“We’re planning for more in the future,” said Zimmerman, MiraVista’s hospital administrator. “Of those 98 beds, I’m running 95% full every single day. We’re full all the time.”

The reason is simple. “Across the region, we’re seeing sustained demand outpacing inpatient behavioral health capacity, particularly for high-acuity or dual-diagnosed patients. So length of stays are being extended due to that. And emergency departments are kind of a bottleneck. My background is as an emergency room nurse, so I understand what that’s like for patients and for the hospital system; it reinforces the need to expand beds.”

Larger behavioral health organizations are seeing similar needs and responding accordingly. Lois Nesci, CEO of Springfield-based Gándara Mental Health Center, recently spoke with BusinessWest about that growing health system, which now boasts 70 different locations with 1,100 staff serving 18,000 people statewide.

“We look at that all the time — we look at where is the need, do we have the expertise to offer something, where is it in the geographical area, and do we have the capacity?”

“We’re very fortunate to have this kind of presence and the ability to offer services,” she said — and those services are broad. They include:

• Behavioral health, which encompasses a broad array of clinical and substance use services for adults, families, children, and adolescents, including individual and group psychotherapy, diagnostic assessments, and treatment;

• Youth, young adult, and family services, including children’s behavioral health, foster care, and youth and young adult residential ​homes;

• Substance use and recovery, with services include recovery coaching, peer recovery centers, and long-term residential treatment for men, women, and young adults with substance use disorder and co-occurring mental health disorders;

• Community and prevention, including health education programs and initiatives that provide resources and information addressing numerous public health areas while representing the multicultural needs of the region; and

• Intellectual and developmental disability services, which promote the health and well-being of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and those with behavioral health and/or substance use disorders.

“We have our finger on the pulse. We know where the needs exist,” Nesci said, noting that some of this is anecdotal data from program participants themselves, while Gándara also works with the state and other entities to determine where the gaps are, and strive to fill them.

SHELLEY ZIMMERMAN

Shelley Zimmerman

“Across the region, we’re seeing sustained demand outpacing inpatient behavioral health capacity, particularly for high-acuity or dual-diagnosed patients.”

“We look at that all the time — we look at where is the need, do we have the expertise to offer something, where is it in the geographical area, and do we have the capacity?”

Take the organization’s residential recovery services, which include seven transitional homes across the state, soon to be eight with one coming online in South Hadley.

“The homes are designed to help individuals who are getting ready to transition into the community to have a place to live, be able to secure employment and housing, and maintain their sobriety before they move back into the community,” Nesci said.

Cutchins Programs for Children and Families in Northampton is another regional mental health organization evolving with growing need. It recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of the first floor of its Children’s Clinic, an expansion that increases access to outpatient mental healthcare for children and families in Western Mass.

Meanwhile, Springfield-based Behavioral Health Network (BHN) continues to add programs to meet growing needs. For example, in January, it launched a Family-based Intensive Treatment (FIT) program, which expands the organization’s commitment to delivering behavioral healthcare to children, youth, and families through a community-centered approach.

The FIT program helps families in crisis to stabilize by providing intensive, home-based support. Each family is supported by a dedicated team that provides clinical support, 24/7 availability, and peer support from someone with lived experience. The team teaches practical skills to help children thrive at home and connects families with community resources for long-term success.

MICHELLE MICHAELIAN

Michelle Michaelian

“FIT expands the continuum of care within BHN’s child and family programs, ensuring families receive intensive, home-based support when they need it most. These programs reflect our commitment to building stronger, healthier communities.”

“FIT expands the continuum of care within BHN’s child and family programs, ensuring families receive intensive, home-based support when they need it most,” said Michelle Michaelian, senior vice president of Child and Family Community-Based Programs. “These programs reflect our commitment to building stronger, healthier communities.”

 

On the Front Lines

At MiraVista, Zimmerman said, services for adults and adolescents range from inpatient psychiatric treatment to outpatient substance abuse services. Its direct admission model allows patients to be admitted directly, often from outpatient resources and community mental health crisis centers.

“It eliminates some of that bottlenecking that I mentioned that happens in the emergency room. It reduces delays, and it lowers stress for patients and families,” she explained. “We’re the subject matter experts, essentially. When patients come to us for care, they experience care that’s therapeutic and patient-centered. An ER is a very difficult place for someone in a mental health crisis.”

But to provide that care effectively, organizations need to provide appropriate levels of staffing, and that can be a hurdle. Zimmerman understands the challenges of being a behavioral health nurse, but she also touts the personal rewards.

“It’s very gratifying to help someone go from their very lowest to stable and able to function and be part of society again,” she told BusinessWest, adding that there’s an intuitive quality that comes into play when diagnosing and treating this population — one that people at home don’t really have.

“We understand if someone has a cardiac issue; we understand if someone has diabetes; we don’t seem to understand mental health,” she said. “It takes intuition, it takes compassion, it takes care to help these patients, and an understanding of mental health and what that looks like. So they come in at their worst, at their lowest, and then you get to support them, lift them up, and help get them back so that they can function and integrate with their families, with their jobs, with their lives.”

One of the biggest challenges of the job is being able to handle both physical and mental wellness, as many patients have co-morbid conditions, Zimmerman added. Meanwhile, the reasons professionals choose this path vary.

“A lot of times, folks are drawn to this aspect of nursing because they have a family member that suffered with mental health, or they have a loved one that tried to commit suicide, or a friend.”

And adolescents are dealing with more pressures today than in years past because of how technology and social media have turned peer pressure and bullying into a 24/7 experience.

“Kids don’t know how to handle that. And it can be very upsetting for a parent if a child is starting to become reclusive, maybe not eating as much, doesn’t want to go to school because there’s cyberbullying stuff that’s going on, the social media stuff. We help our staff understand what those things are, how they impact our patients, and then how they can help our patients.”

For both adults and young people, she added, there remains some stigma around seeking mental healthcare, though conversations are more open and frequent than they were decades ago.

“People are hesitant to tell their jobs if they need time off to seek treatment. And they’re hesitant to seek that treatment, whether it’s for addiction services or mental health,” Zimmerman said. “I think it’s getting better, but there’s a lot of opportunity for more global understanding of how mental health affects your total person. I tell our team here all the time, ‘mental health doesn’t discriminate, and neither do we.’ And by that I mean, it can be your neighbor, it can be your pastor, it can be your grandma, it can be a famous athlete, it can be your mother, it can be anybody. It could be you.”

“It’s very gratifying to help someone go from their very lowest to stable and able to function and be part of society again.”

Nesci also said she has seen more willingness from people to either self-identify or say a family member needs help.

“People who know that I work in this industry often ask me, ‘how can I help my friend, my nephew, my niece, my sister, my brother?’ So people talk about it. Years ago, it was never spoken of. I think we’ve come a really long way.

“At the same time, there’s a lot of bias that still exists because people make judgments about the people we serve — the way they look, the way they dress, the language they speak, whether they’re employed, all that stuff,” she added. “So we still have a long way to go.”

 

Changing Lives

As it approaches its 50th anniversary next year, Gándara continues to add programs and services where it sees a need. For instance, a few years ago, it invested in transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a non-traditional method of managing depression for patients who have not been successful with other modalities.

“Substance use is another big need,” Nesci said. “More and more people are identifying as having that as a major issue or stressor in their lives. So we need people where they’re at, which is why we’re providing recovery coaching services to people in the community.”

As Zimmerman noted earlier, a lot of this capacity building comes down to staffing. “Staff is our greatest resource — without staff, we can’t provide the services,” Nesci added. “So I have a great team that is focused on hiring and retaining people.”

In the end, meeting these critical needs in the community, especially at a time of such demand, is challenging work to be sure, but can also be tremendously rewarding.

“I believe that people have the ability to change behavior, and I have a team that believes the same thing,” Nesci said. “That’s what I find most gratifying — when we hear the stories of people who have gone through our program. That’s really heartwarming.”