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Deerfield Is ‘a Front Door and a Backbone’

By George O'Brien February 16, 2026

Community Spotlight Special Coverage

Community Spotlight

Victoria Tubbs and Vytautas Sukys have big plans for Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory.

Victoria Tubbs says her first visit to Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory in Deerfield was certainly a memorable one.

Indeed, as she and her brother, Vytautas Sukys, offered a tour of the business they now own and manage, she pointed to the bridge over the small koi pond in the conservatory and said, “I was proposed to right there 16 years ago.”

As she and Sukys stopped for a photo on that very spot, with one of the 4,000 or so butterflies inhabiting the place at any given time fluttering in the background, they said their broad goal is to create special memories for others while taking this business — now celebrating 25 years as one of the pillars of Franklin County’s tourism scene — in new and different directions.

These include a greater focus on events and creating more experiences for the thousands who come here every year, everything from glassblowing to classes on various subjects, blending nature with art and education.

Magic Wings, as noted, is one of the major draws in Deerfield. Others include Yankee Candle, Tree House Brewing Co., Historic Deerfield, and the Rock Fossil and Dinosaur Shop, all of these on or accessible from Routes 5 & 10.

Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory

Together, they contribute to an outsized role in the local tourism sector, its workforce opportunities, and overall regional identity for a town of just over 5,000 people.

“I like to say Deerfield consistently punches above its weight,” said Jessye Deane, executive director of the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce & Regional Tourism Council. “Deerfield works as a front door and a backbone in a lot of ways. It’s where a lot of visitors first experience Franklin County, and it’s also home to businesses that quietly operate on a regional and national scale, and it’s great that they found their home here.”

Elaborating, she said easy access off I-91 and multiple attractions combine to make Deerfield a destination for people looking for fun and education across a broad spectrum, whether it’s candles, beer, butterflies, or 18th century history — lots of it.

The last item on that list can be found at Historic Deerfield, an outdoor museum that interprets the history and culture of early New England. And, like other venues celebrating that time in the nation’s history, it is gearing up for the country’s 250th birthday with several new exhibits.

These include “Picturing the Revolution,” an exhibit that explores the diverse ways in which 18th-century individuals ‘pictured’ or understood the revolution as it unfolded, with maps, drawings, ceramics, and even satirical cartoons; “Dressing the Revolution: Fashion and Politics 1760-1789,” a display that includes more than 20 garments, accessories, textiles, and prints that illuminate the role of clothing at the time of the Revolution; and “A Town Divided: Deerfield in the Age of the Revolution,” an exhibit that explores how this rural Massachusetts community responded to the upheaval of the late 1760s through the 1780s.

They will all open April 18, said Amanda Lange, director of the Curatorial Department and curator of Historic Interiors for Historic Deerfield, adding that these and other programs will shed light on a time being brought into focus by the 250th celebrations — as well as some current events — and also bring more people to the museum and Deerfield.

“It’s an increasingly interesting time to be re-examining the birth, or origins, of the United States of America and the foundational documents,” Lange said, “as well as what was going on here, especially in Western Massachusetts, at that time.”

Amanda Lange

“It’s an increasingly interesting time to be re-examining the birth, or origins, of the United States of America and the foundational documents, as well as what was going on here, especially in Western Massachusetts, at that time.”

Overall, it promises to be an intriguing year for Deerfield, with new owners at Magic Wings, new programs at Historic Deerfield, more concerts at Tree House, and the many other draws. For this latest installment of its Community Spotlight series, BusinessWest looks at how Deerfield lives up its billing as a both a front door to Franklin County and the backbone of the region’s tourist economy.

Taking Flight

Tubbs told BusinessWest that she’s held leadership positions at several businesses, including a stint as wedding and event coordinator for the former Yankee Pedlar in Holyoke, but never owned one until now.

“I’ve always made money for other people,” she said, adding that all this changed, and she started working for herself, when she saw a notice on the internet that Magic Wings was for sale. “I thought, ‘that’s nice,’ and I closed my computer, but my brain would not let it go.”

Thus began a lengthy process of due diligence, learning a business that would be foreign to just about everyone, and talking her brother, an aerospace engineer by trade, into coming out for a look, and then eventually to come along for the ride.

“I knew there was a lot of stuff I didn’t know about — heating and cooling, for example — that I needed his help with,” she explained. “I do know weddings, I do know events, and I knew that this place was awesome.”

Sukys, who was working for GM in Michigan when his sister first started the exploratory process, said it was a slow, gradual course by which the two decided not only that they wanted to buy the business, but that they could make it a success.

“From the get-go, we were excited about it, but it was over time that we came to realize that we could make Magic Wings happen and also thrive,” he explained. “Then, it was like a full-out commitment, and I moved out here entirely; I got a lot of hands-on experience just being here.”

“From the get-go, we were excited about it, but it was over time that we came to realize that we could make Magic Wings happen and also thrive.”

All of the above took about two years, and in mid-January, they began a new era in this venerable business, officially taking over for another sister-and-brother team, Kathy Siore and George Miller.

The business plan calls for everything from updating the heating system and making it more efficient — a temperature of 70 to 75 degrees must be maintained for the butterflies — and also making the conservatory even more of a destination, especially for events. Several weddings are staged there each year — ceremonies and receptions alike — and Tubbs wants to do more of them, as well as birthday parties and other gatherings.

Meanwhile, there are plans to add a glass-blowing studio, reopen the café at the facility and broaden its menu, incorporate more local art in the gift shop, and offer classes in everything from painting butterflies to preserving butterfly wings they find in nature.

This is a year-round business, Tubbs noted, and January is actually a popular time to visit, both to beat back cabin fever and enjoy a few minutes without needing a winter coat.

“It’s the best way to get to the tropics without going very far,” Sukys said, adding that people come just to get a break from winter and smell the flowers in the conservatory.

Magic Wings and its new owners comprise one of many intriguing business stories in Deerfield, said Deane, noting that, while tourism is the dominant force, the town’s economy is quite diverse, featuring a solid mix of hospitality ventures, retail, manufacturing, education, agriculture, and service businesses.

This image is one of many that will be on display as part of the “Picturing the Revolution” exhibit to open on April 18 at Historic Deerfield.

It also boasts both legacy businesses and institutions, such as Deerfield Academy, Historic Deerfield, and Yankee Candle, and relative newcomers, such as Marty’s Local, a regional food distribution company founded in 2015 that connects more than 100 local farms and food producers with restaurants, schools, grocers, and institutions across New England and New York.

“That’s the best part about Deerfield — it’s not one product or one sector; it’s really an ecosystem,” she noted. “There’s agriculture, tourism, manufacturing, and culture, and they’re all intersecting in Deerfield in a visible way.

Stitch in Time

As she talked about the new exhibits soon to open at Historic Deerfield, Lange noted that she’s sensing growing interest, not just in that round-number anniversary celebration to climax on July 4, but in the period being celebrated.

The Ken Burns documentary The American Revolution has certainly helped fuel such interest, she said, as have the many commemorations in area communities of the Henry Knox Trail, the route of Col. Knox’s famous ‘noble train of artillery’ from Fort Ticonderoga in New York to the army camp outside Boston, a trek that ended in January 1776.

Knox and his men didn’t pass through Deerfield, Lange said, but there was plenty of other history written in this community, as a trip to the museum will reveal.

And the new exhibits to start in April will shed more light on the period and the people who lived through it, she said, adding that the museum has been planning for the 250th for some time now, especially with regard to assembling items for display, both from its own collection and other sources.

The “Picturing the Revolution” exhibit, for example, will include some battle plans for an engagement in 1780, showing the arrangement of the regiments and troops of the Continental Army.

“It didn’t happen because they were betrayed by Benedict Arnold,” she explained, adding that the plans were scrapped, and the forces were instead deployed to reinforce the fort at West Point.

The battle plan is among the dozens of items that will be on display at the museum across three exhibits. The “Dressing the Revolution” exhibit will focus on fashion, but also the manufacturing of items here and the profound shift — after the imposition of onerous taxes on British-made goods — toward non-importation. The “Town Divided” exhibit, meanwhile, will present multiple perspectives on how Deerfield residents embraced, rejected, or questioned Revolutionary ideals, said Lange, adding that the community was evenly split, more so than other area towns, between Loyalists and Whigs.

Other programming includes three one-act plays set in Deerfield during July 1774, on the eve of the Revolution, as well as a recreation of a tea party staged by Loyalists in defiance of non-consumption agreements. Historic Deerfield expects these various exhibits and programs to draw more people to the museum than would be considered typical.

Meanwhile, at Tree House, the brewery will continue to be a major draw, when it comes to both beer and music.

“Tree House has always been a destination, and not much has changed in that regard in the past decade,” co-founder Nate Lanier said. “We draw from all over — we’ve had visitors from more than 50 countries in the past year alone.”

Music has become a big part of the scene, he added. “Music has always been part of the Tree House experience. It goes all the way back to a record player in our original red barn in Brimfield. We started our concert series in Charlton with a small show, developed relationships with artists and promoters, and grew from there. Today, we’re hosting nationally touring acts; it’s been a natural evolution.

“Last year, concerts accounted for roughly 10% of our foot traffic in Deerfield,” he went on. “The concert-going crowd is significantly more diverse than our regular customers, which is great for us and for the region. Concerts are a challenging business, as we’ve learned the hard way, but they’re a significant economic driver: they generate regional lodging, food, and transportation spending, along with foot traffic to other businesses in the area. We’re proud of the role we play in making Deerfield a unique destination.”

And the backbone of the region’s tourism economy.

BusinessTalk with Diana Szynal, President and CEO, Springfield Regional Chamber: A Vital Mission

By BusinessWest Staff February 2, 2026

Business Talk Podcast Special Coverage

With new episodes airing every other Monday, BusinessTalk features in-depth interviews and discussions with local industry leaders who offer thoughtful perspectives on the Western Massachusetts economy and the many business ventures that keep it running. BusinessTalk is sponsored and presented by Greenfield Cooperative Bank.

Go HERE to view all episodes

Episode 251: February 2, 2026

George O’Brien talks with Diana Szynal, President and CEO, Springfield Regional Chamber

Chambers of commerce have evolved over the years, and they are in many ways smaller than they were decades ago, in terms of both membership and staff. But their mission remains vital, and in many ways, chambers are more important now than ever. That’s one observation from Diana Szynal, president and CEO of the Springfield Regional Chamber, as she talked with Contributing Writer George O’Brien for the latest installment of BusinessTalk. The two sat down to discuss everything from the upcoming schedule of events, starting with the annual Outlook lunch, to the chamber’s rebranding efforts, to the way it provides a strong, clear voice for businesses of all sizes. It’s must listening, so tune into BusinessTalk, a podcast presented by BusinessWest over both audio and video platforms, and sponsored by Greenfield Cooperative Bank.

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Coming Off Strong Year, Contractors Eye More of the Same in 2026

By George O'Brien February 2, 2026

Construction Special Coverage

Building Momentum

Dave Fontaine inside the new East Longmeadow High School, now under construction.

Bill Laplante says it wasn’t that long ago when a whole-house renovation with a price tag of $400,000, $500,000, or more was extremely rare.

Now, it’s commonplace,” said Laplante, owner of East Longmeadow-based Laplante Construction, which specializes in high-end homes, remodeling, and some light commercial work. “People are staying where they are and just putting the money into the house.”

Still, somewhat high interest rates have something to do with this surge in large-scale remodeling, he said, adding that many people bought their current homes at roughly 3% and are now looking at something just north of 6% (and it’s been higher the past few years) if they want to buy something new. So, in many respects, it makes sense to invest in the current home and stay in it, he went on.

This thinking helps explain why 2025 was one of the best the company has recorded, said Laplante, and also why 2026 is lining up to be another very solid year. “It was probably the largest-volume year in our history. We had a very, very, very good year — we had a lot of projects.”

“There were a lot of questions early last year regarding interest rates and whether they would go down or go up. I think people are feeling a little more comfortable with what they’re seeing recently.”

Bob Provost, co-owner of Greenfield-based general contractor Mowry & Schmidt, agreed, noting that 2025 was a good year for the company, with a diverse mix of projects, including the new hockey rink at Northfield Mount Hermon School and renovation of the former Greenfield Public Library into part of what could now be called the Greenfield Savings Bank campus in the heart of the city’s downtown.

“This past year was a very good for us, and it’s looking very promising for 2026 as well for both commercial work as well as residential,” he told BusinessWest. “There were a lot of questions early last year regarding interest rates and whether they would go down or go up. I think people are feeling a little more comfortable with what they’re seeing recently, and mortgage rates are lower than they have been. All this bodes well for builders.”

Mark Sullivan, president of Northampton-based D.A. Sullivan & Sons, which specializes in commercial and institutional work, agreed. He said the firm handled a lot of work for colleges during the summer break — he calls them ‘summer slams’ — as well as municipal projects in Chicopee and other communities, and has a good amount of similar work on the books for 2026.

There are some issues and headwinds confronting builders — finding enough help remains difficult, scheduling becomes more of a challenge as the volume of work increases, and Dave Fontaine Jr., president of Fontaine Brothers Construction in Springfield, noted that a slowdown in private sector work in the eastern part of the state is creating more competition for public projects, such as a new middle school in East Bridgewater that the firm bid on.

Bill Laplante says a good number of whole house renovations contributed to a record year for his company.
Staff Photo

“Because the firms that generally focus on private work in Eastern Mass. are slow, we’re seeing a lot more competition for work throughout the rest of the state,” he explained. “We just interviewed for the project in East Bridgewater; generally, there would be anywhere between three and four other firms competing, but on that project, I think there were a total of nine firms that submitted bids.”

Still, for the most part, these are good times for construction firms, which are taking full advantage of somewhat greater stability on the national and global fronts (as of mid-January, anyway) and accompanying confidence among business owners and residents alike to move forward with projects.

“We just interviewed for the project in East Bridgewater; generally, there would be anywhere between three and four other firms competing, but on that project, I think there were a total of nine firms that submitted bids.”

Meanwhile, there is a solid amount of public work taking place and on the drawing board, which is good news for firms that specialize in that kind of work, including Fontaine.

Indeed, the firm is moving toward the conclusion of one major school project locally (East Longmeadow High School), in the middle stages of another (Agawam High School), and getting ready to start a third (the new Longmeadow Middle School). And there are projects in other corners of the state as well.

And if all goes well, the company will have to balance all that with construction of a new courthouse in Springfield, one that will likely have a price tag approaching or exceeding $500 million — Fontaine is one of the lead players in a proposal (one of 11 now being considered by the state’s Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance) to build a 15-story courthouse roughly across State Street from the current facility.

When asked if the firm could handle all that, Fontaine laughed and said, “I hope that’s a question we have to answer; we’ll manage somehow.”

Renovation of the former Greenfield Public Library into part of the Greenfield Savings Bank campus is one of many projects in the Mowry & Schmidt portfolio.

Right now, most construction firms are managing quite well, and while all those we spoke with cautioned that the scene (globally and nationally) could change quickly, the outlook for 2026 is generally positive.

Going Up

Laplante told BusinessWest that, while there was a solid mix of work in 2025, with residential and light commercial contributing to that solid bottom-line performance, it was the high-end renovations that stood out and gave the year some definition.

As he noted, there were more of them, and they signify a trend that likely has some staying power until interest rates come down significantly.

And when he talks about whole house renovations, he means whole house.

“They want a new kitchen, they want new appliances, they want all the bathrooms done over, they want to change out the windows, the siding … everything,” he said, adding that, depending on the size of the house — and most of these are quite large — the final price tag can exceed $400,000, $500,000, or even $600,000.

This new home in Longmeadow is one of many built by Laplante Construction in 2025.

As noted, Laplante’s firm did several of those in 2025, most in Longmeadow, East Longmeadow, and Wilbraham. In addition to these renovations, the firm built roughly a dozen high-end new homes — in Western Mass. and also on the Cape, where the company opened a satellite office a few years ago to better serve customers looking to build there or renovate existing homes.

There were also several commercial projects of various sizes and in different stages of completion, including a dental office in East Longmeadow, a warehouse building for Revitalize CDC in Springfield, and another warehouse for GoGraphix in East Longmeadow.

Commercial work comprises just 20% of the firm’s book of business, but it’s an important part of the portfolio, he noted, adding that the company has more from that sector on the books for 2026, including a 24,000-square-foot memory care facility expected to break ground in the spring.

Meanwhile, there is a steady diet of more residential work, especially those high-end renovations, slated for 2026, said Laplante, adding quickly that, as the volume of such work increases, getting on the schedule becomes more of a challenge.

“We have a dozen new home starts, the memory care facility, and more renovation work in the pipeline, to the point where we’re having to push out when it comes to scheduling them,” he explained. “One of the tough things is that we can’t start a major renovation in a month now … we’re having to space them out and schedule them well ahead of time and make sure we get everything ordered and ready to go.

“Overall, we have work on the books for 2026 that should make it as good if not better than 2025,” he went on. “We have a lot in the pipeline.”

Sullivan echoed those sentiments. He said 2025 was a solid year, joking that the firm took on maybe a few more summer slams than it should have, but it fit them all in.

“You can’t start until the students are out, and you have to finish before they get back,” he said, adding that firm handled work at Smith, Mount Holyoke, UMass Amherst, and other schools. “Everything gets squeezed in the middle, so you’re behind before you start, so those are always anxious projects, but they’re interesting.”

In addition, the firm had several anchor projects, as he called them, including renovation of the former public library in Chicopee into meeting space and ongoing renovations to City Hall there (see related story, page 13), as well as a library addition in Fitchburg, work at the Eaglebrook School in Deerfield, projects at UMass Amherst, and other initiatives.

He said colleges and municipalities have the resources and confidence to move ahead with projects after a few sluggish years following COVID.

And for 2026, the company already has a good amount of work on the books.

“We entered the year with probably 60% of our targeted year, which is where we want to be, and we have a few potential projects queued up,” he said. “They haven’t been finalized, but they’re trending in that direction, and if they happen, we’ll be over our annual volume goal.”

Firm Foundation

Provost offered similar sentiments, noting that, while the outlook is mostly positive, things can change quickly — and profoundly — and this is why diversity is so important for builders, including his firm.

“Being in this area, being in Western Mass., and especially Franklin County, for us, there’s always been a need to stay diverse,” he noted. “You never know where the market’s leaning, so we stay busy in both residential and commercial.”

The latter comprises 65% to 70% of the portfolio, he went on, adding that recent projects in that realm include the ice hockey arena at Northfield Mount Hermon, a $12 million undertaking that will be ready for the 2026-27 season, as well as the historic renovation of the former Greenfield Public Library, a project nearing its completion.

On the residential side, Mowry & Schmidt handles both new construction and renovation, with many extensive projects in that latter category.

“We do a lot of bathroom, kitchen, and addition remodels; we’ve got one going now that involves a sunroom addition, new mudroom entry, and full kitchen addition — basically a whole house renovation,” Provost said, echoing Laplantewhen he noted that more people are staying put and investing in their current home rather than trying to find another one, especially as prices increase and interest rates remain somewhat high.

And there is plenty potentially coming onto the books in 2026, he continued, adding that the firm is bidding on a number of projects — with many customers leaning toward the design-build model, with one firm handling both under a single contract.

By and large, there is confidence within the private sector, on both the commercial and residential sides of the ledger, to move ahead with projects.

“There was a stretch over the past six to eight months where people were a little uneasy,” Laplante said. “But I think they’re starting to relax and say, ‘the world isn’t such a bad place,’ and move forward and don’t worry about everything.”

Fontaine agreed, but said there is still a good amount of volatility to contend with, and the broad construction sector is especially vulnerable to such forces. “I think we’re seeing a market slowdown in the private sector, particularly in Eastern Mass.”

This slowdown began more than a year ago, by most accounts, he went on, adding that it has been fueled by still-high interest rates and uncertainly about if, when, and by how much they will fall, but also by tariffs and price increases on certain products.

Still, Fontaine is busy, with those school projects, in this market and elsewhere; other public sector work, such as an extensive renovation and expansion of Jones Library in Amherst (a project delayed by cost escalation and redesigns) and a public safety complex in Easton; as well as private sector work such as the $70 million initiative to expand and modernize Fairview Hospital in Great Barrington.

The firm generally handles a dozen or so projects at a time, he said, adding that it’s always working to keep a steady flow of work in the pipeline and balance out the projects that are being wrapped up with new initiatives.

And that’s the case with projects like East Longmeadow winding down (it will be ready for the new school year), and others, like Fairview Hospital and Jones Library, just getting started. And bidding never stops for new projects, such as the new middle school in East Bridgewater, Fontaine said, adding that it can be — and often is — several years between when a project first comes on the radar and when a shovel is put in the ground.

The firm is awaiting word on that project, as well as the courthouse — no word on when that verdict will be handed down — while also keeping a vigilant eye out for new opportunities.

By most accounts, there will be a good supply of them in the near future as confidence builds — and individuals, businesses, and municipalities look to build.

Simulation Coordinator Brings Realism to Health Education at STCC

By BusinessWest Staff February 2, 2026

Healthcare News Special Coverage

True to Life

Daniel O’Neill, Patient Simulation Information coordinator at the SIMS Medical Center at STCC.

When healthcare program students in Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) step into a patient room at the SIMS Medical Center, they’re entering a high-tech learning environment designed to mirror the real world of healthcare.

Daniel O’Neill, Patient Simulation Information coordinator at the SIMS Medical Center, helps make those experiences possible.

“I’m one of two simulation coordinators,” said O’Neill, referring to himself and his colleague, Daniel Taibbi. “Together, we oversee a team of 15 employees who essentially build small movie sets so that students can practice high-fidelity healthcare simulations in a risk-free environment.”

The SIMS Medical Center hosts about 16,000 simulated experiences each year for students enrolled in 26 degree and certificate programs. O’Neill and his team ensure each scenario runs smoothly and meets national accreditation standards.

Accreditation by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare is no small point of pride. Last year, SIMS Medical Center earned this designation, making it one of only a few simulation centers in Massachusetts to reach that level of recognition, which is considered the gold standard in healthcare simulation and serves as a benchmark for excellence in patient simulation.

“These patients can blink, breathe, cry, respond to pain, and more. With the exception of walking out of the bed, they can do everything a human patient can.”

The center’s fleet of approximately 120 high-fidelity robotic patients allows students to practice their clinical skills in a realistic but safe setting.

“These patients can blink, breathe, cry, respond to pain, and more,” O’Neill said. “With the exception of walking out of the bed, they can do everything a human patient can.”

Virtual Reality

Simulation offers a powerful advantage in healthcare education. Studies show students retain up to 80% of knowledge gained through simulated experiences. STCC graduates also complete their clinical onboarding more quickly than peers from other institutions, O’Neill said, because they arrive with extensive hands-on practice.

Faculty play a key role in the process. Professors define learning objectives, and the SIMS team brings those objectives to life. “It’s a deep partnership,” he said. “We make sure what we’re setting up aligns with their vision for student learning.”

O’Neill spends a growing portion of his time in training and development meetings with faculty, helping them understand and use emerging technologies to enhance student learning.

Since 2020, STCC has expanded its innovation lab, introducing virtual reality to multiple health programs. Students can step into immersive scenarios or even view care from a patient’s perspective.

“AI lets us create more realistic and dynamic encounters that reflect cultural, religious, and social diversity. It prepares students to care for people who aren’t just like themselves.”

One simulation left a lasting impact on a 6-foot-5 student who experienced what it was like to lie in a hospital bed with a tall doctor standing over him. “He took the headset off and said, ‘I never realized how intimidating that feels,’” O’Neill recalled. “From that moment on, he started sitting down when talking to patients. That’s empathy building — and it’s just as important as any clinical skill.”

The SIMS Medical Center is also embracing artificial intelligence (AI), which allows for more authentic patient interactions. “AI lets us create more realistic and dynamic encounters that reflect cultural, religious, and social diversity,” O’Neill said. “It prepares students to care for people who aren’t just like themselves.”

In recognition of his contributions, O’Neill received the 2025 Individual Contributor Award/Star Award, an annual honor presented to an employee who demonstrates outstanding dedication and signature contributions to the college community.

STCC President John Cook praised O’Neill’s impact on the SIMS Medical Center and on students preparing for healthcare careers.

“What a unique skill set,” he said. “Dan, we are so grateful for all that you contribute to a very high-profile asset for the college. Our SIMS Medical Center, with the talent of Dan along with staff and faculty colleagues, provides a national model for future-now healthcare in higher education.”

Patient Approach

O’Neill’s path to STCC wasn’t traditional. He previously worked in restaurant management, at Apple as an educator, in event production, and even as a photographer for Lego. He joined STCC nearly nine years ago, first as a part-time simulation operator.

“I’ve always loved building teams and improving systems,” he said. “This role lets me do that while helping students prepare for meaningful careers.”

Prospective students experienced STCC’s SIMS Medical Center during a recent Career Exploration Night, where live simulations showcased the technology and immersive learning opportunities available.

“It’s the best night of the year to see what happens here,” O’Neill said. “Our goal is to give students the skills and confidence they need before they ever step into a hospital.”

Chicopee Anticipates Movement on Stalled Projects

By George O'Brien February 2, 2026

Community Spotlight Special Coverage

Community Spotlight

The vacant Cabotville Industrial Park poses a huge challenge for Chicopee officials.
Staff Photo

John Vieau says he remembers the event vividly.

It was the fall of 2019. Vieau, a Chicopee city councilor at the time, was running for mayor, and he and many others were on hand for an event, a showcase of sorts, at the Silverbrook Mills Building, formerly Cabotville Industrial Park. Its owners had created two demonstration apartment units, and the event was essentially a party in anticipation of the 600 more to follow.

“We were all excited. I remember those beautiful demos — one-bedroom and an efficiency unit — high ceilings, beautiful views, granite counters, washer-dryer stacks. They were talking about renting the efficiencies for under $1,000 a month,” said Vieau, who would go on to win the election. “I realized the impact that would have on our renaissance that we were trying to create downtown; it would create foot traffic and bring residents who would be interested in goods and services downtown.”

To say things haven’t gone according to that script would be a huge understatement.

Indeed, the pandemic hit soon thereafter, and the plans for the huge, 700,000-square-foot mill, where those two demo units remain, have gone unfulfilled. The ensuing years have been marked by frustration, inaction, repeated scalingcback of plans, a court-ordered eviction of remaining commercial tenants in 2022 due to the property being deemed unsafe, the city being forced to step in pay for needed security measures, and more frustration and inaction, with the current owner “going dark,” the mayor said.

The matter reached a tipping point of sorts recently, when the city began the long, arduous process of taking the property for non-payment of taxes — something it really doesn’t want to do.

Instead, it would prefer to see the property redeemed — either by the current owner, 4 Perkins LLC, a subsidiary of Silverbrook Properties, or another entity — out of tax foreclosure, and then sold to a developer with experience with large mill conversions, said City Planner Lee Pouliot, adding that this remains a possibility, and it represents the best-case scenario at this point.

“We were all excited. I remember those beautiful demos — one-bedroom and an efficiency unit — high ceilings, beautiful views, granite counters, washer-dryer stacks. They were talking about renting the efficiencies for under $1,000 a month.”

“It has to be an entity that has knowledge of doing a conversion from the ground up and has a reputation particularly with public funders — because there will need to be public investment in this to make it happen,” said Pouliot, noting that the price tag for redeveloping the property could exceed $200 million. “Every public program that we could make it eligible for is in place; we just need the right partner now and a developer who can pursue them.”

Historic Chicopee City Hall is undergoing an ongoing, $30 million renovation.
Staff Photo

While the Cabotville mill remains a source of frustration, especially as the region and state are in the midst of a housing crisis, there are plenty of positive developments in the second-largest city in Western Mass. These include:

• The start of work to convert one of the remaining parcels within the former Facemate complex into 105 units of workforce housing, with two more phases of that project to come — redevelopment of a brick warehouse and an indoor sports complex;

• The selection of a preferred developer for the redevelopment of the four remaining buildings in the Uniroyal complex, bringing light to the end of a tunnel the city has been in for nearly 45 years as it sought reuse of the property;

• Ongoing work to renovate City Hall, a complex undertaking that involves revamping spaces while city government operates, a game of musical chairs that has reached its second phase;

• The recent opening of the Hub, community space created from redevelopment of the city’s former public library, next door to City Hall;

• Advancement of plans to build replace Berry Elementary School with a new, $124 million facility to be built on the grounds of Szetela Early Childhood Center;

• Plans to move the School Department out of temporary facilities (its former home was closed due to poor air quality) and into the Westfield Bank Loan Center, formerly Williamson’s clothing store, in the heart of downtown, bringing about 80 employees, and more vibrancy, to that area;

• Renovations to Szot Park and Sara Jane Sherman Park;

• A chamber of commerce that is enjoying growth in membership, new initiatives, and the return of its popular tabletop expo (more on that later); and

• Plans to hire the city’s first Economic Development director in several years. The mayor said he has been handling most of those responsibilities in the interim, but the City Council voted to fund that office again.

For this latest installment of its Community Spotlight series, BusinessWest looks at the many converging storylines in Chicopee and the many forms of progress in the community.

Milling About

As they talked about the Cabotville complex, both Vieau and Pouliot stressed that they don’t want this to become “another Uniroyal.”

By that, they meant property the city was forced to take for tax title and then essentially find someone to develop it — a long, difficult, and expensive process that has been playing out for many years now.

Instead, as noted earlier, the city would much prefer that 4 Perkins secure another buyer, one that can take the stalled project forward. And this is where much of the frustration comes in, said the mayor, adding that such a prospective buyer came forward a few months ago.

“He went through the permitting process, but it all came apart at the end; he said his agreement with the owner didn’t work out. He was frustrated and upset,” Vieau said. “In the meantime, entities have been calling and saying they’re interested; it’s a wonderful shell and has so much potential, and it’s really a key to the success of our downtown.

Indeed, several hundred units in that complex would bring people and vibrancy to the downtown area, bolstering existing businesses and probably inspiring new ones, he went on, adding that this is what the city was anticipating at that party back in the fall of 2019.

Chicopee at a Glance

Year Incorporated: 1848
Population: 55,560
Area: 23.9 square miles
County: Hampden
Residential Tax Rate: $15.24
Commercial Tax Rate: $32.60
Median Household Income: $35,672
Median Family Income: $44,136
Type of Government: Mayor; City Council
Largest Employers: Westover Air Reserve Base; J. Polep Distribution Services; Callaway Golf Ball Operations; Dielectrics; MicroTek
* Latest information available

That anticipation has been replaced by large question marks, and time is becoming increasingly a factor as the property sits idle.

“Structurally, the building is in fine shape for being vacant,” Pouliot said. “The concern that we have, and it was similar with Uniroyal, is that the longer buildings sit vacant, the more and faster they deteriorate. So, while it is in good shape, it’s the right time to get a developer experienced with mill conversions to pursue it.”

And the mayor is hopeful that the recent publicity about the city beginning the lengthy process of taking the property will bring more potential buyers to the table or spur the current owner to take some action. Recouping lost years of taxes, liens, and the money the city has spent on security, sprinkler system repairs, and other work is a priority, he noted, but the bigger priority is transforming that dormant property into a catalyst for vibrancy and more redevelopment downtown.

While that process enters its next phase, one clouded by uncertainty, the four-decade-long saga at Uniroyal is entering another phase as well.

Indeed, a preferred developer, Wisconsin-based J. Jeffers & Co., has been chosen and it is in very early-stage work to reimagine the four remaining buildings in the complex — the office building, a small retail building, and two large production facilities.

The company has a deep portfolio of mill conversions and related projects, including conversion of the Milwaukee Grain Exchange into event space and conversion of the former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel building into 141 market-rate apartments, and Pouliot said it is looking at a $300 million investment in the Uniroyal buildings, redeveloping them into roughly 600 residential units (a mix of market-rate and workforce) and some commercial space.

The city was recently awarded a $450,000 MassWorks grant to look into infrastructure improvements in the Chicopee Falls area to support such a project, Pouliot said, adding that, when needed work is identified, the city will apply for additional grants from MassWorks to pay for them. Meanwhile, J. Jeffers will put its financial stack together from an array of sources, and conversion work will take place over the next several years.

Opportunities Knock

While the city continues work on those fronts, it can celebrate the completion of another project that took years to conceive and bring to fruition — conversion of the former library into the Hub.

The ceremonial ribbon was cut last fall, and the space started hosting programs in November. These include a series of business development courses, led by Samalid Hogan, CEO of Greylock Management Consulting, as well as several one-offs, said Pouliot, adding that the city will soon launch a webpage on the facility highlighting its use policies, with the goal of filling out the spring schedule.

The library project is part of a larger effort to renovate, modernize, and reactivate historic city properties, including City Hall, built in 1871, which sits next door.

The work there is ongoing, with the recent completion of what Pouliot calls “phase 2, sequence 1,” which involved renovation of the City Clerk, Facilities, and Registrar of Voters spaces. Next will come sequence 2, the Human Resources and Retirement Office spaces, due to be completed later this month.

“I like to say that we’re retrofitting and maxing out every square foot of this building, and being a mayor in a building that’s been under construction since I took office — it’s been a challenge,” said Vieau, who talked with BusinessWest in a temporary office carved out of a portion of what had been City Council chambers. He will move to a new office on the third floor (near the Law Department and the renovated auditorium, which now hosts council meetings) later this year, although he joked that he likes his current space and would prefer to just stay there.

The mayor’s historic office is now a conference room, with its waiting space now part of a larger office for the city clerk.

There will be more shuffling to come in a project that will be completed in 2028 — because the work is being undertaken as city government continues its work — and a total cost of nearly $30 million.

While change comes to City Hall, the old library, and hopefully (eventually) Cabotville, it is also coming to the Chicopee Chamber of Commerce, said Melissa Breor, its executive director, noting that the agency is adapting to the changing wants and needs of its members.

For example, the traditional chamber breakfast has been replaced on the schedule with monthly coffee hours at member businesses. These gatherings take less time to plan and execute, she explained, and they provide additional opportunities for members to network and showcase their businesses.

“We’ve adjusted the style of event to suit the schedules of our members,” she said, adding that the chamber runs at least two events a month — a coffee hour, an after-hours function, or one of its signature events — to give members opportunities to network.

Meanwhile, the chamber is turning back the clock in some respects and bringing back a tabletop business expo, slated for April at the Castle of Knights.

A slimmed-down version of the program staged years ago, which included several different chambers, hasn’t been undertaken since before the pandemic, but this edition will feature Chicopee chamber members (and non-members), said Breor, adding that it’s being brought back at their request.

“Our current members have been asking for something like this,” she said, adding that it’s been so long since a tabletop event has been staged that newer businesses may not be familiar with the format. Thus, the chamber will be doing some Zoom orientation meetings to help participants make the most of their opportunities there.

Commonwealth Packaging Brings More Clients into the Fold

By George O'Brien February 2, 2026

Construction Special Coverage

Thinking Outside the Box

Elizabeth Gosselin Kouflie didn’t plan on taking over the family business, but she eventually found a passion for it.

Elizabeth Gosselin Kouflie says she can’t pinpoint the time when she first came to realize the COVID pandemic was likely to be the best thing to ever happen to Commonwealth Packaging.

But she started to get that sense when customers and potential customers didn’t even bother asking for a price on a job — which, in this business, is saying something.

“Normally, it’s ‘I’d like a quote on this many.’ Then, it was ‘how fast can you get me this; I don’t care what it costs.’ That’s when we knew this was going to be a real opportunity,” said Kouflie, adding that, as the world shut down and people couldn’t get the products they wanted, everything had to be shipped. And that added up to a banner year for Commonwealth, the company started by Kouflie’s father, Joe, in 1982, which she was now managing.

Indeed, in a business where margins are as thin as the cardboard sheets in the warehouse and customers can be lured away by competitors offering to do things for a few pennies less per item, Commonwealth recorded more than 20% growth year over year in 2020, said Kouflie, adding that the plant was busier than it had ever been.

“COVID opened my eyes to what we can produce out of this one-shift factory, and that’s what I want to get back to,” said Kouflie, who officially took ownership of the business in 2019 and has been bringing much-needed change to a company where there had been little of it in the three and half decades prior.

That includes a thorough renovation of the plant on Sheridan Street in Chicopee, its first in decades, as well as new machinery, the addition of a design team, better use of IT — and now AI — as well as a stronger push, with the addition of a sales rep, into Rhode Island.

It also includes marketing, something the company had never really done before, previously relying almost entirely on word of mouth and its reputation for quality and customer service in a business where there is so much emphasis on price.

Commonwealth has started to reach out to customers and potential customers with materials highlighting everything from Kouflie’s ties to Rhode Island (she graduated from Providence College and wears a PC sweatshirt in one marketing piece) to Commonwealth’s status as woman-owned, to the fact that its packages “go out first class” — literally.

Indeed, the shipping and safety supervisor’s name is David First Class.

“His last name is Class, and his middle name is First,” said Kouflie, adding that the marketing efforts, which began roughly a year ago, are starting to pay off.

“A lot of people are talking about Commonwealth right now — people are calling me up that never called before,” she noted, adding that the marketing piece targeting Rhode Island businesses is an example of efforts that have helped grow sales.

“I spent a couple of years just keeping the ship afloat and doing everything so I wouldn’t mess it up, because I was terrified of messing it up, and then I finally got comfortable a few years ago and made this my business. And we’ve changed quite a lot since then.”

“It’s working … we’re getting a lot of business,” she said. “People in Rhode Island love to do business with Rhode Islanders; it’s definitely getting some traction.”

These marketing efforts comprise one of many ways Kouflie is putting her stamp on the company (more on this later), while also maintaining its traditional focus on quality, service, and a ‘customer is king’ philosophy.

For this issue and focus on construction and manufacturing, BusinessWest talked at length with Kouflie about Commonwealth and how this is not her father’s packaging company — or your father’s packaging company — anymore.

A Cut Above

As she was earning her degree in business management at Providence College, Kouflie wasn’t sure what she was going to do with it. And eventually running the family business was not a thought that really crossed her mind.

Indeed, while she remembers getting rides on the forklift at the plant’s first location across from the Big E in West Springfield when she was young, and then holding a succession of summer jobs at the company during high school and college, she never intended to make Commonwealth a career.

All that changed in 2003, when, a year after graduating, she returned home to help her father care for her mother, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. There was an opening for a bookkeeper at Commonwealth; she took that job thinking it would be a temporary assignment, but soon settled in at the family business.

“It was kind of trial by fire — help out wherever you can,” she recalled. “I started doing all the HR stuff, started learning how to spec build, started taking orders … in a family business, that’s typically how it goes — you do whatever needs to be done, help out with the IT, build a web page, whatever.”

Tracing the history of the company, Kouflie said her father worked for Mount Tom Box in West Springfield, gradually moving up in the ranks. When management wouldn’t make him a partner, he bought his own box company, Loreno Packaging in West Springfield.

“He used to tell me that he’d run the boxes in the morning, take customers out to lunch, get the orders, and come back in the morning and run the boxes,” said Kouflie, adding that the business continued to grow over the years, but always kept that customer-focused flavor.

Never big into titles — she says they don’t mean much in a family business — Kouflie held many in the years after joining the business, including Human Resource manager, her role when she was named to BusinessWest’s 40 Under Forty class of 2011, when she was just 30.

In 2013, her father took a step back from the business to spend more time at home and be a caregiver, while also battling cancer himself. And Kouflie continued to take on more responsibilities.

“He stopped coming to the office every day … he gave me some freedom to show what I could do — as long as I did whatever he said,” she noted with a laugh. “I’d have to send him my monthly statements showing him what I did, and he would let me know all the things I could be doing better; that’s how we operated for six years.”

She officially took the helm when her father passed away in 2019, and, after a few years of essentially maintaining the status quo — while also coping with the challenges and huge opportunities presented by the pandemic — started putting her own mark on the business.

“Before, I was running the company the way my dad wanted me to — the same way we’d always done everything; it was just follow the dotted line and do what we’ve always done,” she told BusinessWest. “When he passed away, I spent a couple of years just keeping the ship afloat and doing everything so I wouldn’t mess it up, because I was terrified of messing it up, and then I finally got comfortable a few years ago and made this my business. And we’ve changed quite a lot since then.”

The Complete Package

When asked to elaborate, she said the business model has changed, with an emphasis on being more competitive on price, while also maintaining its traditional emphasis on quality and service.

Other changes have included the addition of a design staff with a full-time designer, putting in a CAD table, marketing, renovating the entire building, adding new machinery, updating computer hardware and software, and exploring the use of AI to streamline quoting and other processes.

These steps and others are positioning the company for growth in a highly competitive industry, one often described with the single word ‘cutthroat’ and dominated historically by “price, price, price, price, price,” Kouflie said.

But increasingly, quality is becoming more a factor for many customers, she went on, citing the example of a prominent regional brewer — for years one of the company’s larger customers (Commonwealth makes its beer trays), but one that left when a customer offered a lower price.

“They dumped me, and six or seven months later, they called and I asked if I could come and sit down,” she recalled. “With their new supplier, the glue wasn’t holding on the trays when they put the beer in; the trays are coming in, the bottles are dropping in, the boxes are blowing open, and the beer is going all over the floor. They lost so much product — the pennies they saved on the boxes, they lost in product.”

It’s a story that’s been repeated countless times over the years, she said, adding that, moving forward, the company is looking to retain existing customers and add new ones by more aggressively telling its story and stressing its many qualities and selling points.

These include everything from Kouflie’s Rhode Island ties to the recently garnered ‘woman-owned business’ status.

“It’s part of a multi-pronged effort,” she said of the latter. “I think it catches people’s eyes — there are not a lot of woman-owned box makers.”

Part of the storytelling will be a focus on people — from David First Class to Customer Service Manager Kim Weagraff, highlighted in a different marketing piece.

“We want to show the end users, the buyers, who we are — our people — and the fact that we’re a young group,” Kouflie said. “A lot of our customers feel like we’re their best friends, and a lot of customers think they can just call us up and we’ll take care of them, and we will. But we want our customers to think they’re our only customer, and that we’re sitting here waiting for them to call, and we’re going to take care of them.

“These kinds of things are helping them feel connected to Commonwealth,” she went on. “I like to say that we’re not your dad’s box factory anymore. Lots of box factories are run by older gentlemen who are set in their ways; we’re trying to show our buyers who we are.”

Whether Commonwealth can return to that frenetic pace achieved during the height of the pandemic remains to be seen, but Kouflie is pushing the envelope — or, in this case, pushing the two-piece folder box — to achieve continued growth.

Monson Complex Presents Challenges, Opportunities

By George O'Brien January 19, 2026

Commercial Real Estate Cover Story Special Coverage

Vision Quest

Jeff Daley at one of the ‘T-bones’ on the MDC campus.

Jeff Daley stopped his pickup truck at a building known affectionately as one of the ‘T-bones,’ or ‘dog bones,’ because that’s what they’re shaped like.

It wasn’t the structure he wanted to comment on, necessarily — one of dozens of nondescript, red-brick buildings on the Monson Developmental Center (MDC) campus, this one a residential hall — but rather the view from it, of downtown Palmer and the mountains framing it.

“You don’t get many views better than that,” said Daley, president and CEO of Westmass Area Development Corp., which now owns a significant portion of the campus and is charged with redeveloping it, adding that he envisions this section at the high point of the sprawling complex to be ideal for estate lots of maybe five to 10 acres.

“Maybe a dozen or so could go right here,” he said, referring to an area with several T-bones, which, like almost all of the more than 40 buildings on the campus, are in an advanced state of decay and will be demolished.

“No matter how good you are, I really don’t think you can develop a vision of what this is going to be until these buildings are out of the way and we have a more permanent solution.”

And while he can imagine a large home with a bay window looking out on that view of the surrounding countryside, Daley said that it probably won’t be until all the buildings are down that Westmass and the developers it will likely partner with in this ambitious undertaking can fully understand what they have to work with — and what uses might emerge for this intriguing property.

“No matter how good you are, I really don’t think you can develop a vision of what this is going to be until these buildings are out of the way and we have a more permanent solution,” he noted. “But maybe by this fall we can start talking to developers, have them out, and see what they think.”

As he offered BusinessWest a tour of the rolling campus, Daley drove and talked about what might come next and the many hurdles to be cleared during what will likely be a 10- to 20-year project to transform the landscape into what will be known as the Village at Sawmill Brook and fill in a canvas that few residents of the 413 have seen.

Most of the buildings at the MDC are in an advanced state of decay and must be demolished.

As he did so, he used the word ‘challenging’ repeatedly, in reference to everything from demolition of the buildings, which are loaded with asbestos in the walls, floors, ceilings, and slate roofs, to finding new uses for the property — built on the side of a mountain — that will mesh with Monson’s decidedly rural character and slow, as in very slow, pace of residential growth and new building.

“When you only have 8,000 residents, you can’t plunk down something that won’t fit the community, and that’s something we’re sensitive to when we’re looking at this type of development,” he said. It’s all going to be market-driven; whatever the market dictates and zoning — that’s what we’ll manage.”

For this issue and its focus on commercial real estate, BusinessWest visited the MDC campus to get the lay of the land, if you will, and talk with Daley about the next, and quite intriguing, addition to the Westmass portfolio.

Peaking Their Interest

Daley said the buildings on the campus have deteriorated quickly since the center shut down officially more than a dozen years ago.

And it’s mostly the elements that have been responsible for the highly visible damage to many of the structures, he noted, adding that there has been little vandalism on the closely patrolled campus and few people willing to ignore the myriad ‘no trespassing’ signs posted on every building, save for the occasional ghost hunters.

“When you only have 8,000 residents, you can’t plunk down something that won’t fit the community, and that’s something we’re sensitive to when we’re looking at this type of development.”

“They come in with their infrared cameras and sound machines,” said Daley, adding that they’ve come out more in the summer months, and there’s no word if they’ve found anything.

Given the history of the MDC, there just might be a few ghosts to be found there.

An aerial view of the MDC campus shows the rolling topography.

Established nearly a decade before the start of the Civil War, it was first a state almshouse for the poor and eventually evolved into a primary school for poor children and then the Massachusetts House for Epileptics in 1895, and later the Monson State Hospital, housing people with epilepsy and developmental disabilities. The campus grew significantly in the early 20th century — with the complex expanding to more than 70 buildings across 600 acres and the population peaking at about 1,700 residents in 1968 — but faced declining populations with deinstitutionalization.

Redevelopment of the 108-acre main campus will be similar in many respects to reuse initiatives at Northampton State Hospital and the Belchertown State School, also large campuses once owned and operated by the state, said Daley, but each initiative has its own personality, with MDC’s still to be determined, obviously.

While Northampton State Hospital became a mostly residential development — more than 400 homes geared to all income levels have been built at Village Hill — along with a large manufacturing facility, the Belchertown State School property, now known as Carriage Grove, is becoming more of a mixed-use property, with plans for everything from housing to a community center in the old administration building.

The MDC will likely be more like the latter, said Daley, adding that the pattern of reuse will ultimately be shaped by the town and the development community. He said Westmass plans to advance a zoning bylaw to a town meeting vote this spring; the proposed zoning would create a mixed-use district to support long-term development of the property.

“There are a lot of folks around Monson and Palmer who raised families in big farmhouses, and now they’re getting to the point where they don’t need the big farmhouse anymore. But there’s limited housing available to move into; whether it’s a single person or an aging couple, there’s really no housing for them.”

Housing of several different types may emerge as options, he said, listing everything from three- and four-story apartment buildings to multi-family homes to cottages and those aforementioned estate lots. Other permitted uses could include small-scale commercial and office facilities, light industrial, and civic uses compatible with the neighborhood character.

The first step in the redevelopment process is clearing the site and demolition of all but a few of the 42 buildings on the main campus, 18 of which (the larger brick structures) will be mitigated by Westmass, with the state responsible for the rest.

“Unfortunately, the buildings are not savable,” said Daley, adding that preliminary cleaning and demolition work — on buildings as well as several underground and above-ground tunnels to convey steam — is expected to commence within the next few months. Bids are currently being sought, with the goal of clearing the site by the fall of 2027.

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).

As these pieces fall into place, development efforts can move to the next stages.

Demolition of dozens of buildings at the MDC is slated to start later this year and be completed in 2027.

“Our goal is to be done with the cleaning and demolition by 2027, and between now and then, we’re going to be working on getting a full design of where the infrastructure — water, sewer, power — will go,” Daley explained. “Then, we can do a road development study and figure out where roads will go and to what part of the development. And at that time, hopefully, some of the easier development pieces can be developed or sold to generate revenues to offset the investment we’re going to have to make on the capital side on the infrastructure.”

Grounds for Optimism

While most of the buildings on the campus will come down, a few can be reused, said Daley, who pointed to a structure known, coincidentally, as the Daley Building, a recreation center with a theater on its upper floor as well as a basketball court and a decaying bowling alley.

“Our hope is that we can provide this as a community center for Monson and Palmer,” he explained. “It’s a great hall, and there’s a big gymnasium; we’re not sure how it will all work out, but we’re hoping to keep it for that purpose.”

Meanwhile, Brookside Hall, another residential facility, could be salvaged and converted into senior or veteran housing.

“We’d like to do a veterans housing project — there’s definitely a need for one in this area — but projects like that take four or five years to develop,” he noted, adding that, overall, there is a need for many different kinds of housing, especially affordable options for an aging population.

Indeed, the Commonwealth officially conveyed the property to Westmass as part of larger efforts to utilize properties under its control to address an ongoing housing crisis that is impacting every corner of the state.

“There are a lot of folks around Monson and Palmer who raised families in big farmhouses, and now they’re getting to the point where they don’t need the big farmhouse anymore,” he said. “But there’s limited housing available to move into; whether it’s a single person or an aging couple, there’s really no housing for them.”

Whatever comes of the site from a development standpoint, it will have to mesh with the town’s rural character and not dramatically change the dynamic in a community that hasn’t seen much, if any, residential growth in recent years.

“I think they’ve built something like 12 houses in the last 20 years,” said Daley, who didn’t know the exact figure but did know it wasn’t a big number.

And that statistic represents just one of the many challenges involved with a project that will unfold over the next decade or two and change the landscape of that area — literally and figuratively.

Ayanna Crawford, President, AC Consulting Media & Public Relations Firm: Educating, Elevating, and Inspiring

By BusinessWest Staff January 19, 2026

Business Talk Podcast Special Coverage

With new episodes airing every other Monday, BusinessTalk features in-depth interviews and discussions with local industry leaders who offer thoughtful perspectives on the Western Massachusetts economy and the many business ventures that keep it running. BusinessTalk is sponsored and presented by Greenfield Cooperative Bank.

Go HERE to view all episodes

Episode 250: January 19, 2026

Joe Bednar talks with Ayanna Crawford, President, AC Consulting Media & Public Relations Firm

Much of Ayanna Crawford’s work has been built on the importance of education, from her public school teaching days to her creation of the youth public speaking initiative called Take the Mic; from the growth of the Parent Villages nonprofit to her new role on the Springfield School Committee — and more. On the next episode of BusinessTalk, Ayanna sits down with BusinessWest Editor Joe Bednar for a wide-ranging discussion about all this, plus her consulting business, her community advocacy as chief of staff for a state representative, her experience being named one of BusinessWest’s Women of Impact, and why it’s important to prioritize self-care in order to keep making an impact in the world. It’s must listening, so tune into BusinessTalk, a podcast presented by BusinessWest over both audio and video platforms, and sponsored by Greenfield Cooperative Bank.

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Group Looks to Turn Back Clock at Wilbraham’s Lakeside

By George O'Brien January 19, 2026

Features Special Coverage

Landmark Decision

From left: Joe Sullivan, Jordan Healy, Marc Murphy, Mike Rogers, and John Sullivan.

Joe Sullivan says he and business partner John Sullivan (no relation) were “looking to hedge our bets and diversify.”

It was the height of the pandemic; the restaurant they co-owned, Nathan Bill’s, was forced to close; and, like most all business owners navigating those difficult and unprecedented times, they didn’t know what was to come next.

“We were looking for real estate purchases and maybe another business opportunity,” said Joe Sullivan, adding that the two would buy a package store and then the plaza in which Nathan Bill’s was located, among other transactions. “And as we were doing all that, someone mentioned this spot to us and said it would be good for a restaurant.

“We already had three restaurants and said, ‘we don’t really want another restaurant, but it looks interesting,’” he went on. “We did our due diligence and realized that we could do something different and really special here.”

That was the genesis of one of the more intriguing development initiatives in the region — work to turn back the clock on the Wilbraham landmark known as the Lakeside.

Once a popular inn and restaurant, the property on Nine Mile Pond, most recently home to a transportation company, had fallen into disuse. John and Joe Sullivan have become partners with the principals at West Springfield-based Lock and Key Realty in an ambitious effort to revive the property and create a 15-room boutique hotel and restaurant, with outdoor dining and lake access.

“We already had three restaurants and said, ‘we don’t really want another restaurant, but it looks interesting.’ We did our due diligence and realized that we could do something different and really special here.”

The project has certainly captured the attention — and affection — of Wilbraham officials (members of the Planning Board are said to have cheered when the project was proposed), as well as the legions of fans of the Lakeside restaurant, often involving several generations of families.

“The community support has been overwhelming — social media has been huge, and we’ve gotten letters from people praising what we’re doing,” John Sullivan said. “Every time I’m out working on the yard, I’ve got people in kayaks thanking us and congratulating us.”

An early ad for the Lakeside Inn.

Such sentiments were repeated among the five main principals in this venture, who spoke with BusinessWest at the Lakeside recently. Collectively, they talked about how, while this is a solid real estate investment, the endeavor also blends history, tradition, and community, and these attributes bring ample amounts of pride and enthusiasm for what is being undertaken.

“It’s a property the community truly cares about, and with the right vision and redevelopment strategy, it has the ability to become a destination that drives economic activity and sustained local value,” said Jordan Healy, a partner at Lock and Key Realty. “For us, it’s more than a single project—it’s a chance to help reshape a landmark in a way that benefits the region for decades.”

Mike Rogers, another principal with Lock and Key Realty, agreed. “It seems that everyone who comes in has some family that had some experiences here, whether it was recently or decades ago,” he said. “So the appeal of renovating this property and trying to maintain some of that historic charm, like with the gazebo, while also modernizing it, is a huge draw for us and the community, and it’s really something that’s driving excitement in this project.”

As for the business aspects of this venture, the principals say that, while construction has not officially begun, they’re already hearing from people looking to book rooms — from couples planning to get married at the nearby GreatHorse country club to officials and participants involved with the Brimfield antique shows staged three times each year.

Meanwhile, the redevelopment of the former Eastfield Mall into a retail destination promises to bring more traffic to the Route 20 corridor and to businesses like the new Lakeside, said John Sullivan, adding that the new shopping center, coupled with the Lakeside project, is likely to spur new activity along that throughfare and activate currently idle real estate.

“There will be a ripple effect where there will be more investment opportunities and redevelopment along Boston Road,” he said, adding that there are several vacant or underutilized properties that could be reimagined.

For this issue, BusinessWest talked with the principals involved with the Lakeside project about the many aspects of this endeavor, from its history to the way it might well become a catalyst for more development on Boston Road.

On the Waterfront

For Joe Sullivan, the Lakeside project evokes a different time — for both Wilbraham and his family.

Indeed, his grandfather, Barton Sullivan, owned and operated the Auto Inn, an automobile-era lodging establishment, farther north on Route 20 and on the opposite side of Nine Mile Pond from where the Lakeside sits.

“It’s a property the community truly cares about, and with the right vision and redevelopment strategy, it has the ability to become a destination that drives economic activity and sustained local value.”

There were several establishments of that type on or near Route 20, he said, adding that, during the stagecoach era, there was one every 10 or 15 miles.

As for the Lakeside, it opened its doors in the early 1940s and quickly became a popular destination, with a restaurant, a club with bands, a banquet hall, and a few rooms for rent.

“There’s a lot of history here,” Sullivan said, noting an intriguing bit involving the name of the establishment and the body of water it fronts.

“This is called the Lakeside Inn, but this is Nine Mile Pond,” he said, noting that this name connotes how far the pond is from the center of Springfield. “At some point in the ’50s or ’60s, they changed the name of the body of water to Lake Machonish; the Lakeside owners just decided to do that because they wanted to advertise it as a lake. It didn’t catch on.

“We may try that again,” he said with a laugh, noting that it was partly out of a desire to turn back the clock, while making more business history on Boston Road, that prompted him to take a hard look at the Lakeside property. A serial entrepreneur, he and John Sullivan had become involved with several hospitality ventures, including Nathan Bill’s on Boston Road in Springfield, East Village Tavern in East Longmeadow, the Boulevard Bar on Page Boulevard in Springfield, and others.

The Auto Inn, owned and operated by Joe Sullivan’s grandfather, provided some inspiration for the Lakeside project.

As noted earlier, redevelopment of the property represented not merely a real estate investment, but a unique opportunity to revive what many would consider a landmark.

“Through talking to the architect and talking to the town, we figured out there was an opportunity to build a small boutique hotel and still have a restaurant on the first floor,” Joe Sullivan said. “Everything fit into place and worked out to look like a really successful plan.”

That plan was further solidified by the emergence of a partnership between John Sullivan, Joe Sullivan, and the principals of Lock and Key Realty — Healy, Rogers, and Marc Murphy — who, collectively and individually, have become involved with several business and real estate ventures in the 413, including Shaker Bowl in East Longmeadow and All American Masonry in Indian Orchard, as well as the redevelopment of several fire stations and other properties.

Healy said those at Lock and Key are always looking for real estate opportunities, and the Lakeside made sense on many levels.

“There’s so much history behind it … it just felt like a project where we could reutilize, revitalize, and restore something, make it pretty again — and it’s right in line with what we do,” he noted. “If we can bring some redevelopment back to Wilbraham, it’s a home run for everyone.”

Elaborating, he said there is considerable synergy between the two partnership entities, with Joe and John Sullivan bringing experience in hospitality, and Lock and Key thriving in the redevelopment realm.

Murphy agreed. “Partnering with the Sullivan Group was a natural fit. They have deep experience in hospitality, creating successful restaurant and bar concepts that consistently serve the community at a high level. Together, we blend hospitality vision with market insight to ensure the Lakeside project becomes both a vibrant destination and a strong, long-term asset for the region.”

Joe and John Sullivan officially acquired the Lakeside last August, but talks about the property and the creation of a plan for its redevelopment had been ongoing for a few years prior, Joe said.

“The timing is right because the community is ready for this property to be brought back to life.”

“I wanted to make sure the town approved of what we wanted to do before we bought the property,” he explained, adding that the partners obtained a special permit to create an inn there.

Shore Thing

As for the reimagining of the property, the partners said this will be a major undertaking, with projections for the overall cost to approach or exceed $3 million.

Indeed, while the work falls into the categories of renovation and restoration, it will be much more like new construction, said Joe, adding that, while the property still has good bones, it is no longer suited for either a restaurant or an inn.

“It’s going to be a major construction project — raising the roof, literally,” he told BusinessWest. “The major appeal is that this is waterfront property — they don’t make any more of that. It’s a beautiful spot; even the gazebo needs a little fixing up, but it adds to that picturesque appeal.”

Work is expected to start within the next few months, said John Sullivan, adding that the goal is be finished in perhaps a year to 18 months. The partners are planning a 15-room hotel and a 100-seat restaurant (to be managed by a third party), and they’re already seeing great anticipation for both.

Indeed, John said that, between parents of students at nearby Wilbraham & Monson Academy, wedding parties at GreatHorse, and visitors to the Brimfield shows, there will be strong demand for the inn’s rooms.

“A family from Scotland has asked to rent out the whole place for two weeks for a wedding, and the organizers of the Brimfield fair wanted it block it off for a whole month,” he told BusinessWest, adding that there have been many inquiries about both the inn and restaurant.

And the surge in traffic from the new retail center taking shape a few down the road at the former Eastfield Mall is expected to bring more people to the property, said the partners, noting that, given all they’ve seen and heard, from the Planning Board and kayakers alike, this certainly seems like a sound business investment.

But it has always been more than that, they stressed, noting the attachment the community has to this property and the memories it has created for generations of area residents.

“It’s a good investment opportunity, but it’s a community-focused project as well,” Healy said. “And for a lot of us, that brings a level of excitement that we normally wouldn’t have. You can build 20 houses, and you never get any notoriety from those 20 houses; you do a project like this, and the community gets excited.”

Rogers agreed. “The Lakeside project represents a turning point. It shows what’s possible when investment, vision, and community pride come together,” he said. “Projects like this attract new interest, encourage surrounding revitalization, and help establish the region as a place where people want to live, invest, and build.

“The timing is right because the community is ready for this property to be brought back to life, and market conditions support redevelopment that adds both lifestyle and economic value,” he went on, adding, as others did, that this project will being rewards — for the partners involved and the community as a whole — on many levels.

Colleges Help Students Overcome Barriers to Staying in School

By Joseph Bednar January 19, 2026

Education Special Coverage

More Than Food for Thought

Renee Tastad says HCC’s vision centers around helping students overcome barriers to success.

Renee Tastad says Holyoke Community College (HCC) takes it seriously when a student withdraws from classes, whether for a semester or permanently.

But the conversations that followed those withdrawals, over the years, have helped many more students avoid that path.

“I think it comes down to our vision, which is to be a college of academic excellence known for helping students overcome barriers to success,” said Tastad, assistant vice president of Student Affairs and dean of Enrollment Management at HCC. “So we’ve called those students to find out, ‘what prevented you from being successful? And how can we get you back on track?’

“Primarily, their concerns were childcare, transportation, cost of living expenses — ‘I had to take on extra hours at work that prevented me from committing all of my time to my studies,’” she went on. “With the help of the HCC Foundation, which has been really tremendous, we’ve been able to say, ‘OK, what can we assist with? What are things that we can reasonably do to help lessen the burden on the student to have to work those extra hours, which takes them away from their studies?’”

What has emerged from those conversations is an evolving array of student supports at HCC, from the Thrive Center food pantry to the Itsy Bitsy Child Watch service to the President’s Student Emergency Fund, which helps students with unexpected expenses.

“We’ve called those students to find out, ‘what prevented you from being successful? And how can we get you back on track?’”

“If a student’s car breaks down, that expense could derail them — they have to determine, ‘am I going to put the rent money that I had set aside toward this car repair so I can get to class? Then I’m going to be behind on rent,’” Tastad said. “So the emergency fund is one of those ways to bridge that gap for these unexpected situations that could derail their progress in school.”

American International College (AIC) in Springfield also maintains an emergency fund for students to access in times of unexpected need.

Melisa Loa says AIC leaders don’t want students going to class hungry and unable to focus on learning.

“Students may request funds for emergency situations or unanticipated circumstances that make it difficult to continue in school,” said Melisa Loa, dean of students and director of Residence Life. “They’re able to request anywhere from $100 to $1,000, depending on need. We just ask that they’re currently enrolled as a full-time undergraduate student. We review those on an ongoing basis, and we’re able to help students through that fund.”

AIC maintains numerous other non-academic student supports, from its recently opened Buzz Stop food pantry to a program called the CARE Team (the acronym stands for Concerns, Assessment, Referral, and Education) that reviews concerns around mental health and helps students struggling with such issues to access the help they need to address them.

“It’s a robust team that does a lot of great work,” Loa said. “We’re following up with students to make sure they have appropriate resources, both on and off campus. We work really hard to make sure students’ mental health concerns are addressed in a timely manner.”

Just down the road, the Center for Access Services (CAS) at Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) provides students with a broad range of non-academic supports, helping them overcome barriers that stand in the way of self-sufficiency, allowing them to succeed and stay in school.

Specifically, the CAS office houses a variety of services and initiatives, including free school supplies and the RAM Mini Mart, which provides groceries and meals to students facing food insecurity. CAS staff also connect students to on-campus resources and provides referrals to community agencies that assist with financial challenges, food insecurity, homelessness, substance abuse, and various state and federal benefits.

“STCC is a contemporary community college in that there are so many non-academic supports that we provide students,” the college notes. “These range from an on-campus food pantry and food lockers to housing agreements with Elms College and AIC, a mental health counseling partnership with Uwill, and a long-standing, federally funded TRIO program investing in first-generation college students.”

“We’re following up with students to make sure they have appropriate resources, both on and off campus. We work really hard to make sure students’ mental health concerns are addressed in a timely manner.”

In short, colleges are invested in student success, and that begins with making sure they stay in school, and have the resources they need to do just that.

Hunger to Learn

At a time when food insecurity has been in the news, the food pantries available on area campuses take on greater importance. HCC and AIC both have partnerships with the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, which provides many staples. HCC’s Thrive pantry also receives funding from Stop & Shop for food and personal care items, and the campus community has been generous in donating as well, Tastad said.

“We give out thousands of pounds of food every month to any students, faculty, or staff who has a food need. You don’t have to demonstrate your need; you just have to say, ‘I need some food today.’ And we got an earmark in last year’s budget to purchase refrigerated lockers outside Thrive, for non-perishable food. That’s really helpful because a student or anybody can put their order in, and our pantry staff will fill the order and put it in the refrigerated locker, and they can pick it up anytime the building is open, not just during the hours the pantry is open. That’s been really fabulous.”

At AIC, the Buzz Stop also provides perishable and non-perishable food as well as self-care items, which can be accessed outside normal pantry hours, Loa explained. “If a student needs an item in the middle of the night, they can contact the campus police, and the police will open it for them.”

“Their primary identifier is not necessarily a student — they’re a parent, they’re an employee, or they’re a caregiver, something other than a student. So we want to make sure that we’re respecting the time that they have here on campus.”

Like HCC, supplies from the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts have been supplemented by numerous monetary donations at AIC. “That’s really helpful to keep the pantry going, especially for items we’re not able to get from the Food Bank.”

Loa emphasized the importance of this simple service.

“We don’t want students going to class thinking about where their next meal is coming from, whether they’re residential or commuter. We want students to be happy, healthy, and fed, and able to focus on their academics. We want their basic needs to be met. That’s what these resources are for — to meet those needs so they can come to school and focus on their academics.”

Many students have become regular users of the Buzz Stop, she added, and many off-campus students who are food-insecure have said other community pantries don’t always offer the same amount of food.

“In the last couple of months, with things happening with SNAP, we’ve been very thankful that we’re able to provide food, and they’re really thankful and appreciative that this is a resource on campus.”

At HCC, the Thrive Center also helps students access housing in the area, Tastad told BusinessWest, partnering with AIC and Elms College to have students live on those campuses, and maintaining housing agreements with the Holyoke Housing Authority, with vouchers reserved just for HCC students to access Section 8 housing, among other options, including housing available through Gándara Center and at Westfield State University under a state homeless youth initiative.

Meanwhile, HCC recently expanded its Itsy Bitsy Child Watch Center, doubling its capacity. The center is a free, drop-in service for student parents who need short-term child care while they attend classes, study, or meet with tutors and advisers. It opened as a pilot program in fall 2022 after a $100,000 state allocation, and expanded with the help of a $600,000 grant from the Davis Foundation in late 2023.

The Itsy Bitsy Child Watch Center is now located next to the HCC Parent Learning Center, a study lounge and play area for parents and their children, and the Marieb Adult Learner Success Center, a support program for student parents and students ages 24 and older.

“So the students, when they’re in class, can drop their kids off at the child watch, but when they’re not in class, they sometimes go over to the Parent Learning Center because they can be in that space with their kids,” Tastad explained.

Springboard to Success

The throughline in all these efforts, again, is identifying what might derail a student from completing their degree, and then filling those gaps, Tastad said, all with the understanding that many students aren’t traditional, full-time attendees, but older part-time students with families, jobs, and other responsibilities to juggle.

“Their primary identifier is not necessarily a student — they’re a parent, they’re an employee, or they’re a caregiver, something other than a student. So we want to make sure that we’re respecting the time that they have here on campus.”

And make sure their studies continue — which not only helps the college and the student, but a regional economy that, in many cases, is struggling to recruit skilled talent in many fields.

“We take it seriously,” Tastad said. “We are a part of the Greater Holyoke community, and everything we can do to support the students and create that network is going to help everyone prosper. Student success is built into our strategic plan. We’ve put it out there that this is what we are known for, and it’s true.”

Banks, Credit Unions Leverage Evolving Technology

By Joseph Bednar January 19, 2026

Banking and Financial Services Special Coverage

Tools of the Trade

Marco Bernasconi says Country Bank’s adoption of new technology must be done smartly, with the needs of customers in mind.

It’s no secret, Marco Bernasconi said, that all banks use similar technology. The difference lies in how they deploy it, and which services they emphasize.

“It’s not just about getting bigger, or being involved in more technology; it’s about operating with intelligence and leveraging efficiency and automation to drive sustainable growth,” said Bernasconi, chief Operating and Innovation officer at Country Bank. “For us, it’s about being smart and determining how to serve the needs of customers.”

Glenn Welch, president of Freedom Credit Union, agreed.

“A lot of us use services provided through a third-party provider. So if you go to our websites, they’re fairly similar — different colors, but the same tools,” he said. “So a lot of it comes down to service. You have to have the tools on the websites, but customers have to like you, too. You have to provide good service to the members.”

Both were speaking to a reality shared by all banks and credit unions these days — at a time when fewer customers actually visit a branch to do business, instead conducting most of it online, institutions need to ensure that those digital tools are robust, easy to use, and, especially, secure.

At the same time, though, there will always be a need for a physical branch presence for the business that people like to conduct there — opening accounts, loan applications, and, for some, normal deposits and withdrawals — so banks can’t afford to neglect that side of their business while they focus on developing and evolving their digital platform.

“We’re modernizing digital channels and continuing to leverage digital investing and marketing tools, and constantly reassessing different technologies to keep customers secure. But we also need to be equipped to train the team when people come in for traditional transactions,” said Bernasconi, noting that Country’s branch strategy includes its first branch in Springfield, opening this year.

“We’re modernizing digital channels and continuing to leverage digital investing and marketing tools, and constantly reassessing different technologies to keep customers secure. But we also need to be equipped to train the team when people come in for traditional transactions.”

The volume of branch visitors has changed from the time he was a teller, he added, “but they’re coming in with more difficult problems, and we’re spending more time with them on education, explaining different products, helping move their financial lives forward. So we certainly need traditional transactions at branches.”

A balance between high-tech and high-touch resources is important to commercial customers as well, said Aleda De Maria, executive vice president and chief operating officer at PeoplesBank.

“A lot of our small business owners are all things to their users — CEO, CFO, HR person, day-to-day manager. So we want to make sure we’re offering services through technology to make their lives easier,” she explained.

Aleda De Maria says PeoplesBank has bolstered its internal fraud detection tools to protect customers.

For example, “last year, we implemented some smaller balance lending that our customers can apply for 100% digitally and get answers from us within days, in some cases. We’d like to push that in 2026, optimize that to bring it to a wider audience. That’s something I’m super excited about.”

Last year, PeoplesBank underwent a core conversion of its technology and systems, building on the early growth of its digital brand, ZYNLO Bank, which it launched in 2020 in partnership with Nymbus.

“We didn’t just do the conversion to say we did it. We did it to continually evolve what we offer customers,” De Maria said, adding that the focus was on both back-end technology and front-end interface.

“We are constantly focused on the front end. That’s the window into PeoplesBank. If the customer opens an account and we’re not seeing them after that, what are they doing? They’re online and mobile,” she went on. “Because of the conversion, we have more control over the customer experience and can be more aggressive in updating user experiences — and to ask ourselves what services are available, how can we improve, and what we can add to that.”

Bernasconi said banks must decide whether to crawl, walk, or run toward new technology, but all are asking similar questions — how to deal with the rise of AI, from both a technical and governance perspective; how to help customers access new business products; and, through all of it, how to ensure a crisp customer experience.

“We’re competing with the Apples and Amazons, the fintechs now; it’s not competing only with banks and credit unions anymore,” he added. “The world has changed.”

Battling Back

All the area financial leaders who spoke with BusinessWest said fraud prevention — and the increasingly powerful tools that enable it — are critical to any institution’s technology strategy.

“One of the biggest things we’re talking about is fraud detection,” De Maria said. “I recently read an article saying financial scams are an industry now, and one of the things the scammers have going for them is the use of AI. So we’re having internal conversations about how to leverage new technology to detect and prevent these scammers from getting a foot in the door or gaining access to customer accounts — the concept of how to fight AI with AI, using different fraud detection tools.”

Last year, PeoplesBank launched a new fraud detection module developed through ZYNLO.

“We saw some success immediately in detecting fraud specific to account-to-account activity,” she noted. “We’re looking to expand that and get into other areas like mobile deposits, and also things like devices; the technology that we’re dealing with can look at a device somebody’s on and better detect whether that’s your device or not because of how they interact with the screen, where normally they’d spend three seconds on a screen, and they’re now spending 10 because it’s not as familiar to them.

“From a customer perspective, those things may not sound exciting — unless you’ve been the victim of fraud — but it’s certainly something we are extremely excited about as a bank, to be able to step up our game in this industry that has been created around fraud and scams.”

“From a customer perspective, those things may not sound exciting — unless you’ve been the victim of fraud — but it’s certainly something we are extremely excited about as a bank, to be able to step up our game in this industry that has been created around fraud and scams. So we’ll be looking this quarter at deploying more of those fraud technologies at PeoplesBank.”

Such efforts are critical, De Maria added, at a time when many people do the majority of their banking online.

“We still see a significant amount of accounts open in person — those are still greater than the accounts we open online — but after that, we may not see those customers often; they’re relying on the bank’s investment in technology. There is an expectation that, if they use that technology, they’re going to be safe; they’re going to be protected. I think customers should have the expectation that banks are investing in technology to make things safer and more secure.”

Welch said Freedom has also developed a robust set of fraud prevention tools on the back end, which can detect transactions that are unusual to an account at any given time. The same goes for wire fraud or other types of social engineering attacks designed to separate customers from their money.

“At times, I think we have annoyed members by asking them too many questions, but we want to keep them safe. And we’ve stopped a lot of fraud up front by just knowing our members, knowing what their normal transactions are, reaching out to them, and making sure that is something they want to do.”

Along with its wide array of digital banking tools, Country Bank also hosts numerous online financial literacy and fraud prevention resources, in addition to community outreaches like its Credit for Life fairs at area high schools.

Glenn Welch says people became more comfortable during the pandemic conducting basic transactions online, but many were relieved to return to face-to-face interactions.

“It’s extremely important that we spend a lot of time in our community and with the high schools, educating them in financial literacy and credit reports and how to manage budgets,” Bernasconi said, noting that it’s in the bank’s interest to engage young adults. “We spend a lot of time understanding the needs of younger generations. We’ve got to cater to the customers that we have, but also onboard the next generation and be astute to their needs as well.”

Face to Face

One way banks and credit unions have melded high tech with high touch is with interactive teller machines, or ITMs, which offer the functions of a traditional ATM with some enhanced services, such as making loan payments, cashing large checks, opening accounts, and, most notably, speaking live with a teller over a video feed.

“We launched our first ITMs in 2019. I like to say we had a crystal ball before COVID hit,” De Maria said. “Our ITM fleet is pretty significant — we have ITMs at every banking center, and also standalone remote locations throughout Western Mass. And we’re seeing, on average, about 25% of our in-person transactions occurring through the ITMs. At some banking centers, it’s as much as 35% to 40%.”

And it’s not just personal lines — about one-quarter of PeoplesBank’s commercial clients have used an ITM at least once. “We’re really seeing a good adoption of the ITM technology,” she said, noting that they operate seven days a week. “They’re what I would consider the next generation of drive-up teller, essentially.”

Country Bank has a fleet of ITMs as well, and while Freedom Credit Union offers one at its Springfield main office — and has the technology ready to deploy at other branches — Welch said questions remain about whether customers are clamoring for more.

“People are using it a lot like an ATM. We might need it more at remote sites because, if the branch is open, customers like to see people,” he explained. “These were perfect during COVID; we couldn’t let people in, or they had to wait in a long line. But now, I think if people travel to the branch, if they want the convenience of a drive-up ATM, they do that, but if they want to talk over transactions, we find they’re coming inside.

“We’ve stopped a lot of fraud up front by just knowing our members, knowing what their normal transactions are, reaching out to them, and making sure that is something they want to do.”

“So we’re going to turn on the remote one that we have in Ludlow to see if that makes a difference,” he went on. “If it’s not attached to a building or a branch in a remote area, and they have transactions they want to discuss with someone, they might get more out of it. So that’s part of our strategy this year — we’re going to test it in Ludlow and see how that goes.”

Part of any institution’s strategy, Welch added, has to be how to engage multiple generations, which is why all this technology is important.

“The younger generation doesn’t necessarily want to come in to do transactions. If they want to do an auto loan, they may not want to do it online, and definitely for mortgages, they want to be walked through the process and talk to people,” he said, adding that Freedom also has a secure video call platform where people can engage in these conversations from home and even download documents.

But since the pandemic, he added, “I think a lot of people got more comfortable doing basic transactions online.”

Across the industry, that’s especially true of younger customers, so Freedom — whose average customer age is around 50, a number Welch would like to see creep into the 30s — will, like all financial institutions, continue to evolve its digital platforms and other high-tech offerings in order to strike that generational balance and meet customer needs.

“When people age out of here, we need to have new members filling in the pipeline,” he said. “And we need to keep them here.”

The Local Business Community Offers Perspectives on 2026

By BusinessWest Staff January 5, 2026

Economic Outlook Special Coverage

Surveying the Landscape

Beyond the big-picture context provided by regional business leaders in the lead story on page 4, how do individual business and nonprofit leaders in Western Mass. see their own enterprises faring in 2026? On the following pages, 17 of them share their answers to that question — and what they see as the key trends, challenges, and opportunities arising in the coming year.

Ray Berry, Owner, White Lion Brewing

As a brewery, we operate at the intersection of hospitality and manufacturing. According to our national trade association, the craft beer industry is expected to experience its third consecutive year of volume decline, and the second year in which brewery closures outpace new openings.

Despite these industry headwinds, White Lion remains optimistic. While overall production is sideways, we are seeing meaningful growth and expanded opportunity across other areas of our operation.

Strategic changes implemented in 2025 are positioning the business for greater strength in 2026. These include our transition to an all-alcohol bar, which increased foot traffic; a renewed focus on community engagement that drove a significant rise in on-site events; activation of underutilized space within Tower Square to reach new audiences; continued growth in outdoor programming to strengthen partnerships; and, looking ahead to 2026, a planned enhancement of our food menu to better reflect and complement the diverse experiences we offer.

Megan Burke, President and CEO, Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts

While rising prices, increased demand for services, and reductions in federal resources strained the Western Mass. nonprofit community in 2025, our nonprofit partners demonstrated resilience. More than 50% of the nonprofits serving our community reported funding losses, forcing them to do more with less.

Yet, this year revealed the strength of our communities. We saw our neighbors step up with incredible generosity of both time and money, deepening their commitment and finding creative ways to respond.

As the Community Foundation plans for the year ahead, our 35th year of impact, we are listening to residents as we hone our vision to advance equity and opportunity for all. We feel honored by the call to serve as a connector, supporting those who seek to give and the community helpers who are best placed to respond to changing needs. While we anticipate many new challenges in 2026, we are committed to standing with our communities, responding with urgency and trust, and meeting this moment together.

Sandra Doran, President, Bay Path University

The defining challenges in higher education today are affordability, access, and relevance. At Bay Path University, we are steadfast in delivering an affordable, high-quality education that leads to a career.

For more than 125 years, Bay Path has prepared learners for careers. We meet regularly with employers and business leaders because understanding workforce needs matters. Today, one message is clear: graduates must be AI literate.

That is why we are thoughtfully investing in augmented artificial intelligence as both a teaching tool and an educational resource — making learners career-ready while also improving efficiency and controlling costs. This approach delivers what students and employers expect in an education that must be affordable, relevant, and aligned with opportunity.

Thomas Dowling, CPA, Partner-in-Charge, Whittlesey

Looking ahead, I predict that talent shortages will continue to be a challenge for many industries. As a result, organizations will reconsider their approach to attracting, developing, and retaining their people. Rather than sticking to traditional hiring models, I anticipate that we’ll see an increased focus on investing in existing teams, whether that involves upskilling or adopting a more deliberate, longer-term approach to workforce planning.

Artificial intelligence will continue to become part of everyday operations, enabling businesses to work more efficiently and make better-informed decisions. With broader adoption comes increased responsibility, particularly in terms of governance, ethical use, and cybersecurity.

The organizations that find the right balance between new technology and human judgment will be better-positioned to strengthen their teams, adapt to change, and remain resilient.

Curtis Edgin, President, Caolo & Bieniek Architects

As Caolo & Bieniek looks forward to 2026 and beyond, the only thing we know for certain is there will continue to be change in the architecture and construction industry.

As codes and standards continue to evolve and material technologies improve, we’ve learned that these changes help us raise the bar in the environments we create for our clients and the communities we’re part of.

Meeting client needs, from enhanced building performance to concerns of increasing construction costs, requires us to be educated in the possibilities and apply that knowledge in how we serve our clients’ best interests.

Improved delivery technology provides our team with opportunities, but is only part of the answer. There still needs to be an experienced understanding of how buildings go together, as well as an awareness of conditions those in the field encounter.

We’re optimistic we will meet the challenges, as we have done for more than 60 years.

Jeffrey Fialky, Managing Shareholder, Bacon Wilson, P.C.

Overall, 2025 was a great year for business from our vantage point. We witnessed quite a bit of business succession as well as real estate activity, particularly in the commercial space. Favorable downward movement in interest rates was certainly a contributing factor, a catalytic trend that will inevitably continue into 2026 with at least one more interest rate cut in the forecast.

The likely theme this year, and for years to follow, is artificial intelligence. I read a recent article that stated that AI can currently replace 11% of the workforce. With a technological leap that outpaces the Industrial Revolution and internet boom by exponential proportions, the business community will continue to have to stay nimble as the future unfolds.

I do believe, however, that in the Pioneer Valley, while by no means immune or insulated from the impact of evolving technology, is nonetheless very well-positioned. Unlike communities in other parts of the state or country that have employment tied closely to the technology sectors, the Western Mass. economy is, to a large extent, based upon healthcare, manufacturing, and trades, industries that will still require the human touch.

I recently called a doctor’s office to schedule an appointment, and the appointment was scheduled by an AI assistant; I was surprised by the efficiency. So while you can see that certain jobs may be adversely affected by AI, potential realized savings in that regard opens up the opportunity for small businesses to continue to invest in growth of their core operations, which in turn will lead to expansion and hiring.

John Gannon, Partner, Skoler, Abbott & Presser, P.C.

The labor and employment law landscape for businesses is evolving in 2026. This year, employers will be navigating Massachusetts’ new pay transparency requirements while dealing with growing oversight of AI tools in hiring and workplace practices.

Massachusetts’ new pay transparency law requires many employers to post salary ranges in all job postings. This includes “any advertisement or job posting intended to recruit job applicants for a particular and specific employment position,” regardless of whether the employer recruits directly or utilizes a third party for such purposes.

Federally, employers are looking at potential new regulatory guidance on the use of AI-driven hiring tools, such as the No Robot Bosses Act, which is designed to establish safeguards against employment discrimination that may arise from AI algorithms. The legislation is also meant to ensure that human judgment remains a critical component in employment decisions.

These changes present new, unique compliance challenges for employers.

Lynn Gray-Yucka, General Manager, Holyoke Mall

Holyoke Mall’s strength lies in creatively curating the right tenant mix to drive revenue, enhance customer experience, strengthen market relevance, and enhance the overall asset value. We are optimized for sustained financial growth well into the future as we embark upon a substantial reinvestment into the infrastructure. This three-phase, multi-year enhancement project includes new paving, curbing, and landscaping; fresh paint on the exterior building, new signage packages, and interior upgrades that have already started and continue into 2026.

As the shopping center industry continues to be ever-changing, Holyoke Mall is a shining example as the only high-performing, super-regional property within our trade area. Twenty years ago, our center had a tenant mix that included 90% to 95% traditional retail. Today, that number is closer to 70% to 75%.

As business continues to evolve, Holyoke Mall will be ready for what comes next as the dominant shopping center in Western Mass., offering more than just traditional retail, but also best-in-class dining and entertainment concepts.

Roseann Martoccia, Executive Director, Access Care Partners

At Access Care Partners, we serve older adults and people with disabilities of any age, as well as providing support to families and caregivers. As we look at 2026, we know Massachusetts has a rapidly growing aging demographic; already, 27% of the Commonwealth’s current population are age 60 or older. This trend will continue for the next 10 to 15 years and bring with it increasing care needs, including dementia, chronic medical conditions, and behavioral health issues.

To meet these needs, funding for home and community-based services is more critical than ever. Supporting people in their homes is not only a cost-effective option; it also enables caregivers to remain in the workforce and provide economically for their families while contributing to the overall stability of the workforce in Massachusetts.

Our industry experienced 2025 as a year of uncertainty and funding challenges due to changes at the federal level. The impact on Massachusetts, our healthcare system, and care at home will continue in 2026 and beyond. We will approach the year with continued commitment to serving our communities’ needs by meeting these challenges and strengthening our advocacy.

Amy McMahan, Founder, Mesa Verde and NOM Meals

I think Western Mass. restaurants are going to continue to experience a thinning of the herd due to a shrinking skilled laborforce, rising food costs, and decreased consumer spending. But necessity is the mother of innovation, and these restaurants are modeling winning strategies:

• Equity as a business strategy: By paying a universal $25 per hour wage, Dreamhouse in Turners Falls has eliminated the front/back of the house pay differential, enabling higher wages in the kitchen. This translates into consistently high food quality and dining experience.

• Win-Win alternate revenue streams: Hillside Pizza in South Deerfield and Bernardston has long partnered with local nonprofits, providing fundraising mechanisms that benefit the community and provide a steady, separate income stream for their restaurants.

• Partnership and pop-ups: Ginger Love Café, a popular food truck, takes over Jake’s Northampton, a beloved breakfast spot, in the evening. Reduced rent and start-up costs mean a higher chance of survival for both parties.

• Workforce retention as a separator: The expansion of Northampton’s La Veracruzana into Amherst proves the endurance of legacy restaurants that have tenured, nimble, and skilled staff who execute affordable, high-quality food.

Megan Moynihan, CEO, United Way of Pioneer Valley

For more than 100 years, United Way of Pioneer Valley has stood alongside our neighbors in Hampden County, Granby, and South Hadley. Today, that commitment matters more than ever. We face challenges that demand collaboration, local knowledge, and unwavering dedication.

The need is real. In 2025, food insecurity surged by 447%, affecting 49,000 residents. Call2Talk answered more than 2,000 crisis calls, while Thrive guided 700 individuals toward financial stability. Yet, amid these challenges, hope shines through. Youth Leaders in Action is shaping tomorrow’s community builders. VolunteerConnect links thousands of volunteers with more than 100 organizations. And Stuff the Bus ensures students start school ready to learn.

We’re also investing in the nonprofit sector itself — because strong organizations create strong communities. Through programs like Community Leadership Connect, OnBoard, and Leaders Lounge, we equip local leaders to navigate unprecedented pressures.

Together, we’re building the next century of impact for the Pioneer Valley. Join us in making a difference.

Evan Plotkin, President, NAI Plotkin

Springfield’s commercial real estate market stands at an inflection point. As interest rates ease, capital is slowly returning to secondary markets that offer value investors can no longer find in gateway cities.

Downtown Springfield tells a compelling story. The more than $10 million dollar transformation of the former CityStage theater into the Hope Theater is creating a state-of-the-art cultural attraction and educational center. At 1350 Main St., the top two floors now house a cutting-edge STEM high school focused on science, engineering, technology, and mathematics, a model that points toward the future of office space. Perhaps more institutions of higher learning will follow this lead, repurposing traditional office buildings as we’ve done at One Financial Plaza.

The anticipated commuter rail connection to Boston could prove transformative, spurring development around the station neighborhood well before trains begin running. Decisions about the future courthouse location will significantly shape downtown’s trajectory. Across from MGM, residential and curated retail development is already underway — early stages of what promises to activate that critical corridor.

The trend toward downtown residential conversion is creating new vitality. More housing means more foot traffic, more retail demand, and a more vibrant urban core.

For patient investors, Springfield offers something increasingly rare — genuine upside in a market others have overlooked.

Nicole Polite, CEO, the MH Group

In 2026, healthcare staffing will continue to remain in high demand due to an aging population, increasing medical and behavioral health needs, high turnover and burnout, and ongoing labor shortages across the field. Hospitals, long-term care facilities, behavioral health programs, home care agencies, and recovery centers will continue to rely on staffing agencies to fill gaps caused by retirements, burnout, and turnover.

Staffing models such as per diem, contract, and travel will remain in high demand, placing greater emphasis on cost control and schedule optimization. Demand will remain strongest for registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, behavioral health clinicians, direct care workers, and home health aides.

There will be a stronger focus on regulatory and compliance requirements, particularly credential verification, background checks, worker classification, and pay transparency — along with faster onboarding while maintaining compliance.

Technology will assist in supporting compliance; however, healthcare is a highly regulated, human-centered industry. Patient care requires licensed professionals, supervision, ethical decision making, and relationship-based trust — areas where AI cannot operate independently.

Hannah Rechtschaffen, Director, Greenfield Business Assoc.

In 2026, business hits the intersection of high-tech efficiency and deeply human experience. AI is taking hold in the local marketplace, helping rural businesses punch above their weight. And it’s our job to help them compete. Online shopping isn’t slowing down, either; convenience is here to stay.

The twist: people are also showing up. Travel to the region is increasing, and there’s a quiet cultural reset. Less drinking, less doomscrolling, and more intentional socializing have led to growing demand for late-night spaces centered on connection: games, music, conversation, and creative gatherings.

For communities like Greenfield, this duality is not a contradiction — it’s an opportunity. The future of regional business is not digital or physical, but a thoughtful, well-supported blend of both: technology supporting human-centered experiences rather than replacing them.

None of this is happening without pressure or constraint. What’s encouraging is how places like Franklin County respond: pulling together regional and state leaders to advocate for policy changes that make progress possible, while staying relentlessly focused on the daily work — connecting businesses to opportunity, to one another, and to the resources they need to be hopeful about the future. That is where momentum turns into resilience.

Yes, there are tectonic shifts happening in how we do business, and there is a call back to the analog not as nostalgia, but as relief. 2026 will be a big year because we invested in places, people, and experiences that make this region worth showing up for.

Meg Sanders, CEO, Canna Provisions

If there is one thing we can count on in 2026, it’s that nobody in the cannabis industry truly knows what’s coming. The news about the Trump administration rescheduling cannabis to Schedule III have created the illusion of clarity, but let’s be honest. This is not the first time a White House has said, ‘hurry up and look at this issue.’ An executive order to study something is not the same as meaningful reform, and history has taught this industry not to confuse motion with progress.

At the same time, the Commonwealth is staring down a 2026 ballot initiative that could roll back adult-use sales entirely. If that happens, the results won’t be theoretical. The black market will surge overnight. Tens of thousands of jobs will vanish. Hundreds of millions in tax revenue will evaporate. And communities that embraced legal cannabis will be left to absorb the fallout. So when people confidently predict what 2026 will bring, I smile and take it with a grain of New Year’s salt.

The only certainty in cannabis right now is uncertainty, and savvy operators aren’t betting on promises or panic. Instead, they’re preparing for a year where adaptability, resilience, and clear-eyed realism will matter more than ever in Western Mass.

Timothy Suffish, CFA, Senior Vice President, Head of Equities, St. Germain Investments

Entering 2026, investors continue to expect more from their wealth management relationship. Simply managing their investments is not enough. They want a dedicated team of professionals to handle all of their finances. Whether it be their financial advisor walking them through their retirement plan options or a portfolio manager articulating market dynamics, clients expect a holistic approach that is professional and consistent with their expectations.

Wealth management continues steering more toward teams, as the work necessary to provide the maximum value to clients is simply too complex to take on for one person. A team comprised of advisors fluent in tax planning, estate planning, asset management, and financial planning is what’s expected to hit personal and professional financial goals.

Ultimately, trust is the foundation of a wealth management relationship. Having a trusted partner who is experienced and dependable is critical to accomplishing your financial goals.

George Timmons, President, Holyoke Community College

For community colleges, 2026 will be defined by one word: integration.

At HCC, we’ve spent six months in deep conversation — with faculty and staff, students, and nearly 100 regional business and nonprofit leaders — about the future we want to build together. Those conversations have positioned us to tackle the most pressing challenges in Western Mass. head-on.

HCC is uniquely positioned as the convener that brings diverse voices to the table. We sit at the intersection of education and workforce development, of student aspiration and employer need.

Free community college in Massachusetts has brought unprecedented enrollment growth and diversity to our campus. Our response isn’t to work harder in isolation — it’s to work smarter in partnership.

In 2026, we’ll leverage that convening power to build solutions: employer-driven programs that launch quickly, transportation coordination that gets students to class reliably, and wraparound supports addressing basic needs holistically. We’re partnering with regional employers to anticipate workforce gaps and prepare students for living-wage careers.

Community colleges belong to their communities. HCC will prove we’re the catalyst amplifying what’s great about Western Mass. while addressing our toughest challenges — together.

Paciorek Electric Builds on Almost Three Decades of Growth

By JosepG January 5, 2026

Features Special Coverage

Wired for Success

President Tim Paciorek

Tim Paciorek always knew he wanted to own a business one day. In fact, he can trace that itch for entrepreneurship back to when he was 8 years old and wanted a four-wheeler that cost $700.

“My father said, ‘if you want something like that, you’re going to have to pay for it yourself. But what I’ll do is match whatever you make. So you’ve got to go find a job. You’ve got to do something.’”

His first job was a paper route, which taught him about dealing with customers and collecting money — a job he soon supplemented with work on a local farm.

“When I saved $350, he put up the other $350, and I got my four-wheeler. That was, in a sense, teaching me delayed gratification and also having goals and dreams. That’s how it all started,” said Paciorek, who continued to do both jobs for several years and never stopped working throughout his teen years, from starting a car reconditioning enterprise when he was 12 to making Christmas ornaments at a woodcrafting shop, to raking leaves and mowing lawns.

“All of that was building up to owning a business,” he said. “I wanted to be successful, and I didn’t want to work for somebody for the rest of my life. Even at 8 years old, I wanted it. I knew I was going to have my own business one day.”

To do that, Paciorek decided to attend Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School in Northampton and learn a trade. He was interested in electrical, plumbing, carpentry, and automotive, especially the first two, but he chose electrical because his uncle, John Paciorek, had an electrical business in South Deerfield, and by his junior year, he was working there part-time as a co-op, and moved to full-time after graduation.

“I wanted to be successful, and I didn’t want to work for somebody for the rest of my life. Even at 8 years old, I wanted it. I knew I was going to have my own business one day.”

“He did a really good mix of work — residential and a lot of commercial, but also industrial. We worked at a couple of plastic factories, working on machine wiring, and we also did a lot of work at Mount Snow; we would go there from August to December and would work there six days a week, 10-hour days, rewiring the lodges and lifts and the condos and all kinds of stuff.

“Even though I was working for someone, I was learning a lot of things about the business, and watching a lot,” he added, “and I knew that I was going to own an electrical business one day.”

In 1997, the year he earned his electrical license at age 21, Paciorek started transitioning toward that goal by dedicating his days to his uncle’s business, but doing a lot of side work on nights and weekends — until July 4, 1998, which he calls “my personal Independence Day,” when he hung his own shingle, full-time.

“The rest is history,” he told BusinessWest — a history marked by strong business growth, an active commitment to cultivating the next generation of young electricians, and an intriguing real estate project in Hatfield that has become home not only to Paciorek Electric, but a host of small businesses.

“Now I’ve got my own son, Rocky, working for me — that was really a great moment for me when he decided to join the electrical field. He went to Smith Voke just like I did, learned the trade, and came to work for us; he’s also licensed,” Paciorek said. “And my brother, Tony, is also working for me. It’s really cool to have two family members working in the in the business.”

From the Ground Up

In fact, Paciorek now has 11 employees in all, and a fleet of 10 service vans, but it was a long road getting to this point.

“The first five years, I worked basically on my own. If I had a bigger job, if I needed extra hands to pull wire or whatever, I would call up some friends and have them come help me. But mostly it was just me for five years, doing everything myself.

Rally House, a tennis and pickleball facility in Hatfield, is among the projects Paciorek Electric has worked on.

“Many times, I look back and wonder how I did it,” he added. “I would work all during the day, and then at night I’d be in the office, sometimes until midnight, doing billing or work quotes, that type of thing.”

But he gradually got the help he needed, hiring his first apprentice — his brother — about five years in, and hiring an office manager five years after that. Growth has been steady ever since; these days, almost half the work is residential, and the rest commercial and industrial, the latter including work for such notable names as Deerfield Plastics, Pliant Corp., and high-tech, secure companies such as Telaxis and Millitech. In all of it, he relies on reputation.

“I always talk to my guys about customer service, about giving the customer what they want — as long as it’s legal, of course. Customers ask all the time, ‘do you have to do that?’ And we say, ‘yeah, we have to; it’s code.’ But we’ve had customers that wanted their light fixture moved five times. And we’ve done it. The customer’s always right as long as they’re paying for it.

“I always wanted to be in business, and even starting at 13 and 14 years old, I would go to different seminars about business, and I started learning about real estate, finding out that a lot of wealthy people held a lot of their investments in real estate.”

“That’s what we live by — to keep customer satisfaction up. My guys are great. We have a very strict code of ethics where we talk about customer service, keeping the place clean, using booties if the weather’s bad or they’ve got nice floors. And we keep good communication so the customer knows what’s happening — because sometimes you run into obstacles when you’re running wires. We try to keep the communication up so customers know where we’re at.”

Speaking of where the company is at — literally — Paciorek bought his current headquarters, the former home of General Cigar Co., in 2015. It wasn’t his first experience there, as it was on his paper route a couple decades earlier. The complex — with multiple buildings and vehicle bays — was more space than the electrical company needed, but he was thinking bigger than that.

“I always wanted to be in business, and even starting at 13 and 14 years old, I would go to different seminars about business, and I started learning about real estate, finding out that a lot of wealthy people held a lot of their investments in real estate. So I started taking real estate courses not to be a Realtor, but to be an investor or a developer. And I started learning about apartment buildings and commercial properties.”

Buying the 65 Elm St. complex — the third-largest building in Hatfield, with more than 83,000 square feet, plus a front house, two barns, and a five-car garage — not only meant consolidating what had become four different locations for his operation, but also having room to lease space to what are now about 20 small businesses, from financial services firms to wellness and behavioral health practices to other construction trades. In the winter, the building’s basement becomes a car storage business, where about 60 clients keep their vehicles, many of them classic show cars, out of the cold weather.

He credits Greenfield Savings Bank for taking a chance on the real estate project, which involved a complete gut job and renovation.

Tim Paciorek (center) has grown his team to 11 employees.

“They’ve been really great as far as helping me and seeing the vision that I had. Any time you invest in anybody, you’re taking a chance, and you hope that it goes right. And I think they saw the vision I had in this building. I give credit to all the different people that helped me get here through the years, from bankers to my accountants and attorneys. There’s a whole team of people that you need to do a project like this, or to be in business at all.”

Making Connections

All these perspectives — about entrepreneurship, the trades, and what it takes to succeed — are lessons Paciorek imparts to young people considering career options. And he has supported a number of apprentices starting out in the field; some have become full-time employees.

“The trades are definitely in need of more workers, people that will put their tools on and actually get out there and work,” he told BusinessWest. “The Baby Boomers are retiring, and they’ve been retiring for the last 10 years. So that is causing a huge shortage in electricians and plumbers and carpenters — all the trades. And it’s really hard to find new help, so you have to keep the young people coming in.”

One problem is that many vocational programs aren’t able to take as many students as they’d like due to a shortage of teachers, but Paciorek also sees a lack of motivation in many young people to do the hard work necessary to move ahead.

“The vast majority of this generation doesn’t have the skills or, unfortunately, the drive that a lot of us employers are looking for. And there are a lot of things that we’ve got to try to teach them, but some things can’t be taught,” he explained. “Things like a good handshake and eye contact, that stuff can be taught. But the drive is really hard.”

“Whenever I have kids in front of me, I tell them, ‘whatever you want to do, whether it be an electrician, a doctor, a lawyer, a plumber, a writer — whatever you want to do in life, you need to start learning about it.’”

For instance, he added, “that cell phone is dangerous. I tell all the guys, ‘you’ve got to stay off your cell phone. A customer doesn’t want to pay for you to be on your cell.’ And I’ve had to fire a couple of people in the past because of that. It’s a different generation — when I grew up, we didn’t have cell phones, so we just worked. Nowadays, it’s become a habit for a lot of this generation to be on their phone all the time. So that’s one of the things I say when I talk at the different schools.”

One major problem, he added, is the lack of job opportunities for young people compared to when he was growing up in the 1980s — which means fewer opportunities to develop the work ethic he learned early on. Jobs for teenagers are still around, he added, and motivated young people will find them, but they’re not as obvious.

“I talk to kids all the time, and they say, ‘well, I’m not old enough. I have to be a certain age.’ I say, ‘OK, then do what I did; go do your own business — wash somebody’s car, go rake leaves, find something else to do.’”

Certainly, not everyone grows up with the same drive as Paciorek, whose serial entrepreneurship over the years has also included almost two decades as a DJ, working about 40 weddings a year, and ownership of a Hatfield restaurant, Grill ’N Chill, now known as Posada’s Cantina, which he ran with his brother for eight years.

“Whenever I have kids in front of me, I tell them, ‘whatever you want to do, whether it be an electrician, a doctor, a lawyer, a plumber, a writer — whatever you want to do in life, you need to start learning about it.’ When I was young, I remember my dad telling me, ‘if you want to succeed, don’t go talk to a broke person; you talk to someone who’s successful. If you want to be a doctor, go talk to a doctor. If you want to be an electrician, go talk to an electrician.”

So he continues to talk to them, and encourage them to start training in a trade.

In his own work, Paciorek has carved out an impressive body of work, and took numerous opportunities during his talk with BusinessWest to credit everyone who has supported his journey, from his financial advisors to his parents, who instilled his early values, to Rocky and his fiancee — not to mention the customers who have trusted in Paciorek Electric and his real estate company, DiamondBack Properties, over the years.

And the business is still evolving, with one example being a robust business in generators, installing about 50 and servicing about 500 each year. “It started off as just a little side thing, a generator here, a generator there, but now it’s pretty big,” he said.

The same can be said of a 28-year-old electrical company and its visionary leader, who worked hard to earn a four-wheeler at 8 years old, and has worked hard to achieve a whole lot more ever since.

Baystate Leader Sees Momentum Even as Seas Get Choppier

By George O'Brien January 5, 2026

Healthcare News Special Coverage

Turning the Battleship

Peter Banko says that, despite a mountain of challenges, the Baystate Health system has achieved needed momentum.

Peter Banko was asked if he was frustrated.

He would certainly have good reason to be.

After all, Banko, president and CEO of Baystate Health, had spent the past 17 months or so trying to right the ship at the system — “turning around a battleship in a bathtub,” as he would later tell the audience at a forum on the state of the healthcare sector in the region — and had made a good amount of progress through difficult and unpopular decisions that included layoffs, cutbacks in many departments, and, most recently, buyouts for many employees, resulting in a profitable fiscal 2025.

But by his estimation, provisions within the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (or OB3, as he calls it), signed into law last July, will cost Baystate Health $146 million a year through its specific provisions and their aftereffects, and essentially wipe out all that’s been accomplished and bring the system back to where he started in terms of the size of the hole to dig out of.

“Those reductions wipe out our positive cash flow in one fell swoop,” said Banko, noting that the system exceeded budget expectations for fiscal 2025 and recorded a 3.6% EBIDA (earnings before interest, depreciation, and amortization). “We exceeded our budget expectations by about $50 million; it was the first time we exceeded our budget in six years. But whatever progress we made this year gets eliminated by the One Big Beautiful Bill; we’re down to zero again, and we start from scratch.”

“We’ve got a lot of great work going on behind the scenes that isn’t glamorous and won’t make headlines, but it’s the right work. I feel more optimistic than I’ve felt in a long time.”

So … while frustration would certainly be understandable, and the picture for 2026 is bleak by most accounts (more on that later), he prefers to be upbeat — to a degree.

“That’s because I believe we’ve created some momentum,” he said. “I’m happy with the momentum we’ve created. We’ve got a lot of great work going on behind the scenes that isn’t glamorous and won’t make headlines, but it’s the right work. I feel more optimistic than I’ve felt in a long time.

“I feel like we have the team and the committed board and committed team members that are willing to do the tough work and make the difficult decisions for it to be successful,” he went on, adding that there are certainly more difficult decisions to be made, and more consolidation likely in the healthcare industry — and 2026 is shaping up to be an ultra-challenging transition year for hospitals.

But, overall, he believes the ship has been turned and is positioned to navigate the turbulent seas that are forecasted.

For this issue and its focus on healthcare, we talked at length with Banko about the progress that’s been made, how much of that progress stands to be undone by the OB3, and what happens next as he continues the turn-around assignment he assumed in the fall of 2024.

Time of Transition

Banko said the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will result in $1 trillion in cuts nationally and represents “the largest rollback to federal support for healthcare in our lifetimes.”

Most of the impact to the Baystate system will not kick in until October, a month before the midterm elections, he went on, adding that online estimators project that the overall impact to Baystate will be more than $140 million. Broken down, these cuts involve everything from sharp increases to the number of uninsured individuals from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act to a decrease in funding from Medicaid (MassHealth), to a loss of funds from the 340B Drug Pricing Program.

The impact to the system — and all providers — will be profound, he said.

Valley Springs Behavioral Health Hospital, one of Baystate Health’s most significant recent projects, opened in Holyoke in 2023.

“A lot of people won’t have insurance, so they won’t have access to coverage or financing,” he explained. “They’re going to delay care, and they’re increasingly have to use the ED when things are really serious, so we’re going to have more overcrowding. It would be shortsighted to say that this will most significantly impact the poor and vulnerable in our community; if you have commercial insurance, you can expect double-digit increases in your premiums the next five years because commercial insurance makes up the difference for Medicare and Medicaid.

“If you’re an employer in this state or anywhere in the United States, you’re going to be paying more for your insurance to cover the gaps here,” he went on, adding that, for systems like Baystate, the impact will be felt in the ER, certainly, but in other realms as well.

When asked to make projections on what will happen across the system and its four hospitals — Baystate Medical Center, Baystate Noble Hospital, Baystate Wing Hospital, and Baystate Franklin Medical Center — Banko said it’s too early to do so, with the specific impacts not likely to be known until the provisions of the bill take effect.

And that won’t be until almost a year from now, he went on, adding that, in most respects, 2026 will be what he called a “transition year.”

“It will be like preparing for a snowstorm,” he told BusinessWest before extending the metaphor further. “Everyone is going to be buying milk and bread and snow shovels; there’s going to be a lot of preparation and action in anticipation of next year.”

When asked how a system prepares for the storm that’s coming, he said the system will continue to make additions and adjustments in the ER in anticipation of more people using that front door instead of primary care.

“We’re aggressively recruiting nurses and physicians for the ER, and we’re working on improving our throughput in the hospital, which impacts the ER,” he explained. “We’re working on improving access and throughput, which will help.”

Overall, he said the system itself will manage, but he’s concerned about the human toll for the cutbacks and their impact on the overall health of the community.

“It will be like preparing for a snowstorm. Everyone is going to be buying milk and bread and snow shovels; there’s going to be a lot of preparation and action in anticipation of next year.”

“Let’s consider this from the humanistic end — someone who had coverage now doesn’t,” he said. “They may be in the middle of cancer treatment; they may be in the middle of a pregnancy. A few months from now, they get diagnosed with a condition, and they delay care, or they’re feeling symptoms, and they know they can’t afford care. From a community standpoint, we’re worried about the impact to the most vulnerable people in our community.

“How do we look our community in the face and say, ‘15% to 25% of you no longer have coverage,’” he went on. “This state has worked so hard, going back to Governor [Mitt] Romney, to provide care for as many people as possible — it’s hard to say all because some people fall through the cracks — and now, it’s all being dismantled.”

Bottom Line

And it’s unlikely there will be much, if any, help coming from Washington, Banko opined, noting that, for now, both sides consider what’s happening to be a “political win,” which makes action before the midterms unlikely in his view.

“Behind the scenes, I think everyone knows what the right things to do are,” he went on. “But OB3 has become a political football, so the folks left holding the bag are our governor and our Legislature — they’re going to have to fill a huge budget gap, $4 billion to $5 billion, and I don’t envy them having to try to figure that out. And our healthcare systems are left holding the bag because it impacts us most severely. Who gets lost in this are the people losing coverage — I’m not sure they have a voice at the moment.”

As for the Baystate system itself, Banko said that, when it comes to the progress made in 2025, budget-wise, roughly half is attributable to cost cutting, with the other half coming from revenue growth.

“We saw decent growth in our business last year, above what our expectations were,” he noted, adding that this growth came in ER volume, surgical volume, inpatient volume, and other realms. “More than half our financial improvement was solid revenue growth.”

Looking ahead to 2026, he’s projecting revenue growth of 2% to 3%, with expenses growing 6%.

“And in any business, that’s not a recipe for success,” he went on, adding that the system has identified core growth areas, including overall access to care.

“We lose a lot of our patients to Boston because they can’t get in here. So if we can grow revenue by 6% to 8% and trim some of our costs, that will allow us to stay in the game,” he explained, adding that there will be more cost cutting in the year ahead — at Baystate and most other providers.

There will also be some less profitable services cut back or eliminated by many providers, he said, as well as continued consolidation within the industry as systems look for all-important scale in the wake of the rising costs of doing business.

“We’re talking to a lot of organizations, and with each one, I have a confidentiality agreement that I can’t violate,” he said, withholding comment on rumored talks between Baystate and Mercy Medical Center. “So, I would just say this … everyone is talking to everyone right now. There isn’t a week that goes by that I’m not having a discussion with a competitor, someone in an adjacent market, someone in a non-adjacent market.

“Everyone is viewing the changes from OB3 as transformational, so everyone is trying to figure out the same thing,” he went on. “We’re all talking to one another about, ‘hey, how do we manage this?’ Or ‘can we manage this better together?’”

There is some evidence that scale has not worked out in healthcare, at least as much as it has in other industries, he continued, adding quickly that he believes scale does bring advantages; systems just need to seize those advantages.

“Our overhead costs are about 12.9%,” Banko explained. “Without more scale, we can bring that down to 10%, but best-practice health systems are below 8%, and there’s no way we can get below 8% without more scale.”

In the meantime, and as he mentioned earlier, he senses real momentum across the system, progress in many ways overshadowed by large headlines about layoffs and buyout programs.

“What gets published in the media is just the financial stuff,” he told BusinessWest. “So when we do a layoff or cut costs somewhere, that gets all the media attention, and it gets all the attention inside the organization. But I would say that 80% of the work is non-financial, and we’re making real progress.”

Heed These 2025 Federal Information Reporting Considerations

By Contributor January 5, 2026

Accounting and Tax Planning Special Coverage

A Time and Place for Everything

By Mary C. Walsh

As the tax filing season looms, employers must ensure compliance with federal information reporting requirements, including payroll and payment reporting to the government, employees, and other income recipients. Most of forms are required to be electronically filed. In 2026, there are new requirements for reporting employee tips and overtime. This article provides details regarding these reporting obligations.

General Federal Year-end Information Return Filing Requirements for Forms W-2, W-3, and 1099 (INT, NEC, and MISC)

• Electronic filing is required if at least 10 of the following forms, combined, are required to be filed: W-2, 1094, 1095-B, 1095-C, 1097-BTC, 1098, 1098-C, 1098-E, 1098-Q, 1098T, 1099, 3921, 3922, 5498, 9027, W02G, and 499R-2/W-2PR. In some cases, electronic filing is given more time to file with the IRS than paper filing.

• Filing and due date information is set forth in IRS Publication 509, Tax Calendars for use in 2026 (www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p509.pdf). See also IRS Publication 1220, Specifications for Electronic Filing of Forms 1097, 1098, 1099, 3921, 3922, 5498, and W-2G, which sets forth electronic filing format specifications.

• Typically, due dates fall at the end of a month. However, if a due date is a weekend day or holiday, the next business day becomes the due date. Also, Congress or the president may specify a different due date, e.g., if there is an emergency. In 2026, Jan. 31 is a Saturday, making Feb. 2 the next business day, and Feb. 28 is a Saturday, making March 2 the next business day.

“For 2025, the IRS encourages employers to provide some accounting so employees can claim the deduction on their federal tax returns. The IRS has stated that employers may report the amounts of qualified tips and overtime to employees through secure methods, including an online portal or additional written statements provided to employees.”

Information Reporting Due Dates for 2026

• W-2, Wage and Tax Statement: File with Social Security Administration (SSA), electronic and paper, by Feb. 2. Provide to employees by Feb. 2.

• W-3, Transmittal of Wage and Tax Statements: File with SSA, electronic and paper, by Feb. 2.

• 1099-INT, Interest Income and 1099-DIV, Dividend Income: File with IRS, electronic, by March 31. File with IRS, paper (must be accompanied with IRS Form 1096, Annual Summary and Transmittal of U.S. Information Returns) by March 2. Provide to recipients by Feb. 2.

• 1099-NEC, Non-employee Compensation: File with IRS, electronic and paper, by Feb. 2. Provide to recipients by Feb. 2.

• 1099-MISC, Miscellaneous Income: Nothing reported in box 8 (substitute payments in lieu of dividends or interest) or box 9 (crop insurance proceeds): File with IRS, electronic, by March 31. File with IRS, paper (must be accompanied with IRS Form 1096, Annual Summary and Transmittal of U.S. Information Returns) by March 2. Provide to recipients by Feb. 2.

• 1099-MISC, Miscellaneous Income: Amount reported in box 8 (substitute payments in lieu of dividends or interest) or box 9 (crop insurance proceeds): File with IRS, electronic, by March 31. File with IRS, paper (must be accompanied with IRS Form 1096, Annual Summary and Transmittal of U.S. Information Returns), by March 2. Provide to recipients by Feb. 2.

Special Issue: Tips and Overtime

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), enacted this past July, allows certain employees to deduct tips and overtime compensation. One area of uncertainty, affecting both employers and employees, regards 2025 payroll reporting for tips and overtime.

Under the OBBBA, from 2025 to 2028, certain employees who receive qualified tips may deduct up to $25,000 of those tips, and those who receive overtime pay may deduct up to $12,500 of qualified overtime compensation ($25,000 for joint filers).

To enable employees to report their deduction, the OBBBA requires employers to provide separate accounting of the total amount of cash tips and overtime. Employers failing to comply with these reporting requirements may be subject to penalties.

Although the IRS has released a draft version of Form W-2 for 2026 reflecting OBBBA changes, the 2025 version of the form will not be updated, creating a challenge for employer reporting compliance. As a result, for tax year 2025, the IRS announced that employers will not face penalties for failing to provide required tip and overtime accounting to employees (Notice 2025-62). This relief only applies to tax year 2025 because the IRS recognizes that employers might not have the information required to be reported.

For 2025, the IRS encourages employers to provide some accounting so employees can claim the deduction on their federal tax returns. The IRS has stated that employers may report the amounts of qualified tips and overtime to employees through secure methods, including an online portal or additional written statements provided to employees.

When reporting these amounts, employers should not stop at the maximum of $25,000 (tips) or $12,500 (overtime). The full amounts of qualified tips and overtime should be reported. It is up to employees to determine the maximum deductible amount when preparing their federal income tax returns.

With little authoritative guidance and difficulty getting full information from existing systems and payroll providers, employers must do their best in providing employees with this information. Employers could, for example, provide the information by separate letter or use W-2 Box 14 (Other). For the most current guidance (updated as issued), visit www.irs.gov/newsroom/one-big-beautiful-bill-provisions and click on “No tax on tips (Section 70201)” and “No tax on overtime (Section 70202).”

Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island, Vermont, and New Hampshire do not allow employees to deduct tips or overtime; thus, this reporting issue largely does not impact New England and New York payroll reporting.

Finally, remember that this article is intended to serve only as a general guideline. Your personal circumstances will likely require careful examination. You should schedule a meeting with your adviser to assist with all your tax planning needs.

Mary C. Walsh is a senior manager at Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C. She holds an MS accounting and an MBA from Northeastern University, an LLM in taxation from Boston University School of Law, a JD from the University of Connecticut School of Law, and a BA from UMass Amherst. She is a CPA licensed in Florida and an attorney licensed in Massachusetts. She is a member of CPAmerica and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

BusinessTalk with Meg Talbert, Executive Director, Dakin Humane Society: More Than a Pet Project

By BusinessWest Staff December 22, 2025

Business Talk Podcast Special Coverage

With new episodes airing every other Monday, BusinessTalk features in-depth interviews and discussions with local industry leaders who offer thoughtful perspectives on the Western Massachusetts economy and the many business ventures that keep it running. BusinessTalk is sponsored and presented by Greenfield Cooperative Bank.

Go HERE to view all episodes

Episode 249: December 22, 2025

Joe Bednar talks with Meg Talbert, Executive Director, Dakin Humane Society

Meg Talbert says she and her dedicated staff and volunteers at Dakin Humane Society bring a lot of love and joy to their work, even though they’re dealing with animals — and families — facing difficult issues. And while Dakin’s services — from adoption and fostering to medical care and pet loss support groups, and many more — help thousands of people and animals each year, the need has never been greater. On the next episode of BusinessTalk, Meg, Dakin’s executive director, sits down with BusinessWest Editor Joe Bednar for a wide-ranging discussion about how Dakin is meeting those evolving needs, how people in the community can support this work, and what’s around the corner as the nonprofit puts together a strategic plan for the future. It’s must listening, so tune into BusinessTalk, a podcast presented by BusinessWest over both audio and video platforms, and sponsored by Greenfield Cooperative Bank.

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What Employers Must Know About Salary Range Transparency Law

By Contributor December 22, 2025

Law Special Coverage

Out in the Open

By Michael Lewis, Esq.

On Oct. 29, Massachusetts’ pay transparency law took effect. Employers must post a good-faith pay range for each specific position and provide that range to applicants and employees on request. Larger employers must also submit workforce equal employment opportunity (EEO) data to the state.

Actions to take now: Set credible pay ranges, update posting templates, train managers and recruiters, and calendar your EEO data submission.

Posting and disclosure duties apply if you averaged 25 or more Massachusetts employees last year. Count all employees whose primary place of work is Massachusetts, including full-time, part-time, seasonal, and temporary workers. Include remote employees tied to a Massachusetts worksite and out-of-state employees who report to or are assigned to a Massachusetts base. Determine coverage once a year by averaging headcount across all pay periods. The separate EEO data reporting duty applies to employers with 100 or more Massachusetts employees that already file EEO reports with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Your postings must show a real pay range for Massachusetts roles. Every advertisement or job posting for a particular and specific position with a Massachusetts primary place of work must list a range you reasonably expect to pay at the time of posting. Third-party and agency postings count. If pay is by commission or piece rate, include the expected commission or piece rate range. The law does not require listing benefits or bonuses.

You also must disclose ranges to applicants and current employees. Upon request, give any applicant the range for the posted position. Give current employees the range when you offer a promotion or transfer, and upon request for their own position, even if no vacancy exists. Make sure managers know who answers these requests and how.

“Every advertisement or job posting for a particular and specific position with a Massachusetts primary place of work must list a range you reasonably expect to pay at the time of posting.”

‘Primary place of work’ reaches remote and hybrid setups. If a role reports to or is assigned to a Massachusetts worksite, treat it as covered, even when the individual works outside the state. If the role can be performed in Massachusetts, assume the posting rule applies.

Enforcement sits with the attorney general; there is no private lawsuit. Expect a warning for a first violation, then escalating civil penalties. Through Oct. 29, 2027, you get two business days to cure after a notice. Retaliation against applicants or employees who seek ranges or complain about violations is prohibited.

Large employers must submit EEO workforce data to the Commonwealth. If you file EEO-1 (or EEO-3/4/5, as applicable) with the EEOC, you must transmit the same reports to the Secretary of the Commonwealth on the state schedule. The state will publish aggregate industry reports; individual employer submissions are not public records.

Seven Practical Steps to Get Compliant Quickly

• Decide coverage. Run the 25-employee average using last year’s payroll periods. Flag multi-state and remote roles tied to Massachusetts.

• Map positions. List all ‘particular and specific’ jobs in Massachusetts, including internal ladders and common transfer paths.

• Set ranges now. Build good-faith minimums and maximums for each position using market data, internal equity, geography, and level. Avoid inflated bands that you would not actually pay.

• Standardize postings. Add a salary-range line to every template and require recruiters and agencies to include it. For social posts, link to the full posting with the range.

• Train managers and recruiters. Give a script for handling range requests. Remind teams not to ask for salary history until after an offer. Reinforce anti-retaliation.

• Document and monitor. Keep a living list of ranges, the date set, the factors considered, and the owner. Review at set intervals and after material changes.

• Calendar the data filings. If you file EEO reports federally, calendar the Massachusetts submission dates and designate the filer.

Templates You Can Use Today

Required range line for postings: “Pay range for this role: $__ to $__ per year [or $__ to $__ per hour]. Actual pay will reflect skills, experience, and job-related factors. This role [includes commission with an expected range of $__ to $__ ] is paid by piece rate with an expected range of $__ to $__].”

Applicant range request response: “Thank you for your interest. The pay range for the [position] is $__ to $__ [plus commission/piece rate as posted].”

Employee request for current position: “The current pay range for your position, [position/title/level/location], is $__ to $__. We review ranges on [cadence] based on market data, skills, and responsibilities.”

Common Questions from Employers

Do we need to update a posting if the range changes during the search? Post the range you reasonably expect to pay when you publish the posting. If your range materially changes during the search, update the posting and your internal file.

Do we need to include bonuses or benefits? No. List the base salary or hourly range. Include commission or piece-rate ranges if those pay forms apply.

Do internal promotions without a posting trigger disclosure? Yes. Provide the range when offering a promotion or transfer.

Do we have to share ranges for every job on demand? Applicants get the posted position’s range on request. Employees get their own position’s range on request, even when no opening exists.

How should we handle multi-state postings? If the role could be filled by someone whose primary place of work is Massachusetts — or the role reports to a Massachusetts worksite — include a Massachusetts-compliant range.

Key Dates and Thresholds at a Glance

• Oct. 29, 2025: Salary-range posting and disclosure duties began for employers with 25 or more Massachusetts employees.

• Feb. 1, 2026 (EEO reporting): EEO-1 due annually; EEO-3 and EEO-5 due in odd-numbered years; EEO-4 due in even-numbered years — only for employers that file these reports with the EEOC.

• Through Oct. 29, 2027: Two-business-day cure period after a notice from the attorney general.

Why Act Now?

Pay ranges will surface internally and externally. Employees will compare. Posting ranges that you cannot defend invites morale issues and legal risk. You control the narrative by setting credible bands, training your teams, and responding cleanly to requests.

Michael Lewis is an attorney with the Commercial Litigation Group at Halloran Sage, handling complex business and employment disputes for a wide range of clients in industries including healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and technology.

Engineering Firms Prioritize Ways to Attract, Develop New Talent

By Joseph Bednar December 22, 2025

Environment and Engineering Special Coverage

Something to Build On

Two Western New England University students work on a jet engine they built. (Photo courtesy of Western New England University)

Among the courses Mike Rust teaches at Western New England University (WNE) is “Introduction to Engineering,” a very hands-on class that teaches the engineering design process to freshmen through a robotics development project.

At first, “they’re looking at me like, ‘I don’t know how to do these things.’ And then we train them in all the technical things that they need to do,” said Rust, professor of Biomedical Engineering and director of Experiential and Entrepreneurial Learning at WNE. “Over time, they’re weaning off, and at the end of the course, the faculty’s checking in, but the students are doing it themselves. They almost don’t notice, but by the end, they’re acting like an engineer; they’re thinking like an engineer — because they’ve lived and breathed it their first year on campus.

“When I was a student a couple decades ago, we didn’t get a project like that to work on until junior year,” Rust said, adding that giving students hands-on experience from day one helps them thrive throughout college — which can translate into success in internship experiences and their early career. “The context sticks a little better when they have the muscle memory because they’ve experienced it, not just thought about it.”

It’s not just in class that WNE engineering students are preparing for the real world. At the Delbridge Career Center, the university’s career services hub, a professional adviser is assigned to each student, and available resources include résumé development, mock interviews, internship connections, and an alumni network.

“Engineering is a professionally oriented field, and students, when they’re coming through our programs, are already thinking in these terms when they start: where are they going to go with this degree? What are they going to do long term?” Rust said, explaining how those career services tie into the hands-on classroom model.

“The context sticks a little better when they have the muscle memory because they’ve experienced it, not just thought about it.”

“We teach theory, but we’re always putting that theory into practice with projects; students are actually doing it. So when they go to the interview, they can say, ‘I have done these things; this is the value I can provide your company.’ And when they get their first job after graduation, they can hit the ground running.

“Everyone needs to be trained when they join a company,” he added, “but what we hear from companies is that the learning curve is a little flatter because they’ve got a lot of that hands-on exposure.”

That’s appreciated by firms like Westfield-based Tighe & Bond, a very large, multi-state engineering firm that hires close to 100 new employees each year.

Bob Belitz says Tighe & Bond’s robust internship program aims to give aspiring engineers as much real-world, hands-on experience as possible.

“In such a competitive marketplace, we’re trying to build relationships and connections as early as possible, so we get connected to students and universities whenever we can,” said Bob Belitz, the firm’s president and CEO. “We’re participating in educational programs, going into elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools to judge fairs or just explain to these students what a career in STEM could look like.”

Those efforts are complemented at the college level with scholarships and an internship program that brings in about 30 students per year to work on real-world projects.

“What we’re trying to do through these programs is give these students a real-life, hands-on experience, to get them on as many projects site as possible. The more practical exposure they get to the work we do, the better, so our mission is to do as much of that as we can,” Belitz said, adding that interns also get professional development opportunities like help writing résumés, enhancing speaking and interview skills, and even a career fair where they present a poster board on the projects they worked on during the summer.

“In such a competitive marketplace, we’re trying to build relationships and connections as early as possible, so we get connected to students and universities whenever we can.”

“A large majority of them either come back for another internship, or we offer them full-time employment. They’re exposed to the culture of the company; we assign them buddies and team leaders throughout the course of the summer when they’re here. Hopefully they appreciate that direct investment,” he went on.

And if they choose to pursue work somewhere else, well, “it helps enhance the profession either way.”

Values and Purpose

All these efforts at recruitment and career development are important for an industry that needs new blood, said Ashley Sullivan, president and CEO of O’Reilly, Talbot & Okun Associates (OTO) in Springfield.

“For the past few years, it has been very challenging to recruit and find people. We have a shortage of people, it seems,” she noted. “We have a big exodus with retirements — through the whole COVID pandemic, there were people rethinking engineering. So there’s a lot of work, and there seems to be not a lot of people.”

Ashley Sullivan says today’s young recruits are looking for a company that aligns not only with their work interest, but with their purpose, goals, and values.

One way to attract talent is through a workplace culture that resonates with young people, she explained, and OTO started to put more emphasis on that when she transitioned into company leadership in 2020, better defining its brand; emphasizing workplace values like transparency, respect, and togetherness; and operating according to the mission statement, “we will elevate our industry to create and deliver the best solutions for natural and built environments.”

“We asked, ‘who are we? Who do we want to be?’” Sullivan said. “And we need to live by that so we can communicate it and say, with full transparency, ‘this is what we are. If you want to work at a place like this, this is what you’re going to get.’”

Meanwhile, the recruitment process involves not only interviews with top leadership, but eventually meetings with field staff and project managers. “We invest a lot in the interview process — by that time, we know this is a great candidate, so how do we show them how they would fit into our business model and fit in with our people?”

Belitz also emphasized the value of workplace culture in attracting what he characterizes as a more purpose-driven generation of young job applicants than he’s seen before.

“The narrative has changed a little bit. This generation is interested in the stability of the company. I don’t know if it’s the uncertain economy driving it, but to be able to say to these prospective interns that the company has been around over 100 years, we’re very financially stable, we do purpose-driven work, we’re 100% owned by employees — that’s a nice difference,” he explained.

“The big picture is that we’re trying to train engineers who are value creators — technically strong, skilled at math and science, but they also have that vision of how the world can be a better place.”

“We’ve also put in some really good benefits for students, like loan repayment. Benefits are a hot-button issue, so we’re really trying to promote this overall climate of stability and of the company investing in the people we bring into the firm,” Belitz added. “And giving back to the community is another key part of the puzzle — and a big selling point for young people.”

Sullivan agreed with that emphasis on culture and purpose.

“I think this newest generation wants a company that knows who they are and has a purpose — one that aligns with their purpose or what their goals are,” she told BusinessWest. “It could be that they want to see their projects have an impact on the community — they’re really community- and impact-driven, much more than the rest of us that were just looking to get a job, which is really neat. I think culture and the big picture is important to them.”

In short, she said, “they want to matter. They want to know their value, and they want to be valuable. And they want that from the beginning.”

Meanwhile, retention is as important as recruitment, which is why Tighe & Bond invests thought, time, and energy into cultivating career tracks for employees, Belitz said.

The firm’s onboarding and training program consists of not only leadership training, but anything people need to do their jobs: project management, quality management, safety and health principles, and more — efforts branded internally as Tighe & Bond University.

Mike Rust says higher education has seen a shift toward giving engineering students more hands-on, project-based experience right from the start of their college careers.

“We’ve also started investing more in training around technology, making sure folks have a good understanding of how to appropriate and use things like artificial intelligence and other investments we’ve made in digital toolsm” he added. “There’s a lot of energy around that, especially with the younger generation.”

Sullivan said many recruits want to see a clear career ladder at work.

“I think it’s important for them to be able to see where they could be in a few years, so they feel like they’re moving along. I think they want to see opportunity; they don’t want to get stuck in a rut or doing one task.

“And for me, leading a small business, I want people that want to do that because I love that people will develop and can do a little bit more of a project. If that means they’re more valuable, then the pay comes with that,” she added. “At OTO, those two things are aligned. It’s always in our benefit to develop people, so we’re looking for people that really want to do more.”

Surveying the Landscape

While Tighe & Bond is a civil and environmental engineering firm and OTO specializes in geotechnical, environmental, and industrial hygiene consulting services, Western New England, like many universities with strong engineering programs, is sending graduates out into myriad engineering disciplines — mechanical, electrical, civil and environmental, biomedical, industrial, and more. And placement rates are high, with 97% of engineering graduates placed in jobs within six months.

“Engineering tends to be pretty steady regardless of what’s going on in the economy,” Rust said. “The big picture is that we’re trying to train engineers who are value creators — technically strong, skilled at math and science, but they also have that vision of how the world can be a better place.”

Elaborating, he added, “they’re encouraged to think in those terms — to take an existing product and improve it, or talk to the customer about what the pain points are and how to address them. They’re thinking not only about what a company does, but what it could do. And companies come back to us and say, ‘can you get me five more of that student you got us last year? They were what we want.’ Because they’re not satisfied with the status quo.”

Sullivan, who has taught classes at WNE, still participates in engineering advisory boards there, connecting area industry leaders with educators.

“We talk about what we looking for for graduates and who are we looking to hire. But they also talk to us about the exciting research they’re doing, the programs they have, the outreach they have, where they have challenges, where they may need support,” she explained. “And I really feel like, whenever you have two or more groups together working to solve a problem, the ideas that come out of there are amazing.”

Like Rust, Sullivan appreciates when young people emerge with a problem-solving mindset, but also an appreciation for how they can change the landscape, both literally and figuratively.

“We get to work with a lot of people, and we get to see new development and help with projects that impact our own lives or the people we care about,” she said, naming the recently opened Square One expansion in Springfield and DC Station, the new electric vehicle charging hub in Northampton, as two examples.

“I can bring my daughters to an urgent care and know that I worked on it,” she added. “That’s one of the reasons why we try to encourage people to come to OTO, or to be in civil engineering: you impact people. The work is hard, but it’s so rewarding, and you’re constantly reminded why you do it.”

From New Coverage Risks to Emerging AI, the Insurance Landscape Is Shifting

By Joseph Bednar December 22, 2025

Insurance Special Coverage

Rate of Change

Insurance isn’t any home or business owner’s favorite topic — well, except for insurance agents, maybe — and the many pressures on rates over the past several years, from inflation and supply chain issues to adverse weather events and jury verdicts, has made it an even more difficult conversation.

The good news, said Sam Hanmer, president and CEO of Chicopee-based Rush Insurance Group, is that, while the rate environment has continued to move north, he’s seeing a slowdown on the property side.

“Property took the biggest hit after COVID. When supply was so hard to come by, it shot pricing up. Everyone’s experienced that. As an industry, we were relatively slow to figure that out,” he explained, noting that insurance carriers eventually increased rates to reflect that reality, some numerous times. “So the industry has caught up in terms of costs of construction.”

Still, rate changes vary with the age of a property, said Mark Rosa, senior account executive with Borawski Insurance in Northampton. “With newer homes, rates are fairly stable. Someone with an older house could see some rate increases because there are some insurance credits on new homes that someone with a house built in 1978 is not going to qualify for,” he noted. “But I don’t expect what we saw the last few years, 10%, 15%, 20% rate increases. That’s gone away slowly, and I expect to see some kind of stability.”

“I don’t expect what we saw the last few years, 10%, 15%, 20% rate increases. That’s gone away slowly, and I expect to see some kind of stability.”

That said, climate change and natural disasters have continued to impact the rate environment in unpredictable ways.

“I think that we as insurers would like to have that buttoned down, but with weather patterns, I think we’ll have to wait a little while longer; I think that’s going to continue to plague the insurance industry,” he said, as opposed to, say, construction costs, which have settled a bit: “I think we’ve handled that with the rate increases in the past.”

Automotive insurance has seen rate increases as well, but for different reasons, one of which is simply today’s technological sophistication, Hanmer said. “A fender bender used to cost $500, now it’s six grand, with all the cameras in these cars now.”

Another issue causing auto rates to rise is what Rosa, and others in the insurance industry, characterize as “legal system abuse,” or a trend toward massive payouts in lawsuits that wind up being borne by insurance payers and, eventually, passed on to customers. It’s a concern across all types of insurance, but particularly product liability and auto accidents; in those areas, verdict payouts rose 7.1% annually, on average, between 2016 and 2022, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

A 2025 Perryman Group study, “The Economic Impact of Excessive Tort Costs on U.S. Households,” says consumer prices in the U.S. are estimated to be 1.32% higher than they would be without excessive litigation.

Sam Hanmer

“People believe they can buy insurance online, which a lot of people do, and they never have problems — until they have one. So where do they turn? They need an advocate in the form of an agent.”

Meanwhile, the median size of so-called ‘nuclear verdicts’ — defined as jury awards of $10 million or greater — has more than doubled since 2020, according to Marathon Strategies’ “Corporate Verdicts Go Thermonuclear: 2024 Edition.” And it’s not just the severity of the verdicts that’s trending upward, but the frequency of litigation as well.

All these statistics were compiled in a recent Legal System Abuse Toolkit prepared by Trusted Choice and the Big I for use by independent insurance agents.

“Legal system abuse is a problem for policyholders, consumers, and the economy as a whole,” the toolkit argues. “It drives up prices, drives out insurers and investors, and clogs the court system with frivolous cases that could be handled fairly without litigation. Moreover, the beneficiaries are opportunists in the legal field and their financial backers.”

There are other trends at play as well. Hanmer said umbrella insurance is seeing higher rates these days, and Rosa noted that some types of contractors, such as snow plowers, have found it harder to secure affordable policies. “But most classes of businesses are seeing some stability, and even some rate softening,” Rosa added.

Knowledge Is Power

Like many indepenent agencies have expressed to BusinessWest over the years, both Hanmer and Rosa took the opportunity to underline the importance of working with an agent to navigate these complexities.

“We have to understand their business before we put a program together,” Hanmer said. “We need to understand the business they’re in, their risks, the exposures they face, and how best to mitigate them. There’s more to that than buying insurance, but insurance is still primarily how you protect yourself from unknowns and risks. So with in-depth knowledge, we can put a program together and best fit what those exposures are.”

That creates relationships that go well beyond just buying a policy, he added.

“People believe they can buy insurance online, which a lot of people do, and they never have problems — until they have one. So where do they turn? They need an advocate in the form of an agent. It’s so important to educate people that there is a need for an agent. When you buy insurance, you hope you never use it, but when you need it, you’re glad you have it — and you’re glad you have an advocate.”

Mark Rosa

“We’re seeing cyber claims for classes of businesses I never thought possible. And there are legal fees that come with cyber strikes.”

Rosa agreed. “Obviously, you need to ask the right questions. Without an intimate knowledge of a business, you’re not able to do the job in the right way,” he said. “There’s so much in every one of these policies; they aren’t just one size fits all. There’s a lot of time involved in order to do the job correctly.

“So it’s a lot of learning what the business does, spending time with the owner, asking lots of questions. Otherwise, we don’t know how to fill certain gaps,” he went on. “I think what differentiates one agent from the next is what the experience is like and how unique it is. Everyone’s business is unique. While you might qualify for a certain policy type, it doesn’t mean you don’t need to go above and beyond that.”

Rosa added that insurance isn’t something business owners always want to talk about, but the conversations are necessary, if only to regularly check in on changes to the business and evolving risks and exposures.

One of those is cyber liability, which over the past decade has become an essential part of commercial insurance — for businesses of all sizes and sectors.

“More and more, the hackers are incredibly adept and professional in how they do things — it’s amazing how good these guys are. So cyber insurance is something that everybody needs now,” Hanmer said. “It used to be, people thought only big companies were targeted, but that’s not true anymore. Everyone is getting targeted. Cyber insurance is a must buy in this market.”

Rosa agreed. “We’re seeing cyber claims for classes of businesses I never thought possible. And there are legal fees that come with cyber strikes,” he noted. “Some business owners say, ‘the data was backed up from the day before, so I don’t care.’ Well, that’s understandable, but what happens when the state or the federal government comes and slaps you with a fine, and now you’re paying for credit monitoring? We’ve seen a small business pay $63,000 between the fines and the legal paperwork. And that business could have had a cyber policy anywhere from $1,200 to $1,500 over the year.”

Career Opportunities

Beyond the financial numbers, Hanmer said, the biggest challenge the industry faces — not just regionally but nationwide — is a shallow talent pool of young people clamoring to enter the field.

“They’re not migrating into the insurance world like they had in the past. So staffing and talent is our biggest challenge right now. Ask any agent, and they’ll say the same thing — we can’t find anybody,” he explained, before offering a few thoughts on why that might be.

“It’s not flashy enough, I think, for kids. All the technology and the tech startups, that’s where they’re migrating — the more tech-oriented world. Insurance is not tech-heavy, although it’s evolving. So I don’t think insurance is exciting enough for them, and it’s too bad because it’s a great business. When I find a young person and I can bend their ear for a minute, I encourage opportunities to be in the insurance world.”

Rosa noted that technology is creeping into the insurance world in some intriguing ways. For one, underwriters are using it to adjust what they currently have on the books, using drone or satellite footage.

“When they see your house was built in 1978, now they’re subscribing to third-party technology to show an image of your roof. And hey, this roof looks like it might be 20 to 30 years old. So are the rates increasing? They might be,” he said — if the company wants to keep insuring that property at all.

If not, he went on, “now you’re going from a carrier with a favorable rate to your options being more limited, and it’s gone from $1,200 to $1,600. It’s about insurability and certain risks and what insurance companies are willing to insure.”

At the same time, insurance companies are increasingly determining how they can incorporate artificial intelligence into those processes, and that will affect rates as well, Rosa noted.

“For homeowners and our business clients, AI will shake things up. Carriers have access to so much data, and they might say, ‘hey, we can’t insure this type of business any longer.’ And that will force rates higher. It might even be a good opportunity for carriers that don’t use the technology.

“It’s too hard to say what will happens,” he added, “but I do think insurance is an industry that’s been kind of slow on technology for many decades, but that will accelerate in the next two to five years — and insurance is going to be different from what it is today.”

South Hadley Says It’s Open for Business

By George O'Brien December 22, 2025

Community Spotlight Special Coverage

Community Spotlight

Sean Fitzgerald says SHELD’s fiber business, Fiberspring, continues to expand beyond its South Hadley roots.

Lisa Wong says she was following a trend of sorts. But this was also a no-brainer.

She was referring to her move to follow up four terms as mayor of Fitchburg, in Central Mass., with a new assignment as town manager of South Hadley.

Her immediate predecessor in that role, Mike Sullivan, did essentially the same thing, moving from the corner office in Holyoke, so there’s precedent for taking that career path. As for Wong, who has also been town manager in Winchester, she has many deep connections to South Hadley, including family — and her marriage certificate.

So when Sullivan, whom she knew from when they were both mayors, talked up the job, she threw her hat in the ring and was eventually chosen, coming aboard nearly four years ago.

When asked to compare and contrast the mayor and town manager roles, Wong said that, other than dealing with the press less frequently, the jobs are very similar, and involve managing for today and planning for tomorrow, in equal parts.

In South Hadley, that means everything from ongoing work to reimagine a section of Main Street to early-stage work to build a new elementary school; from a new housing project, called the Clover, to a town meeting vote to approve six additional liquor licenses (there are 19 at present), a nod to a growing restaurant and hospitality sector.

Now under construction near the Rocky’s plaza on Route 116, the Clover project, being undertaken by Way Finders, will include 60 units of mixed-income housing, said Wong, adding that this will help close the gap in the town’s housing needs, but more work is needed.

“We’re looking at places like the Falls and the Route 202 and 33 corridor as additional places for our businesses to grow, but also to bring in new businesses, especially small businesses, to create more vibrancy.”

“We have a bigger dent to make,” she said, adding that the town recently created an affordable housing trust, tasked with creating more housing options.

These are some of the many intriguing storylines in South Hadley. Others include continued growth of the South Hadley Electric Light Department’s (SHELD) fiber internet business, called Fiberspring, which has now expanded beyond the town, as well as plans for a new, $25 million headquarters building for the utility.

SHELD is now an internet provider in the towns of Leverett and Shutesbury, both in nearby Franklin County, and recently won a contract to provide fiber for customers in Longmeadow.

“We won a unanimous vote from the Select Board in Longmeadow, and we’ve done their engineering and design, so that’s pretty exciting,” SHELD General Manager Sean Fitzgerald told BusinessWest. “We’ve delivered to them a full, town-wide design engineering package, and in the spring, we’ll believe they’ll take a vote to finance either a partial launch or an entire town launch of fiber; they have a huge appetite for this.”

As for the new headquarters facility, SHELD has chosen a site across from the Big Y on Willimansett Street for a construction of a facility will replace a more than 100-year-old structure and provide the utility with room to grow, especially on the fiber side, and an opportunity to move out of a flood zone.

There’s also the community’s large and diverse business community, which includes those that have been around for decades — like Carey’s Flowers and Chap de Laine’s Interiors, and relative newcomers such as a Delaney’s Market.

Located in a small church salvaged by one of the towns flooded to create the Quabbin Reservoir, the South Hadley Delaney’s Market also includes the kitchen that makes the grab-and-go offerings now available at five locations across the region — South Hadley, Longmeadow, Westfield, Wilbraham, and the latest addition in West Springfield, with plans to expand in Holyoke.

Founder Peter Rosskothen, a serial entrepreneur who revitalized the Log Cabin banquet facility in Holyoke, said the Delaney’s Market concept, launched a decade ago with the Longmeadow store, is catching on, with the chain amassing a growing roster of steady, repeat customers.

“We’re feeling the economy a little bit this year, but it’s a very steady concept, with loyal, regular customers,” he said. “So I feel good about the concept.”

As for Chap de Laine’s, the landmark business, opened in 1957, is preparing to mark 50 years in business, said second-generation owner Lisanne Chapdelaine, who took the helm in 1997. It has celebrated more milestones since, she noted, by being faithful to the mission set in place by her father, while also becoming a one-stop shop, handling everything from residential and commercial furnishings to flooring coverings to window treatments.

Peter Rosskothen says his chain of Delaney’s Markets continues to grow, evolve, and draw repeat customers.

“We’re still in all the categories we have been historically,” she said. “And our design services go beyond our product offerings, providing the end users with paint and wallpaper. It’s all part of being a one-stop shop.”

Current Events

Wong said she considers South Hadley to be a destination community, complete with restaurants and shops (at Village Commons, for example), parks, the arts, recreation facilities, and Mount Holyoke College.

Among her many goals is to promote these various assets and draw more visitors, while also providing quality services to those who call the community home.

“I’m led by my love of the town,” she said, adding that there are several developing stories, including some infrastructure projects, topped by a major reconstruction of what’s known as the Falls Quarter, the historic South Hadley Falls neighborhood, which sits along the Connecticut River.

“There will be a major reconstruction of Main Street from the Chicopee line to the library,” said Wong, adding that plans call for creation of multi-purpose trails, beautification efforts, and other initiatives. “It will really revitalize that area.”

As she explained, “we’re looking at places like the Falls and the Route 202 and 33 corridor as additional places for our businesses to grow, but also to bring in new businesses, especially small businesses, to create more vibrancy. We have a lot of rezoning of quarters to create a more walkable neighborhood feel that can also accommodate quality commercial spaces.

South Hadley at a Glance

Year Incorporated: 1775
Population: 18,150
Area: 18.4 square miles
County: Hampshire
Residential and commercial tax rate: $15.41 (Fire District 1); $15.74 (Fire District 2)
Median Household Income: $46,678
Median Family Income: $58,693
Type of government: Town Meeting
Largest Employers: Mount Holyoke College; Loomis Communities; Big Y
* Latest information available

“We’re opening ourselves up for business,” she went on. “We want people to thrive here, but we also want to create new opportunities to be part of our vibrancy.”

Meanwhile, the town is looking to replace Mosier School, currently grades 2-4, and expand it to grades 1-5.

“This would be a major undertaking and a major asset for the community,” Wong said, adding that the town is looking at design options and anticipates building by 2030 or 2031.

While South Hadley is progressing on many fronts, so too is SHELD. Indeed, Fitzgerald told BusinessWest that the fiber project in town has mostly exceeded expectations, with the utility now boasting a 53% market share.

“And it’s still growing — we’re approaching 3,000 customers in South Hadley alone,” he noted. “People are jumping on the fiber every day. We’re adding nine to 12 customers every week — it’s the best case that we could have hoped for.”

Looking ahead to the Longmeadow project, Fitzgerald said it will be handled in much the same way that South Hadley (which is similar in size) was, meaning it will be phased in through creation of fiber service areas (FSAs), or fiberhoods, as SHELD likes to call them.

“Each fiberhood has 250 to 300 customers, so if we start out with three or four of those, you’re looking at close to 1,000 customers,” he said, adding that Longmeadow will eventually have about 6,000 customers. “You build the town out in sections.”

And the expectations are similar in South Hadley, he went on, adding that projections call for at least a 50% market share and likely much higher, as the need for reliable internet service continues to grow.

“Co-ax cable doesn’t have the capability of the fiber, and also, the industry has changed; people watch their television differently now,” he explained. “Those factors will drive us probably over 60% to 70% over the next three years.”

Meanwhile, SHELD continues to explore further expansion opportunities, such as in Southampton, where the town has made a proposal, and Hadley, one of several communities “kicking the tires,” said Fitzgerald, adding that further expansion, which could include going into neighboring states, will be challenged by the number of private equity companies getting into the fiber business, such as Gateway Fiber and GoNetSpeed.

“They’re coming in and slapping fiber up,” he added. “And if you have too many competitors on the pole, it waters down your ability to be successful.”

As for the new headquarters building, SHELD hopes to be in construction of that facility by the second quarter of 2026, Fitzgerald noted, adding that, to pay for it, the utility will likely impose a 2.5-cent rate increase on the electric side (roughly $200 per year for the average customer), a cost that will likely be reduced as revenues grow on the fiber side.

Food for Thought

Rosskothen told BusinessWest that, beyond convenience, the main thrust at Delaney’s Market is on ‘fresh.’

Made in South Hadley with local ingredients, the meals are brought to the four other locations daily to ensure freshness, he explained, adding that the concept has caught on with many different constituencies.

“Most of those who use it are young people, busy people, seniors … it’s a wide variety of customers that come regularly,” he said, adding that these groups are attracted by a combination of convenience, quality, and variety. “Hopefully, they come once a week, and many of our customers come at least two and half times a month.”

They have a wide variety of options to consider, from chicken francaise to shepherd’s pie; blackened salmon to stuffed peppers; chicken pot pie to lobster pie (Tuesday only).

“At this time of year, the comfort foods seem to do really well — the pot pies, the chicken parm, the shepherd’s pie,” he noted, adding that the stores to very well around the holidays, both for those entertaining and those too busy to cook.

In the new year, the company will add calorie-smart offerings that will coincide with those New Year’s resolutions to eat smarter and healthier, said Rosskothen, adding that, while the concept was launched a decade ago, it has been continually tweaked to generate new customers — and more repeat customers.

In many ways, that has been the same blueprint at Chap de Laine’s.

Indeed, the landmark store, first located in South Hadley Falls and then moved to its current location on College Street in 1970, has been welcoming different generations of the same family, said Chapdelaine, adding that the store has adapted to changing times while remaining true to its roots.

For example, people can do research on the internet, she explained — which, if used properly, can be a useful tool and a vehicle for bringing people to the store.

Most of the products sold in the store are made in the U.S., which reduces the broad impact from tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, she noted, adding quickly that even products made in the country will likely have components made overseas that are subject to tariffs.

“We have one or two small brands that are subject to tariffs,” she explained. “We have two big lines for which we’re paying 20% more, overnight, and that’s a biggie.”

But Chap de Laine’s has successfully navigated plenty of change as it approaches 50 years, in a town where change — and, hopefully, business momentum — promise to be constant as well.

Scenes from the 2025 Women of Impact Event

By BusinessWest Staff December 10, 2025

Special Coverage Women of Impact 2025

View the Photo Gallery from the December 9 Celebration at the Twin Hills Country Club

[Show thumbnails]

Photos by Underwood Photography

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

Go HERE to view the 2025 Women of Impact Digital Section

The eight stories below demonstrate that idea many times over. They detail not only what these women do for a living, but what they’ve done with their lives — specifically, how they’ve become innovators in their fields, leaders within the community, advocates for people in need, and, most importantly, inspirations to all those around them. The class of 2025 features:

Tara Brewster

Vice president of Business Development and Director of Philanthropy at Greenfield Savings Bank

Ayanna Crawford

President of AC Consulting and Media Services

Tracy Friedenberg

Executive director of Bacon Wilson, P.C.

Rania Kfuri

Vice president for Philanthropy, Sales, and Marketing at Glenmeadow

Chelsea Kline

Executive director of Cancer Connection

Angelina Ramirez

CEO of Stavros Center for Independent Living

Amanda Sanderson

Executive director of Resilience Center of Franklin County

Sarah Rose Stack

Lecturer of Public Relations at UMass Amherst

Photos by Bob Zemba, Simple Truth Imaging

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BusinessTalk with Sean O’Brien, Director of Cybersecurity & Computer Science at Bay Path University

By BusinessWest Staff December 8, 2025

Business Talk Podcast Special Coverage

With new episodes airing every other Monday, BusinessTalk features in-depth interviews and discussions with local industry leaders who offer thoughtful perspectives on the Western Massachusetts economy and the many business ventures that keep it running. BusinessTalk is sponsored and presented by Greenfield Cooperative Bank.

Go HERE to view all episodes

Episode 248: December 8, 2025

Joe Bednar talks with Sean O’Brien, Director of Cybersecurity and Computer Science at Bay Path University

Cybersecurity is no longer just a technical discipline: it’s a cornerstone of business, law, and civil society,” Sean O’Brien said recently, and businesses of all sizes and sectors are grappling with that new reality. On the next episode of BusinessTalk, Sean, the director of Cybersecurity at Bay Path University, sits down with BusinessWest Editor Joe Bednar for a wide-ranging discussion about how cyberthreats have evolved — with AI being just the latest disruptive wrinkle — but also how defenses are being sharpened with the same technology, as well as how this field will continue to be fertile ground for young people seeking to forge careers in a realm where change is constant and talent is in demand. It’s must listening, so tune into BusinessTalk, a podcast presented by BusinessWest over both audio and video platforms, and sponsored by Greenfield Cooperative Bank.

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Giving Guide 2025

By BusinessWest Staff December 8, 2025

Giving Guide Special Coverage

Regional Philanthropic Opportunities

Leaders of nonprofits across Western Mass. have grappled with a more challenging fiscal climate in the past year — and the need to become more ambitious, creative, and expansive in their fundraising efforts as federal funding shrinks. For the past 15 years, BusinessWest has published its annual Giving Guide to shine a spotlight on local nonprofits, detailing specific community needs and showing you not only how to support them, but exactly what your money and time can accomplish.

The profiles of area nonprofit organizations on the following pages — many of them sponsored by businesses that believe in their missions — are just a sampling of the region’s thousands of such organizations. These profiles are intended to educate readers about what these groups are doing to improve quality of life for the people living and working in the 413, but also to inspire them to provide the critical support (which comes in many different forms, from donating to volunteering to advocating) that they and so many others so desperately need.

View the 2025 Giving Guide PDF Flipbook HERE

Amherst Survival Center

Behavioral Health Network Inc.

Berkshire Family & Individual Resources

Community Foundation Of Western Massachusetts

Food Bank Of Western Massachusetts

Franklin County Sheriff’s Office Triad Program

Friends Of Franklin County Regional Dog Shelter

Glenmeadow

HCS Head Start Inc.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Family Services

Rachel’s Table Of Western Massachusetts

RFK Community Alliance

Tom Cosenzi Driving For The Cure Charity Golf Tournament

Women’s Fund Of Western Massachusetts

YWCA Of Western Massachusetts

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The Year in Review

By George O'Brien December 8, 2025

Features Special Coverage

From AI to the Courthouse Search, the Landscape Is Changing

By George O’Brien and Joseph Bednar

It is December, time to look ahead to what might happen in the new year, but also look back, at what has been an eventful year, to say the least.

For example, Springfield has become engrossed in the search for a site for a new courthouse, the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council has named a new director, AI is changing the landscape in all kinds of ways, and remote work is becoming more entrenched in the workplace. Then there’s the constantly changing story of tariffs, federal budget cuts that are challenging nonprofits, and an ongoing housing crisis.

As we said, it’s been an eventful year. Here’s a look back at some of the biggest stories of 2025:

A Softening of the Job Market

“Job hugging.”

That was one of the workforce trends to unfold in 2025, a year that saw the pendulum swing from this being an employees’ market to one favoring employers. The phrase refers to people hanging onto their jobs longer amid concerns that the grass isn’t any greener elsewhere, amid forces ranging from AI to severe cutbacks within the federal government.

“People are feeling a sense of volatility and continuous change, and when you feel like that, you look for some personal anchors, and for a lot of people, their job is their personal anchor,” Allison Ebner, president of the Employers Assoc. of the NorthEast, told BusinessWest recently, adding that this is a fairly recent phenomenon dating back to last spring or early summer. “Everything in the world is changing, and they want to keep something consistent, and maybe it’s their job.”

But while people may be hugging their job, they’re still looking around, as evidenced by the strong turnout at the recent job fair staged by the MassHire Springfield Career Center. The turnout was strong on both the job seeker and employer sides of the coin, indicating that, while some sectors are seeing a slowdown, many others, especially healthcare, are still struggling to find qualified help.

Seeking New Sources of Funding

This issue of BusinessWest includes the annual Giving Guide, encouraging readers to support local nonprofits. And it couldn’t come at a better time, at the tail end of a year in which federal funding for nonprofits of all types was significantly slashed.

That has caused frustration, but also a new determination among nonprofit leaders to be more creative and collaborative in meeting the many needs of the community.

“People are reaching out, and not just with appeals for direct funding,” Denise Hurst, vice president of Community Impact and Partnerships with the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, told us in May. “They’re asking about opportunities to partner with one another, share ideas, and collaborate in real time to navigate these difficult times.”

Meanwhile, a coalition of local nonprofits working in farming, conservation, food security, health, and environmental justice has come together under the name Resilient Valley to respond to federal funding cuts that have slashed organizational budgets by 25% to 40% or more.

“We realized we were all telling the same story,” said Billy Spitzer, executive director of the Hitchcock Center for the Environment. “Our budgets had been gutted overnight, and the ripple effects were only beginning. We decided we couldn’t face this crisis in isolation. We needed to find strength in each other.”

The Impact of Tariffs

President Trump ran on the promise of new, sweeping tariffs, and he has certainly followed through, announcing ‘Liberation Day’ on April 2, followed by months of trade talks, new deals, deadlines made, deadlines extended, and seemingly never-ending speculation about the impact of tariffs on prices, individual businesses, and entire sectors.

Dave Fontaine, CEO of Fontaine Bros. Inc., told BusinessWest earlier this year that tariffs will certainly impact project costs because tariffs on products, such as steel or copper, are applied not when they are ordered, but when they enter the country.

“I think it’s vitally important to bring this area back — it raises the quality of living for those living downtown, and it provides places for people to go and eat.”

“I would equate it to walking into a store … the sales tax is 6.25%, and then, while you’re purchasing the item, the sales tax gets doubled or tripled,” he explained. “That’s going to impact at the register.”

Uncertainty around tariff decisions also triggered fluctuations in the stock market this past spring — and plenty of client phone calls to investment firms. But Jeffrey Liguori, executive vice president of Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc., was one of several experts who told us it’s wise to take a longer view.

“The data is 100% in your favor. Nothing ever goes straight up. We’ve lived through most of these crises — the housing crisis, the tech bubble, the Great Recession,” he said. “All of those, time and again, have been incredible buying opportunities. It’s almost like, if there’s no pain, there’s no gain.”

The Search for a New Courthouse

The search for a replacement for the troubled Roderick C. Ireland courthouse in Springield entered an intriguing new phase when the state’s Department of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) decided to let a private developer build and manage the facility and have the state lease it.

An RFP was issued mid-year, and 11 proposals were received involving a wide range of properties, from the park created by the demolition of the former Steiger’s department store to the Republican building; from the current courthouse site itself to the home of the former Mardi Gras strip club.

DCAMM is now weighing those proposals and is expected to have a decision in the first or second quarter of next year, making for a long and agonizing wait to see how the city’s landscape will be changed.

Progress in the Entertainment District

Many of the windows in the storefronts are still boarded up or covered by brown paper, but behind all this, there is some progress in Springfield’s entertainment district.

Noted attorney and developer Raipher Pellegrino, with support from the city in the form of a $2 million grant, is filling in a canvas along a city block of buildings on Worthington Street.

He envisions five restaurants in all, most with doors opening out onto Worthington Street and outdoor dining, in addition to a club and other businesses that will support each other and bring people and energy back to that corridor.

“I think it’s vitally important to bring this area back — it raises the quality of living for those living downtown, and it provides places for people to go and eat,” he told BusinessWest in June, adding that the project is a work in progress. “That was my desire with this, and it’s a much more difficult project than I think anyone envisioned, but I think we’re starting to see it evolve, and we’re seeing a lot of momentum.”

A Work of Arts

Another intriguing story in 2025 was the opening of the Hope Center for the Arts in downtown Springfield. Created in the former CityStage space, the center is the culmination of a long-held dream of Bob Bolduc, former owner of Pride Stations and Stores and founder of the Hope for Youth and Families Foundation.

The center, which opened its doors during the summer, and created at a cost of more than $14 million, is designed as flexible learning, rehearsal, and performance space that will advance the mission of the foundation and several partner organizations focused on the arts and helping youth and families in Springfield thrive.

Bolduc said the facility is designed to educate young people, immerse them in the arts, and perhaps inspire careers in that realm.

“The arts are not just entertaining and cultural, which we need in this city; they’re also inspiring,” he told BusinessWest. “Imagine a kid who gets turned on to dance or vocals or an instrument and then goes to a good school on a scholarship … we’ve changed their life.”

AI Has Become a Force

Wherever artificial intelligence takes us, we’ll look back at 2025 as the year it firmly established itself as a force to be reckoned with. Businesses in sectors ranging from law to accounting to healthcare are finding new ways to utilize AI to create new efficiencies and, in some cases, trim their workforce expense.

Meanwhile, for those in the workforce, as well as those looking to enter it, the ability to use AI has rapidly become a skill they must have.

Indeed, Ebner told us, “the phrase you hear now is, ‘AI won’t replace all the people, but it will replace people who don’t have AI skills.’”

Nicole Polite, CEO and founder of the East Longmeadow-based MH Group, agreed, telling BusinessWest that employers are becoming more skills-focused in their hiring.

“I often talk to people during the interview process and ask them what training they’ve had in terms of AI and make sure they stay in front of it,” she noted, “because AI is here for the long haul, so we have to adjust to it.”

Remote Work Is Here to Stay

Also seemingly here for good is remote work, as 2025 saw remote and hybrid models becoming more entrenched, regionally and nationally, even as some major employers were scaling back on the practice, if not cutting it out.

Indeed, while business leaders such as J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon enforced return-to-office policies, requiring most employees to work in person five days a week — arguing “you can’t learn working from your basement” — most businesses locally have preferred to stay with hybrid schedules as a way to retain valued talent — and attract new talent.

And while the practice seems to work for most businesses and their employees, it is definitely having an impact on businesses in central business districts in cities regionally and across the country — as well as the commercial real estate owners who rely on them, not to mention the restaurants and retailers who count on people working nearby and stopping in.

The Housing Crisis Continues

An ongoing story in 2025 was the housing crisis that has enveloped the county and this region. As BusinessWest continued its Community Spotlight series, leaders in cities and towns across the 413 spoke of the need for more housing of all kinds, especially the affordable variety.

Housing is needed for many reasons, they said, from helping seniors stay in their hometowns as the cost of homes skyrockets to enabling those in the workforce to afford to live in or close to the communities where they work, a problem that is especially acute in the Berkshires, where home prices have soared.

And while new housing projects are underway or planned in several area communities, from Pittsfield and Lee to Springfield and Chicopee, in many cases, the new units will only scratch the surface when it comes to what is needed.

A New Effort to Spark Entrepreneurship

They’re calling it VVM 2.0, and that’s a poignant name.

VVM is an acronym for Valley Venture Mentors, the nonprofit started to inspire entrepreneurship and provide fledging businesses with the mentorship and technical support needed to get to the next stage. The agency thrived for several years, but essentially didn’t survive the pandemic and other challenges to its existence.

Paul Silva, one of VVM’s founders, with support from the Davis Foundation and the MassMutual Foundation, recently launched a new initiative called Innovate413 that is designed to spark new tech-based startups in the region.

When asked how it would work, Silva said the initiative will provide startups with what he called “an unfair advantage,” in the form of access to potential customers, meaning large, regional employers that will talk about problems facing them and all those in their industries, and access to the latest artificial intelligence and product development techniques.

“When you’re in Silicon Valley or in Boston, you have access to that stuff, but the vast majority of the country doesn’t,” he told BusinessWest.

Aaron Vega Chosen to Lead the EDC

Rick Sullivan, president of the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council (EDC), announced his retirement early in the year, and soon thereafter, a nationwide search for a successor commenced.

It ended this fall with the announcement that Aaron Vega, director of the Office of Planning and Economic Development in Holyoke, would assume that high-profile position in January. Vega brings a diverse résumé to his new job. Indeed, he worked for many years as a freelance film editor and also owned his own yoga studio before becoming a city councilor in Holyoke and then a state representative.

Vega told BusinessWest that his first order of business is to conduct a lengthy listening tour. Longer-term, he wants to build on progress made with developing new business sectors, such as food science, clean energy, and cybersecurity, while also being more aggressive with efforts to promote the region and tell its story.

Hub of Progress

Speaking of the EDC, it recently celebrated a major milestone for the innovation economy, with Western Mass. being designated as both a Quantum Technology TechHub and a Food Science TechHub through the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. In addition to the two designations, funding in the form of $1 million to advance a feasibility and design study of a quantum supply chain accelerator (QSCA) was awarded to Springfield Technical Community College.

“Western Massachusetts is the only region in the Commonwealth to receive two TechHub designations, which is a testament to the strength of our innovation ecosystem and the collaboration that defines it.”

The QSCA will build on the foundation established in Holyoke at the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center and the state’s first quantum computing complex launched with QuEra Computing Inc. The accelerator, which will be the first regional facility of its kind to drive commercialization, support startups, and strengthen advanced manufacturing supply chains across the Pioneer Valley, will be located at the Springfield Technology Park.

“Western Massachusetts is the only region in the Commonwealth to receive two TechHub designations, which is a testament to the strength of our innovation ecosystem and the collaboration that defines it,” said Rick Sullivan, outgoing president and CEO of the EDC. “These designations, and the $1 million dollar investment in the quantum supply chain accelerator, represent years of hard work and vision from our regional partners.”

A New Chapter for the Monson Developmental Center

Housing is one of the many potential new uses for the Monson Developmental Center, which is an intriguing new addition to the large portfolio of Westmass Area Development Corp.

Indeed, in July, the Commonwealth officially transferred the sprawling campus to Westmass, touting the transaction as part of ongoing efforts to utilize existing properties to build more housing in the state.

And with that transfer, Westmass, in partnership with DCAMM, will commence work to create what will be known as the Village at Sawmill Brook, named for the brook that runs through the property, which closed in the ’90s. This village will take shape over the next 10 to 20 years, said Westmass President and CEO Jeff Daley, adding that this is a large and difficult undertaking for the agency, but one laden with potential.

“It’s an imposing site, and there’s a ton of work that has to be done,” he told BusinessWest. “And there’s a lot of money that has to be invested just to make the site developable again.”

Something to Sink Your Teeth Into

BusinessWest continued a 30-year tradition by honoring its Top Entrepreneur in 2025, with the award going to John and Chris DeVoie, founders of the Hot Table chain of panini restaurants.

Launched in 2007, the chain has grown to 13 locations and well beyond its roots at the Brightwood Plaza — to several communities in the 413 and also Central Mass. and into Connecticut.

The past few years have been extremely busy, with the opening of five new restaurants — in Westfield, Chicopee, West Springfield, and Franklin, as well as Manchester, Conn., a time that has been followed by a period of absorbing such rapid and profound growth. Further expansion is possible, but the high costs of building has prompted the partners to hit pause while they continue to search for new opportunities.

“We always want to be nimble — the market changes quickly; that’s one of the things COVID taught us,” Chris said. “We always have our eyes open and our ears to the ground, watch what’s happening in other cities and with trends, and not chase every shiny object, especially when it comes to the menu — do what you do, and do it well.”

Rare Forms Aims to Create Healthier Homes

By Joseph Bednar December 8, 2025

Building Trades Special Coverage

Sustainable by Design

President Greg Bossie

Greg Bossie jokes that negative ideas around building with straw starts in childhood.

“We all grew up with the Three Little Pigs,” he said. “So people have a lot of misconceptions about the viability of straw as a building component.”

But no one’s huffing, puffing, and blowing houses down that are constructed or renovated by Rare Forms, a unique, mission-driven construction company that Bossie launched in 2020.

At the heart of the business model are what’s known as seed straw panels, which are assembled to form the exterior of a house or business.

“I really felt that I wanted to push further into a values- and mission-based structure, particularly around the use of bio-based building materials and internal structure.”

“We build a wood frame, so they are structural. We build it in a steel jig table, and then the straw gets compressed with a pneumatic press,” he explained. “So there’s no binder, there’s no lime or cement or anything like that in it. It’s just compressed straw, which performs really well in terms of the comfort and insulation of a structure.”

And straw is not hay, he added, knocking down another one of those misconceptions. “Straw is just the woody stalk of the grain plant, which could be wheat, rye, oat, rice, any grain that has a woody stalk. We use rye from Plainville Farm in Hadley.”

He explained that the hard, compressed straw, wrapped in a sealed panel, has the same base molecular structure as wood, and is not prone to decomposition, partly because of the way it’s airtight, yet ‘vapor-open,’ allowing any water entering the structure to exit quickly, preventing moisture damage.

The straw panels are also fire-resistant, whereas foam insulation is flammable, he added.

“Lots of people worry about fire, justifiably. But compressed straw, when compressed in a panel, behaves like timber, which means that, when exposed to fire, it chars on the outside and protects its inner core. With a straw panel, we can get a one- or two-hour fire rating, so it’s actually far less fire-prone than, say, any fluffy insulation that allows air movement, because you need oxygen movement to fuel fire, and when you’ve got this incredibly compressed structure that doesn’t allow any air movement through it, it’s really fire-resistant.

“Straw-based building systems have been used for millennia,” Bossie noted. “But actually encasing straw — compressing straw into a wood frame and panelizing it in this way — is really an innovation of the last maybe 12 years or so. It’s a combination of two well-worn building technologies — wood frame and straw bale building combined into one system.

Compressed straw panels, like those in this home under construction, are both structural and insulating.

“That allows us to utilize the advantages of off-site construction methodology, meaning that we can do all of this in a climate-controlled environment,” he went on, while walking BusinessWest through the shop where bales of hay are stacked, ready to be compressed and panelized.

“One of the risks of traditional straw bale building, particularly in our climate, is that, during construction, it can be exposed to a lot of moisture. Straw panels allow us to work in a controlled environment,” he noted. “We can compress the straw into these wood panels, wrap those panels in weather-resistant barriers, and then install them on site in a relatively short period of time, so that we can limit any potential water exposure during that time. Roof panels tend to take a little bit longer than wall panels, but we can basically assemble this high-performance envelope very quickly.”

Building a Passion

Bossie went to school for architecture and worked in that field for a number of years, but when he moved to Massachusetts from California in 2011, he ended up co-owning a company called Stone Soup Concrete, which specializes in concrete countertops. Later, he was project manager for a design-build company working in the residential sector.

“That got me into building science and high-performance building. But I really felt that I wanted to push further into a values- and mission-based structure, particularly around the use of bio-based building materials and internal structure.”

That idea became Rare Forms, which was just Bossie at first, actually doing the construction before the company started to grow; it now totals about a dozen employees.

“Operational carbon is really important; it adds up over the lifetime of a building. But all of that embodied carbon happens now.”

“We were doing residential design-build, primarily retrofit and addition work to start, and then got into doing some new construction homes,” he explained. “And then, a year and a half ago, we actively pushed into the straw panel aspect of things, which had been my goal for quite a while.

“Straw panels allow us to build homes and additions that actually store more embodied carbon than they emit in the construction process,” he went on. “The construction industry has been focused on what we call operational carbon for a long time, which is energy usage — and trying to reduce our energy usage — and we’ve made incredible strides with that over the last 30 years or so.

Greg Bossie says it was important to him to launch a mission- and values-driven company.

Greg Bossie says his company’s values extend to environmental impact, homeowner health, community support, and more..

“But in the last 10 years — really, the last five to seven years — people started to seriously look at embodied carbon and realize that, in the current state of climate crisis, operational carbon is really important; it adds up over the lifetime of a building. But all of that embodied carbon happens now. And lots of buildings get built in such a way that they have an incredibly high embodied carbon footprint.”

What Rare Forms does, Bossie explained, is use bio-based building materials to substantially reduce or even invert the embodied carbon aspect of building, while also maintaining high building performance and the low energy usage. Another motivation is better indoor air quality, meaning greater comfort and health for building occupants.

“There’s a lot of asthma issues that are caused by building materials from all the foams, so we’re trying to build with completely foam-free assemblies wherever possible, which, in new construction is very achievable; with retrofits, it can be a little bit more difficult with older structures.”

While the straw to create the wall panels is sourced from Hadley, the company’s roof panels are insulated with a product called TimberHP, a wood fiber insulation product manufactured in Madison, Maine, from waste timber from that state’s sprawling timber industry.

In short, “we think about sustainability pretty holistically,” Bossie told BusinessWest. “There’s the materials side of things, which is choosing what you build the house out of. There’s also the waste management, doing as much selective deconstruction as possible, meaning saving fixtures, finishes, any building materials you can, keeping as much out of the landfill to begin with as possible, either saving materials for use in the project or donating those materials.”

Meanwhile, the company works with local sawyers to source timber locally, and also strives to reduce transportation emissions. For example, while Rare Forms mainly works in the 413, it’s currently working on a project in Peru, Vt., and has come up with a way to lessen travel impact on the environment.

“Our team meets here at the shop, and they carpool in one vehicle up there. They stay overnight during the week and then drive back so that we don’t have a team of four people each taking individual vehicles two hours each way every day,” he explained. “Trucking building materials is an incredibly high emissions aspect of building.”

Mission Driven

The seed panel system was designed by New Frameworks in Essex Junction, Vt., one of three founding member companies — Rare Forms and Building Integrity in Columbia, Mo. are the others — in the Seed Collaborative, a partnership that aims to create a broad network of companies using local materials to build carbon-positive systems.

“The function of buildings is to provide shelter for people. Ultimately, I think that how we relate to other human beings is what defines our lives. How we take care of each other is what defines the value of a society. How we shelter people defines our culture of care.”

“We share the methodology of manufacturing straw panels, as well as other shared services — we’re sharing marketing services and business consulting services, and trying to consolidate a lot of the infrastructure of each individual business to make this endeavor more accessible from a business perspective, and also to help make the kits and panels themselves more affordable, so these homes can be more accessible to middle-class homeowners,” Bossie explained, adding that the Seed Collaborative will continue to expand across the U.S., starting with the next set of partners in Colorado, Maryland, and Washington.

Rare Forms has also carved out a niche in prefabricated accessory dwelling units (ADUs), tiny homes that blend efficiency, sustainability, and aesthetics. The company recently won an award in an ADU design competition staged by the North Adams Partnership and AARP.

Greg Bossie says Rare Forms essentially combines two well-worn building technologies, wood frame and straw bale building, in innovative new ways.

“The state is really inclined to push ADU expansion right now; it’s one way that we can increase housing density and available housing units,” he noted. “We have a housing affordability and availability crisis, and ADUs are one way that we can increase housing density in existing neighborhoods without substantially impacting the character of those neighborhoods.

“It is, unfortunately, a really expensive way to do that,” he admitted. “The cost per housing unit for ADUs is high because you’re taking essentially all of the infrastructure that you need for a 1,500- or 3,000-square-foot house and compacting it into, say, a 600- or 900-square-foot house. You’ve still got all the utilities, all the electricity, all your mechanicals and plumbing and kitchen and bath. So the cost per square foot for an ADU tends to be substantially higher than for a larger house. But we’re working hard to find ways to make them accessible to middle-class homeowners.”

The company’s values extend beyond building materials and environmental impact; they include work in the community as well. Rare Forms donates 1% of all its revenue each year to nonprofit organizations, including the Hitchcock Center for the Environment, the Connecticut River Valley Conservancy, Leave No Trace, the Venture Out Project, and Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture.

“We focus on both donating monetarily to local organizations and also using our space to help build communities,” he noted, which includes hosting events focused on everything from building science to promoting women and people of color in the trades.

From a broader perspective, “it’s about people,” Bossie said. “The function of buildings is to provide shelter for people. Ultimately, I think that how we relate to other human beings is what defines our lives. How we take care of each other is what defines the value of a society. How we shelter people defines our culture of care.

“And I wanted to — both personally and from a business perspective — really invest in building something that can care for people, both in terms of what we build and how we build it and how we build the business as well, making sure that we are investing all of our resources back into the people that are here, employees of Rare Forms, but also our trade partners, our clients.”

So when Bossie calls Rare Forms a mission- and values-based business, he’s got a lot on his mind.

“I like people,” he said. “I also have three daughters, and, while I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about legacy, the way that I want to define the success of my own life is — like a lot of people, I think — can I leave the world a little bit better for my kids than I found it?”

Cybersecurity Offers Promising Career Paths

By Joseph Bednar December 8, 2025

Cybersecurity Special Coverage

Evolving Threats

Sean O’Brien says cybersecurity used to be seen as a niche issue in many business sectors, but has become a central concern.

As high-tech businesses grapple with the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) — and workers worry what that might mean for their job security — those who work in cybersecurity may have reason for optimism, Sean O’Brien said.

“Even though we’ve seen a shift, certainly, in IT careers around AI — folks getting laid off and so on — cybersecurity is still humming along. It’s one of the hot industries, essentially,” O’Brien, director of Cybersecurity at Bay Path University, recently told BusinessWest.

A few days earlier, O’Brien had led Bay Path’s 13th annual Cybersecurity Summit, where he and other experts discussed how artificial intelligence is reshaping cybersecurity, education, and workforce development, and what all that means for career paths in this quickly evolving field.

Some young people might be scared off by what they perceive as the highly technical nature of cybersecurity, but he emphasized that the field, and the work being done within it, is strikingly diverse.

“One of the reasons I keep emphasizing the non-technical nature of cybersecurity is because I think that tech can scare people,” he said. “First off, we’re talking about things that are actually scary — things that keep me up at night. But also, people don’t want to feel like they’re going to be a code monkey, so to speak, sitting at a keyboard all day. So I try to emphasize the more exciting cases, the sort of weird and interesting stuff that we can do in cybersecurity.

“Cybersecurity is wide-ranging. There are people who analyze malware — they look at what’s in our software and how it spies on people and breaks their stuff and steals their info, or even drains their Bitcoin wallet, those kinds of things. There are folks who do digital forensics work — they may be looking at evidence and preparing it for a court case or even just an investigation or an audit of an organization.”

Then there are people who work at security operations centers like the one now located at the Richard E. Neal Cybersecurity Center of Excellence in Springfield, which help organizations detect, prevent, and respond to threats.

“When people talk about AI being a threat, what they really mean is generative AI being a threat, large language models being a threat. And just like AI had been used for defensive good purposes before, we can still take generative AI and use it for good purposes as well.”

“That’s a burgeoning field, being the individual who looks at a dashboard, sees all the information coming in, and makes conclusions and reports and even post-mortem analysis,” O’Brien explained. “Even after something has gone wrong, you need the individual who’s going to say, ‘well, here’s how it went wrong,’ and provide that report to the C-suite in an organization.”

Then there are individuals moving to cybersecurity from other fields — or vice versa — and incorporating it into other disciplines.

“I want to have folks who are managers, essentially, who are able to take all of this information, come up with security plans and risk management scenarios, and talk about security architecture and those kinds of things, because those don’t change no matter what goes on with the technology,” O’Brien told BusinessWest. “In my time — and I’ve been doing this since I was a kid, essentially — I have seen technology shift so much, but the fundamentals don’t change.”

In short, it’s a field broad enough to welcome people from any discipline or interest, and that, combined with the fact that it’s certain to remain important, makes cybersecurity an attractive career option.

“You’ve got to have the hunger for it, certainly,” he added. “That’s why it’s always fun to be around other cyber folks, because they’re always energetic.”

Future Shock

The keynote address at the Cybersecurity Summit was delivered by Scott Shapiro, a professor at Yale Law School. O’Brien met him years ago when he worked there, and the two of them co-founded a cybersecurity lab for Yale law students.

“We took folks who are non-technical, primarily — great legal minds, certainly, but not technical people — and we got them to use the command line. We got them to do hacks on their own,” O’Brien said. “We would say, ‘here’s why strong passwords are important. By the way, here’s how to crack a weak password.’”

Now in charge of Bay Path’s cybersecurity program, O’Brien is passionate about sparking that interest in young people.

Sean O’Brien (right) conducts a ‘fireside chat’ with Yale Law School Professor Scott Shapiro about advances in cybersecurity and AI during the recent Cybersecurity Summit.

“Bay Path, an amazing program, really has an innovative approach, which is one of the reasons they recruited me,” he told BusinessWest. “They said, ‘hey, you’re doing some cool and interesting things with cybersecurity, we’re doing cool and interesting things with cybersecurity, so let’s hang out.’”

Shapiro’s address — and ‘fireside chat’ discussion with O’Brien — touched numerous times on the role of AI in cybersecurity, and why it’s not all bad news.

“The first thing is to recognize that every tool can be used for good or for bad. A gun can be used either to defend yourself and your family in your home or to hold up a convenience store. And encryption — we love encryption when it protects our private communication; we hate it when it’s called ransomware,” said Shapiro, who is also the author of Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: The Dark History of the Information Age in Five Extraordinary Hacks.

He applied the same message to AI, after a quick history lesson explaining the difference between classical AI and generative AI, which is a much more recent phenomenon.

“AI has been part of cybersecurity for such a long time. You had very basic symbolic systems that helped detect for intrusions and exploitations. In the 2010s, you could not walk through a trade show without people telling you about their AI that protects everyone, and that was machine learning that tried to correlate usage with time, with location, and try to figure out the markers of a threat.

“Now, when people talk about AI being a threat, what they really mean is generative AI being a threat, large language models being a threat. And just like AI had been used for defensive good purposes before, we can still take generative AI and use it for good purposes as well.”

The bad purposes are plenty, Shapiro said, from deepfakes to malware. But in many ways, AI is simply sharpening the sort of threats that already existed.

On the traditional internet, O’Brien told BusinessWest, “we had things called botnets. These are automated computers that are being controlled by a command and control computer somewhere. So your grandmother’s TV set or set-top box or router can be controlled by some adversary somewhere on the other side of the world. You get enough of these machines talking together, they can attack websites; they can break stuff down. Those kinds of threats have been going on for a very long time.

“I would say what’s going on right now is AI is an accelerating force,” he went on. “We still have these threats; everything old is new again. But because AI is able to sort of think on its feet, it’s able to probabilistically change direction and try certain things very easily.”

During the Cybersecurity Summit, O’Brien talked about a botnet called Aisuru that was the most highly trafficked domain in the world during November — more than Google, Yahoo, Facebook, you name it — because of the ease with which it insinuated itself into everything from routers to cameras to gaming platforms. Its goal? Distributed denial of service attacks trying to take down websites.

That sort of threat takes cybersecurity out of the business realm and makes it everyone’s concern.

“Now that everybody’s online constantly, we have devices in our pockets which are basically supercomputers. We’re surrounded by devices, cameras, thermostats, all the stuff that’s connected to the internet. Cybersecurity is now a central topic. It’s encompassed so many aspects of our life,” he explained. “Chat GPT was released to the public a few years ago, and there is a real revolution in computing, and people are starting to see how these algorithms can do incredibly useful stuff, but also incredibly dangerous stuff.”

But AI can also be a strong weapon against those dangers.

“I remember old-style viruses. We had some Macs in our elementary school that got a virus, and everything went down. But then we started having virus detection engines — they look for signatures, and they react. AI is very good at this sort of signature detection and being very agile, being able to look at some things and say, ‘this looks like activity that shouldn’t be happening in the network.’

“So those detection tools, this ability to read through long logs of text, which is what people use ChatGPT and these types of technologies for anyway, are security tools that are speeding up the pace of action and analysis and giving cybersecurity analysts a lot more detailed information a lot more quickly.”

Always Watching

One reason O’Brien likes being an educator is seeing what students are actually interested in, and the way they think of new threats and new applications.

“The students are coming to us with scenarios that are interesting, their own ideas about unique hacks that could be happening. I had a student, for example, demonstrate for me a hack of a Roomba. I hadn’t thought much about a Roomba, but you think about a Roomba, it moves around, and it actually has a lot of data about the physical space,” he said.

“Having that surprise at this point in my life, after I’ve thought I’ve seen everything, is a really big part of this. I’m excited to see where things go.”

And that constant learning is yet another reason why cybersecurity careers will remain attractive — and why shepherding a new generation into that work is so important.

“I think it’s going to be hard to eliminate the need for cybersecurity folks, no matter what comes around the corner technologically,” O’Brien told BusinessWest. “We’ve got to stay on our feet. We’ve got to lock our things up.”

BusinessTalk with Jillian Morgan, Director of Development, Food Bank of Western Massachusetts

By BusinessWest Staff November 24, 2025

Business Talk Podcast Special Coverage

With new episodes airing every other Monday, BusinessTalk features in-depth interviews and discussions with local industry leaders who offer thoughtful perspectives on the Western Massachusetts economy and the many business ventures that keep it running. BusinessTalk is sponsored and presented by Greenfield Cooperative Bank.

Go HERE to view all episodes

Episode 247: November 24, 2025

Joe Bednar talks with Jillian Morgan, Director of Development, Food Bank of Western Massachusetts

Every single month, through its roughly 200 partners, the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts helps about 125,000 people in the 413 access more than 1 million meals. Among the roles of Director of Development Jillian Morgan and her team are to execute fundraising activities, boost engagement through volunteering, and develop strategies to raise awareness about this nonprofit’s critical mission — one that has been challenged this year by everything from federal funding cuts to the recent SNAP disruption. For this episode of BusinessTalk, Jillian sits down with BusinessWest Editor Joe Bednar to talk about all of that, plus the 16th annual March for the Food Bank, which engages a sea of participants in a four-county effort to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s must listening — and certainly food for thought — so tune into BusinessTalk, a podcast presented by BusinessWest over both audio and video platforms, and sponsored by Greenfield Cooperative Bank.

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The Majestic Theater Has Staged a Showing of Perseverance

By George O'Brien November 24, 2025

Features Special Coverage

A Long-running Success Story

From left, Todd Kadis, Danny Eaton, Sue Dziura, and Terry LaCasse.

It’s been more than 30 years now, but Danny Eaton can still vividly remember the first time he saw what was left of the historic Majestic Theater on Elm Street in West Springfield.

There wasn’t much to look at, he recalled, adding that the back area of the old moviehouse, where Mickey Rooney once played Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the Three Stooges had performed, had become a crumbling dumping ground of sorts.

A scene from Steel Magnolias, currently playing at the Majestic.

“There were carpet remnants, some broken office furniture, and all kinds of junk like that,” said Eaton, the actor, director, playwright, and entrepreneur who had been leading a group of like-minded individuals in the creation of a nonprofit professional theater company called the Theater Project, which was, at that time, looking for a permanent home.

A board member who taught business at Westfield State University arranged for two interns to work with the fledging troupe, and their primary assignment was to find a venue. They were steered to the old theater, built in 1928, by the town’s assessor. And after being let in by the owner of a delicatessen that occupied the front part of the theater, they could see what they had to work with.

That same board member thought he was crazy to do anything but look at the Majestic, but Eaton said simply, “I loved it … it spoke to me.”

Nearly three decades after the theater opened with a showing of The Buddy Holly Story, it’s still talking — to Eaton and to the tens of thousands of people who visit it every year.

“We’ve always seen new people, first-timers, coming to the theater, based upon the offerings.”

And the Majestic — not the building, necessarily, but the institution — has become part of the fabric of the region, said Eaton and others we spoke with.

“People have grown up with us,” he noted, referring to both the audiences for the shows, which span generations now, and some of the performers as well.

Like Ben Ashley, who played Buddy Holly in the The Buddy Holly Story and has reprised that role a few times, while performing in several other shows at the theater as well, including its upcoming Home for the Holidays. And Robbie Simpson, who grew up attending shows at the theater, then started performing in some, and has gone on to star on ABC’s General Hospital and Hulu’s The Path. He returns to West Springfield for shows at the Majestic, such as 2023’s The Glass Menagerie.

The historic Majestic Theater opened in 1928.

Like the plays shown at the theater, the Majestic has several plotlines and props, from the framed showbills that line the café area celebrating shows that include the well-known (Death of a Salesman, Hamlet, Miss Saigon, and Judgment at Nuremburg, for example), and the not-so-well-known (Golf: The Musical) to the annual fundraising car raffle, another institution — first prize this year is a 1962 Corvette convertible; the drawing is Dec. 31.

And then, there are the coffee mugs. Given each year to subscribers — who now total more than 4,000 — they’re printed with the names of the shows from each season.

Subscribers passionately collect them, said Sue Dziura, producing director for the Majestic, and look for them every year.

“They’ll tell us when they come in — ‘I have all my mugs,’” she said, adding that, in many ways, the mugs have become symbols of the Majestic’s two enduring traits — creativity and perseverance.

Indeed, between the shows, the mugs, the cars, a playbill supported by more than 100 local businesses, and more shows, the Majestic has become a long-running success story, one complete with its magic moments and stern challenges, like the pandemic, but also the rising expenses associated with professional theater, from paying the actors to insuring the property.

“Danny has programmed it so that there’s something for everyone, whether that’s genre-related — a comedy and a drama and sometimes a whodunit.”

For this issue, we look behind the curtain, if you will, at nearly 30 years of a class act — literally and figuratively.

Setting the Stage

When he spoke with BusinessWest as the 10th anniversary of the theater’s opening approached in 2006, Eaton recalled how, at that opening, a local journalist remarked that his dream had come true.

Eaton said he had to correct him to a degree and note that getting the doors open wasn’t the dream, or the hard part, or the end of the story. Keeping them open was, and is, the dream. And the hard part as well.

From left: Todd Kadis, Sue Dziura, Tery LaCasse, and Danny Eaton in a ‘mug’ shot.

And nothing has really changed in that regard over the past three decades, he said, adding that the overriding mission can be boiled down to those four words: keeping the doors open.

Actually, there’s much more to it than that, said Todd Kadis, the Majestic’s treasurer, who has also been here from the beginning.

Indeed, the overriding goals are to make theater accessible and affordable (tickets are under $40), he said, and also to draw people who might not otherwise attend theater.

“We’ve always seen new people, first-timers, coming to the theater, based upon the offerings,” he explained, adding that most of these first-timers will return, and many of them will become subscribers.

It all started, as noted, with The Buddy Holly Story, which returns every five years at the Majestic. Actually, our story really begins in 1992 with the creation of the Theater Project, which performed shows at the Church of the Good Shepherd, just down the street from its current home, to raise money to open the Majestic’s doors.

Or new doors, to be precise, because the current front entrance still led to the deli, so a new entrance had to be built in the back of the structure.

“We spent summers hammering nails and lugging concrete blocks,” Eaton recalled, adding that the team put in two and half years of sweat equity to get the theater ready for prime time. And that hard work essentially set the tone for all that has happened since.

“One of things we found with The Buddy Holly Story is that we could get people to come to the theater who had never been to the theater before and maybe had a notion that it was a highbrow thing that couldn’t be part of their lives.”

Over the years, the Majestic has added more framed playbills to the walls — to the point where there’s no remaining room; raffled off 29 vintage cars; transformed its café into a gathering spot, with patrons showing up an hour or more before a show starts for a quick meal and a beverage; maintained its core audience while attracting new patrons; and become one of the cornerstones for growth and new businesses in the Elm Street area.

Very little, if anything, has been easy, said those we spoke with, but the Majestic has persevered through hard work, imagination (in all its forms), and the ability to stay engaged with its audience.

All these traits were on display during the pandemic, when the lights went down, literally, on March 21, 2020, and didn’t go back on again until August 2021, when the Majestic picked up right where it left off.

Kadis said the institution was kept afloat by PPP and also a much-needed Shuttered Venues Operating Grant, a federal program that, as its name suggests, provided grants to shuttered venues ranging from theaters to aquariums to museums.

And while the theater was dark, those at the Majestic found ways to stay engaged with subscribers and the community at large through online programs such as “Behind the Curtain,” a series of interviews with actors and directors who had done shows at the Majestic, providing a backstage perspective.

Shows of Force

The Majestic now hosts between 250 and 300 shows each season, which begin in September, said Dziura, noting that the simple strategy is to “create as much art as possible.” Each season features five subscription shows as well as Home for the Holidays and a packed summer schedule that includes more than 100 performances, including a children’s theater.

In putting together that five-show slate, organizers strive for diversity and a solid mix of plays and at least one musical, a lineup crafted to appeal to both subscribers — who provide a rock-solid base for the theater company — and single-ticket sales.

“Danny has programmed it so that there’s something for everyone — a comedy and a drama and sometimes a whodunit,” she explained, adding that this year’s slate is no exception.

The season started with Once – The Musical, which tells the story of an Irish street musician and a Czech immigrant who form an unlikely bond over their shared love of music. Currently running is Steel Magnolias, a comedy set in a small Southern beauty salon. In January, The Hound of the Baskervilles, a parody of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle classic, will begin its six-week run, followed by a ‘two-hander,’ an two-person performance called Dear Jack, Dear Louise, described as heartfelt and comical play that unfolds through the letters exchanged between a young Army doctor and a nurse during World War II. The season concludes with Come From Away, an uplifting musical that tells the true story of 7,000 passengers who were stranded in the small town of Gander, Newfoundland after the events of 9/11.

Each year’s schedule is crafted to provide variety, but also more opportunities to bring new people to the theater and bring back those who have already found it.

“Being a nonprofit theater in a small community in an area that is not particularly known as a cultural hub is a challenge,” Eaton said. “One of things we found with The Buddy Holly Story is that we could get people to come to the theater who had never been to the theater before and maybe had a notion that it was a highbrow thing that couldn’t be part of their lives.

“We changed their minds,” he went on, adding that this might be the unofficial mission statement for the Majestic. “I’ve always maintained that, if I can get 10 new people to come to theater for the first time in their lives, I’ll get seven of them to come back, and I’ll get five of them to become subscribers — and that’s held true in many respects.”

Looking ahead, the simple goal is to keep changing minds about theater, said Kadis, while also maintaining and growing the subscriber base and attracting audiences of all ages. He noted that the average age of attendees is roughly 65, and it has been this way for some time, meaning the theater group has managed to retain subscribers who joined years ago and add new, younger ones as the original subscribers move into their 70s and 80s.

Terry LaCasse, the Majestic’s managing director, agreed. “There’s a multi-generational appeal here,” he noted. “I remember my first week here … I was introduced to a parent, a grandparent, and a child at one of the shows. They were sitting in the back, and they said, ‘we’ve had these seats for years, and we’ve passed then down from generation to generation.’”

That story, and others like it, speak volumes about what the Majestic has become over the years in terms of a cultural institution and tradition.

“The Majestic is a true-to-form community anchor,” said LaCasse, speaking for all those at the table, adding that it promotes the arts, supports local businesses, and makes this region more of a destination.

And that’s why the show has gone on for nearly 30 years — and counting.

Partnerships Like Early College Make Higher Education More Accessible

By Joseph Bednar November 24, 2025

Education Special Coverage

Moving On Up

American International College Provost Michael Dodge

When Michael Dodge thinks about the 227 students from Duggan Academy in Springfield currently taking classes at American International College (AIC), he understands who benefits the most — and it’s not necessarily the academic high achievers who already have their eyes on college.

“We’re reaching the ones saying, ‘college isn’t for me,’ or ‘I’m not smart enough,’ or ‘no one in my family has gone to college.’ And we’re saying, ‘this program is for you.’ We’re helping students that might not have thought of college as an option — helping it become an option for them.”

Dodge, AIC’s provost, was describing the college’s relationship with Duggan, which began three years ago with high-schoolers taking classes for college credit, and has now become much more robust with AIC being designated as a Massachusetts Early College Program by the state’s joint Early College Committee.

AIC, in partnership with the Springfield Empowerment Zone Partnership (SEZP), is one of 18 new Early College programs announced this year by the Healey-Driscoll administration, and the only private college west of Worcester to receive this designation.

“Those students are taking a total of 900 credits,” Dodge said. “Given our successful pass rates with Duggan, that’s bringing in a significant number of students who are picking up a lot of college coursework that they now have under their belts as they think about where they want to go after high school.”

Notably, the program is a ‘wall-to-wall’ model in which every Duggan student participates. Students have the opportunity to earn up to 60 college credits — at no cost — before graduating from high school. Courses focus on high-growth, high-wage fields including allied health, education, and criminal justice.

“We’re reaching the ones saying, ‘college isn’t for me,’ or ‘I’m not smart enough,’ or ‘no one in my family has gone to college.’ And we’re saying, ‘this program is for you.’”

“We wanted to focus on fields that are in demand and lead to well-paying jobs,” Dodge said. “This puts them on a path to pursue an associate degree either at AIC or a community college or another four-year institution.”

The model ramps up the college coursework as they advance, he explained. Freshman year orients them to the expectations of a college class, and what follows is coursework in general education classes that are easily transferable, regardless of institution.

“Those include things like English composition, analytical writing — things that can help them be better writers and critical thinkers, which sets them up for success when they get to their junior year and senior year,” Dodge noted.

In those final two years of high school, students are blending college-credit courses at Duggan with classes they actually take on the AIC campus, he explained. “We want you to come to AIC, but regardless of where you go, you’re setting up a strong foundation to help you be able to keep pace with the academic rigor that exists at a college.”

While Duggan students have already been earning AIC college credits, the new designation is designed to build on that success and help even more students access college by removing common barriers.

Key program features include personalized support, including small cohorts, academic coaching, and dedicated advisors for multilingual and exceptional learners; advising to promote college readiness; culturally responsive teaching and staffing to reflect and support the student population; and universal access, with 100% of Duggan students participating regardless of prior academic performance.

Tricia Canavan

“Tech Foundry’s senior team has been collaborating with various members of UMass leadership in a variety of ways over the last couple of years. Our partnership has evolved to include working with the IT staff on workforce priorities and employment opportunities.”

“All students deserve opportunities to succeed,” Dodge said. “Early College is about more than earning credits — it’s about building the skills, confidence, and support networks students need for college and life.”

Priming the Pump

Early College is just one way the state has been trying to draw more students into the college pipeline. The most notable ones, of course, have been MassReconnect, which made community college free for Massachusetts residents age 25 or older, and, more recently, MassEducate, which extended that tuition- and fee-free model to any resident, regardless of age, who has not yet earned a bachelor’s degree.

Beyond that, many of the state’s community colleges have forged articulation agreements with four-year institutions, under which students who satisfactorily complete an associate degree program are guaranteed admission into a bachelor’s degree program at the four-year school.

One of these partnerships, between Elms College and both Holyoke Community College (HCC) and Springfield Technical Community College (STCC), deepened recently by allowing students of those two community colleges to reside in residence halls at Elms.

STCC and HCC are commuter colleges and do not provide on-campus housing, so the agreement benefits STCC and HCC students who have housing needs, while creating the kind of familiarity with the Elms campus and culture that makes it more likely they’ll pursue a baccalaureate degree there.

“Elms College, for nearly 100 years, has prided itself on promoting educational opportunities to those who would otherwise not have access, and being a collaborative partner with our neighboring colleges. This agreement accomplishes these goals and expands our strong partnerships with HCC and STCC,” Elms President Harry Dumay said. “Our campus has always been a welcoming, inclusive community, where we work hard to ensure that everyone feels like they belong in the spirit of our founding mission. HCC and STCC students now get to discover that aspect of the Elms experience.”

Other regional partnerships target an older demographic — people who either never attended college or started but didn’t finish.

Elms College President Harry Dumay recently announced that the college expanded its articulation agreement with HCC and STCC to allow students at those colleges to live on the Elms campus.

One recently announced collaboration between UMass Amherst and the Tech Foundry — the Springfield-based workforce development nonprofit that trains local residents for IT careers — enables Tech Foundry staff and community members to complete their undergraduate degrees through the university’s flexible, customizable online program.

Specifically, Tech Foundry members can take classes, receive academic counseling, and map their educational pathway through UMass Amherst’s University Without Walls Department of Interdisciplinary Studies (UWW-IS).

Current UWW-IS admission requires 12 transferrable college credits and a 2.0 GPA for adults who did not previously attend UMass Amherst. As part of its program, however, UWW-IS offers credit for prior learning or life experience. Under the new agreement, students who are accepted into UWW-IS and have completed Tech Foundry’s 18-week immersive hybrid training program will receive 15 credits via special transcript, which is equivalent to a full semester courseload. The collaboration builds on earlier programs in which UMass Amherst IT provided internships for Tech Foundry trainees.

“Tech Foundry’s senior team has been collaborating with various members of UMass leadership in a variety of ways over the last couple of years. Our partnership has evolved to include working with the IT staff on workforce priorities and employment opportunities,” said Tricia Canavan, CEO of Tech Foundry, who called the new collaboration an important expansion of opportunity for Tech Foundry students.

“We’re really centering equity efforts. We don’t always want to polish just the shiniest of apples, but we’re making sure we’re reaching out to that student who may not have thought of college as an option — but help them do it in ways that make sense.”

UWW-IS Department Administrator Siobhan Henderson said the collaboration also enhances University Without Walls’ longtime relationship with Springfield residents. “We are committed to meeting learners where they are — professionally, academically, and geographically. This collaboration aligns with our UWW-IS mission that was founded more than 50 years ago: to open doors to adults who thought achieving a bachelor’s degree was unattainable.”

Opportunity Knocks

Gov. Maura Healey has called Early College programs a central element of her administration’s Reimagining High School initiative to prepare students for college or careers and expand access for those historically underrepresented in higher education — at a time when higher education is already facing demographic headwinds in the form of fewer high school graduates.

“Early college is an important and effective tool for making higher education more accessible and affordable for every Massachusetts student,” she said earlier this year. “These new partnerships give more young people the opportunity to earn college credit at no cost while still in high school, setting them on a path to success and helping to close opportunity gaps.”

Dodge sees such efforts as steps in the right direction, and considers the college campus immersion element an important part of the process.

“The intent, in senior year, is to have students be on our campus taking college-level courses, similar to the models for dual enrollment in the past,” he explained. “Students can take 12 to 15 credits over the course of senior year — typically four to five classes — develop some affiliation with the institution, and be able to take some independent coursework and things very specific to their planned major, so it’s not just, ‘oh, I come to campus for one class and then leave. Instead, they’re thinking about being on campus most of the day for Tuesday and Thursday, or Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.”

He also appreciates the Healey administration’s focus on equity and helping close performance gaps.

“That’s one of the reasons why we applied for this designation with SEZP and the Department of Higher Education. We’re really centering equity efforts. We don’t always want to polish just the shiniest of apples, but we’re making sure we’re reaching out to that student who may not have thought of college as an option — but help them do it in ways that make sense. That’s why we start small, one or two courses freshman year, then building up intentionally and bringing them into the fold in college.

“We’re really thankful for the support from SEZP and the Department of Higher Education, and we value the partnership we have with Duggan and the Springfield Public Schools,” Dodge went on. “We think it’s a partnership that makes sense in this current environment, this academic cliff where fewer 18-year-olds are going to college. It seems like what the future of higher education needs to be.”

Ty Vinick Continues a Family Legacy at Moors & Cabot

By Joseph Bednar November 24, 2025

Special Coverage Wealth Management

Lessons Learned

Ty Vinick

Ty Vinick says his grandfather, the late Jim Vinick, had been “training me my whole life.”

That’s not surprising to anyone who knew Jim, the former managing director of investments at Moors & Cabot — and a 2013 BusinessWest Difference Maker — who passed away in June, and was known for his passion for financial literacy.

“When I was like 8 years old, he was teaching us stocks and bonds and everything else,” Ty recalled. “I came to work with him at the start of this year, and I was hoping to work with him longer — I mean, he’d been teaching me my whole life though.”

That wasn’t meant to be, however. “Three days before he passed, we were in the hospital, and he was asking to check on his portfolio. So he was working right up to the end. He went out with his boots on.”

Those are certainly massive boots to fill — Jim was one of the driving forces behind the establishment and evolution of the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, as well as a longtime, respected wealth manager and financial expert — but Ty is up for the challenge, recently taking over his grandfather’s book of clients and running the Springfield office of Moors & Cabot, a Boston-based financial planning firm with numerous locations across the U.S.

“He loved his job,” Ty recalled. “Outside of his family, he loved his job, and he loved the Basketball Hall of Fame. Anyone who ever met him heard all about both things. He had incredible relationships with people, and I feel really fortunate that I get to do the same thing he did.

“I had a lot of teaching experience, which I actually find helpful now because I spend a lot of time explaining different concepts to people in terms of investing, or different investment vehicles they might not know about.”

“I see a side of him that maybe even other people in our family don’t get to see, where I’m talking with people, and they say, ‘you know, he was like a father figure to me. He was there for me when my husband passed or when my parents passed, and I didn’t know what to do, and there was money, and I needed help handling it,’” he went on. “And then they’re like, ‘but he was also just there to talk about life and what I might need.’ So it’s good to see, not just coming from him, but from other people, the impact he had on them, where they say, ‘you know, when I really needed somebody, he was someone I could turn to.’ That’s pretty cool.”

And the younger Vinick finds it gratifying to help people in the same way.

“Life keeps on going for everybody, and different things come up, and people call me because they had someone pass or they’re planning for their kids,” he told BusinessWest. “Sometimes you’re helping them because it’s a good situation that you’re trying to manage, making things a little more secure, like parents paying for college. And sometimes you’re helping them because it’s a sad situation; if a partner dies or spouse dies or a parent dies, they’re in a really tough moment, but at least you’re there to make that tough moment a little more manageable and a little bit smoother to get through.”

Let’s Talk

Vinick’s title is financial professional, though, as noted earlier, it involves a lot of education, too. That makes sense, considering his career journey.

At Tufts University, he majored in economics and also studied pre-med, thinking he might want to be a doctor. But after that, he went to Spain for a year and worked as a teacher in a rural village of about 700 people; he had also done some tutoring in college.

“I had a lot of teaching experience, which I actually find helpful now because I spend a lot of time explaining different concepts to people in terms of investing, or different investment vehicles they might not know about. So, in a weird way, it actually ended up being very, very helpful.”

After returning to the States and working in a few doctors’ offices, he realized he had lost enthusiasm for the medical profession. So he worked in biotech for a time, then returned to his native Western Mass. and entered the family business. In retrospect, it was the logical choice.

Jim Vinick, pictured here in 2013, when BusinessWest named him a Difference Maker, was well-respected in the region for wealth management, financial literacy, and civic commitment, particularly with the Basketball Hall of Fame.

“I think I took a lot of it for granted growing up. We would sit with my parents and with my grandfather at the table, learning about investing and things like that, and now that I’m working in this role, a lot of times, I’m explaining things to people that I’ve been taught my entire life, and he was so good at teaching all that.”

It’s an ethos he brings to each client interaction today.

“I’m constantly talking to my clients, pretty much every month. So I get to really know them as people,” Vinick said. “A lot of the planning and understanding their finances is ongoing, rather than just sitting down and having it be a one-time conversation. It’s ongoing conversations, understanding where people are in life and meeting their shifting needs.”

Those clients, he said, range from young families all the way up through retirees working on estate planning matters, and they come to Moors & Cabot with a wide range of income levels and assets. Obviously, the investing strategies — and those conversations — are far from cookie-cutter.

“It definitely changes with retirees who might be looking more for income and living off of the savings that they have, versus younger people who might be looking to build something for the future, planning for a house or college,” Vinick said. “There are a lot of key factors that most people want to consider, so we just talk through those. You can always start with the big picture and then hone down as you go.”

As for clients closer to retirement, at a time when people are living longer than ever, it’s important to help them understand they might be looking at 25 years or more of post-work years — and how much money it will take to live the lives they want.

“Part of it is factoring in the fact that there’s going to be inflation in that path, and expenses might vary even during retirement. Health concerns can come up. Do you plan on traveling, and do you have certain goals or a certain lifestyle you want to maintain during retirement? Those costs can change as you go,” he explained. “So you want to consider that variability. You don’t want to get to retirement and then run out of money because that would be a tough position. So that’s part of the plan as well.

No matter what one’s age, Vinick said, it’s important to start crafting that life plan as soon as possible.

“The best time to start was yesterday, and the second best time to start is today. So even if you didn’t start yet, you can always get started now, and it’s better than not getting started at all. Better late than never, they say.”

“Some people can see volatility and say, ‘it’ll be fine. I know I’m not investing for tomorrow; I’m investing for 10 years.’ And for some people, there could be a 1% change in their account over the span of a month, and it will worry them.”

Another element of helping clients is guiding them through periods of uncertainty in the market, like during the roller-coaster ride this past spring when the market kept diving and rising amid constant tariff rumours, announcements, and rollbacks.

“Part of investing for different clients is meeting the level of risk that they’re willing to accept,” Vinick said. “Some people can see volatility and say, ‘it’ll be fine. I know I’m not investing for tomorrow; I’m investing for 10 years.’ And for some people, there could be a 1% change in their account over the span of a month, and it will worry them. It’s something to keep in mind for each client, how much risk they can accept or how much tolerance they have for it.

“And then part of it is explaining to them, ‘hey, something may have happened last month, but overall we’re doing OK,’ or ‘this is the vision for the long term, and this is what we’re looking to do,’ and keeping them on track rather than giving in to either overjubilance when things go really, really well, or panicking when things get a little rocky for a month here or there, whatever it might be.”

That’s easier to do with somebody who’s at an earlier stage of life and can take a longer view, but it’s also a matter of personality, he added. “Younger people can still panic, too. I think it just depends on the personality, the person, and the risk they can accept.”

Back to School

Vinick’s father, Michael, didn’t choose the financial services path, but rather forged a successful career in the HVAC trade; he’s president of Duct & Vent Cleaning of America in Springfield. But Ty’s transition into leadership at Moors & Cabot ensures a multi-generational family legacy there — serving clients that are often also multi-generational.

“My grandfather had clients that were parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and then, with his passing, I now have them as clients,” he said. “I’m the fifth generation of my family that’s in Springfield, and part of the business for me will also include being involved in the community that my family’s been involved in.”

And also education and communication. Vinick is already thinking about not only how he can become more involved with community organizations, as Jim was, but also how to continue his grandfather’s work on financial literacy, which included, many years ago, The Vinick Report, a local TV show on that topic.

“I love talking to people. I get to be on the phone all day with people, and you get to know them quite well,” he said. “You get to build these very meaningful relationships with people where you can kind of track them through their life. I think that’s the part that I enjoy doing.

“And I get to have a meaningful impact on their lives as well — I’m genuinely helping people reach milestones and achieve their financial goals,” he added. “You know, outside of their health, making sure they have a reasonable financial plan creates the foundation for everything else they want to do.”

Lee Strives to Be More Than a Gateway

By George O'Brien November 24, 2025

Community Spotlight Special Coverage

Community Spotlight

An architect’s rendering shows the various buildings and parcels to be developed at the Eagle Mill complex in Lee.

Jeff Cohen says he was “looking for something to do.”

That was how the long-time developer, lawyer, and one-time police officer casually described how he began what has become a 14-year journey (and counting) to redevelop the Eagle Mill in Lee, one of the oldest paper mills in the country.

It certainly hasn’t been an easy journey — “I have lot more gray hair now than when I started,” Cohen said — but the Eagle Mill canvas, if you will, is filling in, and there is more on the drawing board for this parcel bordering downtown.

Indeed, nearly 60 units of affordable housing are in the process of being leased, and should be occupied next spring. Meanwhile, roughly 150 more units are planned, as well as commercial space, in subsequent phases of the project, including a recently announced plan for 69 units of affordable housing on property across the street from the Eagle Mill.

As these different phases of the project unfold, the impact on Lee, its downtown, its business community, and different constituencies searching for affordable housing will only grow.

Alex Heddinger

“Our walkable downtown is lined with one-of-a-kind shops and restaurants, many family-owned for generations, and there’s a real sense of connection among the people who live and work here.”

“This is going to create a village at the north end of town,” Cohen explained. “As you drive from the Berkshires through Lee along Route 20, there will be a great-looking community, and there will be lots of people on the street. This is going to enable Lee to attract people who want to work in and around the town, it’s going to put more kids in the schools, and it’s going to enhance the businesses in town and probably create opportunities for new ones.”

Redevelopment of the Eagle Mill complex is one of many converging stories in this community of almost 6,000 people. Others include:

• A slight cooling of its housing market, which was one of the hottest in the state just a year or two ago. Town Manager Chris Brittain said the market has returned to something approximating pre-COVID days, before prices exploded amid the surge of remote work and strong interest in rural settings from which to do it;

• Ongoing efforts to encourage development of other mills in Lee, and there are many of them — the community was once home to two dozen mills making more paper than anywhere else in the country;

• Progress toward construction of a new and much-needed public safety complex — groundbreaking is slated for next month — as well as discussion of converting the historic fire station into a community space;

• Continued efforts to make this community, known as the ‘Gateway to the Berkshires,’ more of a place to stop, dine, shop, recreate, and more, rather than being a gateway to other, better-known destinations, including Lenox, Stockbridge, and Pittsfield; and

• Some new restaurants and other small businesses that are certainly helping in these efforts to make Lee more of a destination.

“Our walkable downtown is lined with one-of-a-kind shops and restaurants, many family-owned for generations, and there’s a real sense of connection among the people who live and work here,” said Alex Heddinger, a Lee native who became executive director of its Chamber of Commerce this past spring. “We also have one of the most diverse dining scenes in the area — Mexican, Indian, Peruvian, French, pizza, new American, pub fare, diner classics, and even a Burmese restaurant.

Brooke Healy

“When it comes to affordable housing, many people have preconceived notions about it, but it can really impact everyone — from families to young professionals just starting out in their career like I was.”

“Lee has a way of making visitors feel right at home,” she went on, adding that one of the goals moving forward is to make business owners feel at home as well.

For this latest installment of its Community Spotlight series, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at Lee and the many intriguing storylines converging there.

Milling About

Cohen told BusinessWest that he and his wife moved to the Berkshires in 2012, and soon thereafter, he became fascinated with the Eagle Mill and the prospects for developing it.

The property had been abandoned since 2008, he said, adding that the various buildings were in poor condition when he acquired them, but still historic. He contracted with an architect and started meeting with various groups in town to get a sense “for what could be attractive to the town and be profitable for me, and that’s how it started.

“I’m not the type of person who buys something and says, ‘here’s what I’m going to do,’ and then present that to whomever is going to approve it,” he explained. “My style is a little different; I try to work with people in the neighborhood, various town officials, and various interested community groups to get a sense for what’s going to pass muster.”

It took several years to identify the preferred use, he said, adding that various uses, including a 100-room hotel and a Faneuil Hall-type retail market, were considered. Overall, it’s been a long, difficult journey, made much more complicated by the pandemic, but pieces to a complicated puzzle are coming together, starting with phase 1 — 56 units of affordable housing in the two original mill buildings, the Union Mill and the Eagle Mill.

Phase 2 includes 44 new apartments at the eastern end of the site; phase 3 is another new building with 35 units of housing and 4,000 square feet of retail, with construction slated for 2028 if all goes as planned; phase 4 involves redevelopment of the historic machine shop building for commercial and retail use, including a restaurant; phase 5 will consist of five condominium townhouses on the Housatonic River; and phase 6 will be 69 more units of affordable housing on the corner of West Center and Canal streets.

Cohen described the sum of these parts as game-changing, and Lee Town Planner Brooke Healy agreed.

“These new units will provide a boost to our downtown business owners and stores,” she said. “You’ll have people walking up and down Main Street — the restaurants are going to get a boost, the stores are going to get a boost … and while some people will work in Lee, others will work in surrounding towns, meaning this will benefit not just Lee, but the Central and Southern Berkshires.

Healy speaks from experience when she said many workers in the Berkshires face lengthy commutes between their jobs and housing they can afford, and the Eagle Mill project will be a difference maker in this regard and make a huge dent in the demand for housing, especially the affordable variety.

“I took this job about a year ago, and it took me a few months to find housing that was less than an hour away; I’m very lucky to live close to downtown Lee,” she told BusinessWest. “When it comes to affordable housing, many people have preconceived notions about it, but it can really impact everyone — from families to young professionals just starting out in their career like I was.”

Meanwhile, there are several other mills that remain vacant or mostly vacant, Healy said, adding that the town is working on revamping zoning bylaws and other strategies for making these mills more “developer-friendly.”

Lee at a Glance

Year Incorporated: 1777
Population: 5,788
Area: 27 square miles
County: Berkshire
Residential Tax Rate: $11.25
Commercial Tax Rate: $11.25
Median Household Income: $41,556
Median Family Income: $49,630
Type of Government: Open Town Meeting
Largest Employers: Lee Premium Outlets; Onyx Specialty Papers; the Landing at Laurel Lake; Oak n’ Spruce Resort in the Berkshires; Big Y
* Latest information available

The town recently collaborated with UConn students to create a site reuse assessment and master plan for three mills — Columbia Mill and Greylock Mill, both on Columbia Street; and Greenwood/Mountain Mill on Forest Street, which was recently sold by the town at auction.

“When a lot of the current bylaws were written, most of these mills were still functioning, and people didn’t really think about the next steps if these mills were to ever go out,” she explained. “Looking forward, we have some mills that are not being used, and there’s been some discussions with the owners of those properties to make sure they know the town has their interests in mind and will help in any way it can.”

Progress Report

Brittain told BusinessWest that Lee’s current fire station, a granite and marble structure built in 1912, was designed for horses, not 21st-century firetrucks.

Which means the town has had to special-order trucks to fit into the doors of this facility. And they just barely fit.

“The last one had five-eighths of an inch clearance on either side,” he said, adding that a few mirrors have been lost over the years.

Wider doors are just one of the myriad design elements to a new, 37,000-square-foot public safety complex, said Brittain, adding that the facility, with a projected price tag of roughly $32 million, will bring the Police, Fire, and Building departments under one roof on the site of the former Bull’s Eye Pub in downtown Lee. And, as noted, the town is in early-stage talks concerning what to do with the current fire station, also downtown.

These developments are just some of the emerging stories in the community’s eclectic downtown, which is just a few miles off Exit 10 of the turnpike, a unique asset that has certainly helped the town’s efforts to promote tourism, while also attracting other types of businesses, such as biotech and enterprises such as Sharp Sterile Manufacturing and Boyd Biomedical, both on Pleasant Street, just off the turnpike exit.

Getting back to the downtown, visitors pass through on their way to Tanglewood and other Lenox attractions, as well as Pittsfield, said all those we spoke with, adding that the goal is to get them to stop along the way — or, better still, make Lee the destination.

There’s a growing list of reasons for doing so, said Heddinger, adding that there is a good mix of restaurants, including some recent additions, such as the Station Gastropub, so named because it’s housed in a former train station.

“Downtown has restaurants, shops, several different kinds of businesses, a park where we stage events, and much more,” she said, adding that this central business district is more than a place to drive through on the way to somewhere else.

Brittain agreed. “We’re seeing a lot more people dining and staying here than we used to, and our hotel and restaurant taxes reflect that,” he said, adding that the growing number of restaurants, and the diversity of those offerings, is a big reason why. “More people are stopping and enjoying the downtown area on their way to Tanglewood or the Norman Rockwell Museum, or whatever.”

Meanwhile, the town is developing strategies for bringing more businesses to the community, such as the “Friend-Lee Approach to Business” marketing campaign, which Healy described as a work in progress, likely to be ready for the new year.

“We’re trying to break down the barriers for developers and residents interested in owning businesses,” she explained. “We want them to able to come in and have conversations face-to-face with various departments and understand what is needed to open a business.

“It can very overwhelming to try to open a new business,” she went on, adding that the campaign will likely ask the question ‘why Lee?’ and then focus on the town’s many attributes — from recreational facilities to that turnpike exit to proximity to other destination communities.

It’s all part of an effort to promote this Gateway to the Berkshires, but also make it much more than that.

BusinessTalk with Chelsea Kline, Executive Director, Cancer Connection

By BusinessWest Staff November 10, 2025

Business Talk Podcast Special Coverage

With new episodes airing every other Monday, BusinessTalk features in-depth interviews and discussions with local industry leaders who offer thoughtful perspectives on the Western Massachusetts economy and the many business ventures that keep it running. BusinessTalk is sponsored and presented by Greenfield Cooperative Bank.

Go HERE to view all episodes

Episode 246: November 10, 2025

Joe Bednar talks with Chelsea Kline, Executive Director, Cancer Connection: Leading with Empathy and Impact

Chelsea Kline has long had a passion for helping people who are struggling, and found the perfect outlet for that as executive director of Cancer Connection, the Northampton-based nonprofit that offers a raft of services — from support groups to integrative therapies to the all-important model of ‘befriending’ — to people dealing with a cancer diagnosis, as well as their families and caregivers. On the next episode of BusinessTalk, Chelsea talks with BusinessWest Editor Joe Bednar about the many community connections that make it all happen, her committed team at Cancer Connection, the many ways people can support the mission, and why it’s so gratifying to be named to BusinessWest’s Women of Impact class of 2025. It’s must listening, so tune into BusinessTalk, a podcast presented by BusinessWest on both audio and video platforms, and sponsored by Greenfield Cooperative Bank.

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Banks Eye Impact of Fed Rate Cuts, and Potential for More

By Joseph Bednar November 10, 2025

Banking and Financial Services Special Coverage

Lending Perspective

Matt Garrity says declining interest rates are typically good for the consumer and good for business.

The Federal Reserve’s decisions to lower its federal funds rate by a quarter-point in September, then another quarter-point in late October — landing at 3.75% — were good news to consumers and borrowers.

“A declining interest rate is good for the consumer and good for business; a business that’s borrowing on a regular basis for working capital can enjoy lower costs from that,” said Matt Garrity, president of Florence Bank. “A higher rate is more difficult for consumers.”

But the story is more complicated than that for banks themselves. The interest rate environment tends to be a mixed bag for financial institutions, impacting their core profitability, demand for loans, and the value of their balance sheets.

The primary mechanism for this calculation is net interest margin, the difference between the interest income banks earn on assets (loans and securities) and the interest expense they pay on liabilities (deposits and borrowed funds).

In a rising interest rate environment, banks’ profitability often increases, particularly in the short term. They can increase the interest rates they charge on new variable-rate loans more quickly than they raise the interest rates they pay on customer deposits, which widens the net interest margin. Meanwhile, yields on new loans and short-term securities increase, boosting overall interest income.

“When there’s a lot of volatile movement, like a couple of years ago, when the rates went up 400 basis points in a very short time, that causes a lot of problems because the market is moving too fast, and it’s hard for banks to rightsize, and it usually causes volatility on the lending side of things.”

At the same time, however, as borrowing becomes more expensive, consumers and businesses may be less willing to take out new loans for major purchases, which can slow loan growth.

Conversely, in a falling interest rate environment, bank profitability tends to be challenged, especially over the medium to long term. The rates banks earn on new and existing variable-rate assets fall faster than the rates they can cut on deposits, squeezing net interest margins.

“Banks are impacted in different ways when the Fed reduces interest rates. Most banks use the Federal Home Loan Bank, which borrows based on fed fund rates, so as the Fed reduces rates, those costs go down for banks,” Garrity said, while revenue falls for variable-rate loans.

Meanwhile, borrowers are more likely to refinance existing high-interest loans into new, lower-interest loans, which reduces the bank’s expected interest income on its existing portfolio.

However, lower interest rates make borrowing cheaper, which encourages consumer spending and business investment, increasing the volume of loans and potentially offsetting some of the margin pressure. “Certain investments make more sense with the lower rate,” Garrity said.

PeoplesBank President Brian Canina noted that, “when the Fed adjusts rates, it has a more immediate impact on deposit rates. On the loan side, it’s typically based off of a long-term rate. For example, a 30-year fixed rate more typically correlates with a 10-year treasury rate. There are some exceptions to that with credit cards and some home equity lines of credit; those are going to be more tied to the fed funds rate. But for the most part, when there’s a spread between the fed funds rate and the 10-year point of the treasury curve, that’s what drives profitability for the bank.”

Whether interest rates are high or low, Brian Canina says, what bankers are looking for is stability.

What banks don’t like, he said, is a situation in which short-term rates rise faster than long-term rates, causing a flattened or inverted yield curve, which is what happened when rates shot up in 2022. “Banks were challenged by these underwater rates, but over time things normalize, and profitability comes back.”

Essentially, Canina added, what bankers are really looking for is stability in the interest rate environment.

“When there’s a lot of volatile movement, like a couple of years ago, when the rates went up 400 basis points in a very short time, that causes a lot of problems because the market is moving too fast, and it’s hard for banks to rightsize, and it usually causes volatility on the lending side of things. Essentially, more of a stable environment in interest rate changes, whether that be increases or decreases, and maintaining a steepness in the yield curve is ideal for a banker.”

Home Sweet Home

Interestingly, mortgage rates rose in the wake of both Fed fund cuts, jumping from 6.13% to 6.33% in the hours around the Oct. 29 Fed meeting. The reason is that the bond market had already priced in a cut, and commentary from Fed Chair Jerome Powell tamped expectations for another rate cut in December.

In fact, typically, when a fed funds rate cut is anticipated, mortgage rates usually fall in the weeks leading up to the meeting, but don’t necessarily continue to decrease afterward. In 2024, mortgage rates fell sharply throughout August and early September as people expected the Fed to lower its rate at its September meeting, but they stopped decreasing significantly after the meeting, a trend repeated after two additional rate cuts later that year and, as noted, twice again in recent weeks.

Mortgage rates remain problematic for a number of reasons.

“Folks who are currently paying a lower interest rate don’t want to give that up for what could be a higher rate, which causes lower inventory — people are not putting their homes on the market, and that impacts affordability.”

“We’ve seen, across the country and in our region in the last few years, how it’s impacted folks and led to lower inventory on the market because folks who are currently paying a lower interest rate don’t want to give that up for what could be a higher rate, which causes lower inventory — people are not putting their homes on the market, and that impacts affordability,” Garrity explained.

Canina agreed. “What’s causing fewer homes to be available for purchase is that so many of them are tied to a sub-3% mortgage,” he said, a situation that took many years to develop.

Essentially, when interest rates cratered after the Great Recession (and fell again in the immediate wake of the pandemic), many homeowners refinanced to take advantage. And many of them who might otherwise looking for a new home don’t want to trade in that rate for something around 7%, so they’ve been sitting on their homes, reducing inventory in the market.

“I don’t know how long it’ll take before that changes, because so much of the banks’ books are now 3% on 30-year mortgages,” he explained, and the refi market has been non-existent.

“Once you get below 6% mortgages, you could start seeing an increase in residential lending refinancing, as people with 7% mortgages might want to refinance to, say, 5.5%,” he added — but that won’t be immediate. “Typically, you have a delay. No one wants to jump in immediately, and we don’t know what the inflection point will be to spur increased demand.”

“It’s been steady. I think, because of general uncertainty, you’ve got people sitting on the sidelines. I wouldn’t say it’s robust market, but it’s not a stalling market. There is activity going on; it’s just modest.”

Still Canina stressed that, “for new mortgages, the demand is not being driven by an interest rate; it’s being driven by the availability of homes in the market” — which causes prices to soar, creating another barrier for people to get into homeownership.

Broad View

Overall, banks are generally optimistic about the current environment, after struggling with profitability following those sharp rate increases in 2022 and 2023 and building back from that ever since.

“As we move through this environment, it’s been a very good year for us,” Garrity said. “We continue to grow customers, and we’re growing and expanding our footprint, opening a new branch in Holyoke early next year. It’s been a successful 2025 for us, and it’s looking to be a successful 2026 as well.”

On the lending side, Canina noted, “it’s been steady. I think, because of general uncertainty, you’ve got people sitting on the sidelines. I wouldn’t say it’s robust market, but it’s not a stalling market. There is activity going on; it’s just modest.”

He believes lending activity will respond to clearing skies, however, and lowering rates won’t hurt.

“The uncertainty is due to what’s happened and what’s going to continue to happen in the economy. People don’t want to make a commitment because they’re unsure where the Fed’s going to go, where the economic indicators are going, where the administration is going with tariffs. When that finally gets played out and there’s more stability, we’ll see what will happen. We could end up with lower rates in lending, but not an increase in economic growth because a lot of that could be potentially from refinancing.

“Anytime you have a very low interest rate environment — for example, coming out of the Great Recession or coming out of the pandemic, when interest rates were at all-time lows — you then have a period of significant increases in refinancing loans, and mortgage financing goes way off,” Canina elaborated. “Even on the commercial side, we will always have a lot of borrowers coming back to the table looking to see if they can refinance. If rates go up, it’s going to have an opposite effect.”

For now, interest rates seem to be on the decline — not to those post-pandemic levels, but lower than the past few years — which comes as good news for borrowers, and an optimistic yet still complicated picture for banks.

These Are Just a Couple Descriptors for an Evolving Job Market

By George O'Brien November 10, 2025

Special Coverage Workforce Development

‘Weird’ and ‘Confusing’

“Confusing.”

That’s the one word that Kevin Lynn, executive director of MassHire Springfield Career Center, chose when asked to describe the current jobs market and put into perspective what he’s seeing and hearing.

Elaborating, he referenced the center’s job fair at the Basketball Hall of Fame on Oct. 6, the latest of dozens of such events in recent years. In the weeks leading up the fair, organizers were worried about having a critical mass of companies seeking applicants — a nod to a slowing in overall hiring across the 413. But then, over the final few days of registration, there was a rush to sign up.

“We had 64 businesses — we literally did not have room for another company — and that was very surprising to us,” Lynn said.

Meanwhile, on the job seekers side of the equation, organizers were expecting what they’d seen in recent fairs — anywhere between 200 and 350 people — or maybe a few more. Instead, 617 turned out.

“That’s both good and concerning — that’s the busiest job expo we’ve had since before COVID,” he noted, adding that, while the numbers generate confusion on some levels, on another level, they make sense, because some sectors are hiring, but also still struggling to find talent with the requisite skills. Meanwhile, a variety of factors, from tariffs to turmoil in Washington, are leaving many people with jobs feeling less certain about the security of those jobs, and this helps explain the fair’s large turnout.

Allison Ebner

“They’re feeling like there’s enough uncertainty around … they’re hearing about layoffs with the larger companies and AI taking jobs — and there’s so much buzz about all that, the job market seems unstable.”

“I’ve talked to people who say they’re in businesses that are seeing a slowdown, and people are getting a little concerned,” said Lynn, listing manufacturing in that category, and adding that, overall, the pendulum has swung, and what was a buyers’ (job seekers’) market maybe as late as nine months ago has now shifted to employers, with an abundance of candidates for many positions and, overall, fewer job opportunities.

Allison Ebner, president of the Employers Assoc. of the NorthEast, agreed, but noted that the higher levels of uncertainty and anxiety — in Washington, the job market, and everywhere else — are key contributors to the latest trend (and buzz term) in employment circles: ‘job hugging.’

“Folks are staying put; they’re giving their job a hug,” she explained. “They’re feeling like there’s enough uncertainty around … they’re hearing about layoffs with the larger companies and AI taking jobs — and there’s so much buzz about all that, the job market seems unstable.

“People are feeling a sense of volatility and continuous change, and when you feel like that, you look for some personal anchors, and for a lot of people, their job is their personal anchor,” she went on, adding that this is a fairly recent phenomenon dating back to last spring or early summer. “Everything in the world is changing, and they want to keep something consistent, and maybe it’s their job.”

But just because people are staying put in many cases that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily happy or that they aren’t looking, Ebner went on, adding that wages are stagnant after a period of upward movement in the years after COVID, and, in some cases, companies — especially smaller ones — are making do with fewer or the same number of employees, which often adds up to more work.

Overall, she had her own word for the current job market — ‘weird’ — meaning that there are many forces pushing and pulling at people and businesses (from tariffs to general uncertainty to AI) that are creating a confusing landscape.

Nicole Polite

“Companies are running a little bit leaner, so they may not have the capacity to train like they used to, so they need someone who already has the skill base to come in and hit the ground running a little faster than before.”

As for AI, it is impacting everything from job availability in some sectors — everything from hospitality to computer technology — to candidates being overlooked because they don’t have those skills.

“It’s definitely a skill set that they want to stay ahead of,” said Nicole Polite, CEO and founder of the East Longmeadow-based MH Group, adding that this is part of a larger trend she’s seeing toward skill-based hiring rather than focusing on whether someone has a requisite degree.

“The degree requirement isn’t as strong as it once was, and employers are really focusing on the skill base,” she told BusinessWest. “And the reasoning for that, in many cases, is the ability to train. Companies are running a little bit leaner, so they may not have the capacity to train like they used to, so they need someone who already has the skill base to come in and hit the ground running a little faster than before.”

Hire Powers

Lynn told BusinessWest that the job fair, as it played out, presented an accurate snapshot of what’s happening in the employment market — at least when it comes to the companies turning out to recruit and the makeup of that crowd of 617 people.

With the former, there were businesses across the spectrum, he said, but certain sectors were better-represented, including healthcare (although much of it is on the lower end, with CNAs and home health aides), area schools, and the broad realm of government, where there are jobs — with water and sewer operations and public works departments, among other realms — but fewer takers, especially among the younger generations.

“They don’t see any future in it,” he said, adding that many area cities and towns are struggling to fill such jobs.

As for the job seekers, or those simply exploring options, there was a good cross-section, said Lynn, noting that there were professionals, “people in suits — which we haven’t seen a lot of lately,” as well as a mix of young people, some mid-career types, and “significant amounts of gray hair.”

Kevin Lynn

“Part of the problem is that the people doing the hiring are much younger than the people looking for work, and they don’t have a clear understanding of the skill sets that the older worker brings.”

This diversity points to the across-the-board nature of a softening job market and the restlessness of those with jobs, but also the plight of older workers.

“There’s a lot of ageism that people have to deal with,” he explained. “And part of the problem is that the people doing the hiring are much younger than the people looking for work, and they don’t have a clear understanding of the skill sets that the older worker brings.

“One of the best things about older workers is they show up every day, and they’re very task-oriented — you can plug them in, and they’ll just go,” he went on, adding that this attribute is often overlooked amid perceptions that older workers struggle with technology. “There are all these assumptions being made that often don’t let the older worker get past the first cut, the résumé screening.”

As for those at the other end of the spectrum — recent college graduates and those wrapping up degrees — the overall job market remains solid, but some areas have slowed, said Cheryl Brooks, associate provost, Career and Professional Development at UMass Amherst, who put jobs in technology, life sciences, and, understandably, the federal government at the top of that list.

Tiffany Appleton, associate director of Employer Relations for the university’s Office of Career Development & Professional Connections, agreed, noting that jobs with the federal government are fewer in number than many other sectors, but they cross many degree programs at the school.

“It’s a bigger number that many people would think,” she told BusinessWest. “I know there were a number of people from the class of 2025 who had offers they had accepted for government jobs early in the spring of 2025, and by the time they graduated, those offers had been rescinded. They had to restart their job search, and many of them have been successful with finding jobs elsewhere.”

Brooks said it will be early next year before she has hard data on how the class of 2025 has fared, but anecdotally, she believes it has fared well, with those notable exceptions, and also with lingering questions about whether some international students will be able to obtain OPT (optional practical training, a temporary work authorization for F-1 student visa holders in the U.S. directly related to their field of study) or work visas.

As for this fall and the class of 2026 and beyond, she said turnout among employers at job fairs staged at the school, such as those for engineering, life sciences, and building and construction technology, is down slightly (8% to 10%, by her estimate) from previous years, but companies are turning out in good numbers, looking for both employees and interns.

Appleton concurred. “The vast majority of employers I’m talking to are still moving forward with their recruitment plans,” she noted. “They’re actively coming to campus, posting jobs, interviewing and extending offers to start after graduation.

“There’s only been a little bit of a decline, and if there’s a decline, it’s more like, instead of hiring 20 students into this entry-level job, they’ll hire 15 — and I haven’t seen much of that.”

The AI Factor

Overall, job seekers across the board are seeing fewer opportunities, at least in some sectors, as companies cope with uncertainty, tariffs and threats of tariffs, and other forces by being “more careful” in their hiring, Ebner said.

This phrase applies to both the numbers of people being hired and the skills they bring to the table, noted Polite, adding that, overall, companies are taking their time — because they have it, whereas they were far more under the gun a few years ago — and sharply focused on getting it right.

“They’re fine-tuning what they’re looking for,” she went on. “And since demand has changed in terms of the job seeker pool, they’re able to have more leverage and recruit in a different manner than they did post-pandemic.

“We saw post-pandemic that employers had positions they needed to fill immediately,” Polite continued. “This didn’t allow them the capacity to do some of the more intensive skill-set requirements that they’re doing now. So it’s definitely a different market in terms of what they’re looking for — and holding the line for.”

This is one of many forces contributing to job hugging, said Ebner, adding that this trend is both good and bad for employers.

“Even though people may not be jumping ship as quickly as they had been over the past few years, people are still unhappy where they are,” she noted. “They are looking, they’re out there, they’re seeing what’s out there, so it doesn’t necessarily mean that people are staying put and they’re more productive.

“It means they’re staying put, their job search is probably quieter, but they might be looking,” she went on. “Depending on their industry and whether they feel they might have more exposure to a layoff or job reduction — depending on whether they’re being impacted by tariffs or AI — they might be a little more motivated to search.”

As for AI, it is one of the more powerful forces impacting the job market and the plight of job seekers. In the broad realm of computer technology, for example, some jobs are being lost to AI, but others are being, created, Brooks said.

“It’s like a net-zero in terms of overall jobs, because it’s changing a bit,” she explained. “Some of the jobs are going away, but others are being created. It’s hard to parse out exactly what the numbers are, but we’re definitely seeing a decline this year, and who knows if that will level off this year.”

Ebner agreed. “Software development … that was the hottest gig in town 10 years ago, 15 years ago,” she said. “And now, AI is doing a lot of that work.”

Meanwhile, AI is having a growing impact on other sectors, including hospitality.

“Go visit the McDonald’s at Bradley Airport — there are no people,” Ebner said. “There are people making your food, but there are no people at the counter; it’s all kiosks. These are the pockets where we’re seeing technology replace people.

“But most industries are looking at how they can bring AI in, not to replace the people, but to use it to enhance the work that humans are doing,” she went on, adding that AI skills are increasingly becoming a determining factor is whether a candidate can land a specific job.

“The phrase you hear now is, ‘AI won’t replace all the people, but it will replace people who don’t have AI skills,’” Ebner explained, adding that this new reality crosses the broad employment spectrum.

Both Lynn and Ebner said their agencies offer training in AI and that, overall, there are an abundance of opportunities to gain these skills, and job seekers need to take full advantage of them.

Polite agreed. “I often talk to people during the interview process and ask them what training they’ve had in terms of AI and make sure they stay in front of it,” she noted, “because AI is here for the long haul, so we have to adjust to it.”

JGS Lifecare Puts Focus on Effective Memory Care

By Joseph Bednar November 10, 2025

Healthcare News Special Coverage

Empathy and Engagement

From left: Beth Cardillo, Mary-Anne Schelb, and Dalila Jones of JGS Lifecare.

While explaining the many ways in which JGS Lifecare folds memory care into all its services, Delila Jones noted that she’s a certified trainer in the Virtual Dementia Tour, a process that every employee on the campus goes through, no later than day two.

“We put our staff in the shoes of someone who has dementia. That’s done by providing external stimuli and an environment to replicate what would be confusion, anxiety, neuropathy, lack of dexterity in your fingers, visual limitations,” said Jones, Life Enrichment director at JGS.

“We do all those things as kind of a crash course into what it would feel like to be in the shoes of someone with dementia for a total of eight minutes — and that’s really all it takes. Eight minutes, and staff members cry. They come out changed because they’re getting an understanding, on a personal level, of what it feels like to be out of control. It allows us to reach the heart of what it’s like and then give them the compassion and empathy they wouldn’t receive if they didn’t go through the experience.”

Beth Cardillo, a long-time regional leader in the memory care field who now works part-time at JGS as a geriatric social worker in the Leavitt Family Jewish Home, a skilled nursing facility, has plenty of experience with the Virtual Dementia Tour, which simulates the physical and sensory challenges of dementia using special goggles, headphones, and gloves that distort vision, hearing, and touch. And she understands its impact.

“This is a truly unique experience. One of the takeaways we hear from everybody when we ask, ‘what did you get from this eight-minute experience?’ is ‘slow down, slow down your life, slow down the way you talk to people.’ It takes 90 seconds for somebody with Alzheimer’s to process what you say to them. Normally, we talk so fast and we’re so busy and really haven’t learned to slow it down. And it just makes a huge difference.”

Jones agreed. “I kind of measure the success of our training with how many people cry because I feel like you’ve got to touch the heart. You have to reach the heart in order to really get that point driven through — because, unfortunately, dementia breaks hearts. So in order for us to care properly, we have to kind of have a broken heart for them.

Beth Cardillo

“It takes 90 seconds for somebody with Alzheimer’s to process what you say to them. Normally, we talk so fast and we’re so busy and really haven’t learned to slow it down. And it just makes a huge difference.”

“And it’s truly effective,” she went on. “Just this week, we did our dementia training, and I had two or three CNA staff say, ‘we were CNAs for years, we know that we’re good staff, but I need to up my game. I didn’t realize that I can improve.’ And to have someone reach a point where they’re evaluating themselves and looking to improve because of this training, because they’re learning something new about what it’s like to have dementia, I think that’s a success.”

The Garden, a separate, secure neighborhood in the Ruth’s House assisted living facility on the Longmeadow campus, specifically caters to individuals with increased cognitive and physical limitations, including Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. But JGS has, over the years, incorporated specific memory-care training across its continuum of services, from Legacy Lifecare VNA & Hospice to Wernick Adult Day Health Care; from the Leavitt Family Jewish Home (where 80 of 200 beds are secure) to the Sosin Center for Rehabilitation.

That’s because the memory-care population is on the rise as Americans live longer than ever — and early-onset dementia in younger people is ticking up as well. So the model JGS has adopted, making sure all the points along its continuum of services can handle different levels of dementia, has become dominant in the world of senior living and care.

“I really work hard with families to help them understand that their loved one is in the right place, and that we are going to do everything for that experience to be as purposeful as possible,” Cardillo said.

“People just feel an incredible amount of guilt: ‘my mother took care of me, but I can’t take care of my mother at home anymore.’ But at some point, things change. ‘I promised my mother she would never go into a nursing home.’ Well, at some point those negotiations are off the table. You just can’t do it,” she added, explaining the transition so many families experience when choosing a residential memory care situation, whether assisted living or skilled nursing.

“The nursing home is more of a medical model. We’re more equipped to deal with medication changes and things like that more quickly,” she said. “And the training with the staff is called a habilitation model, where, unless it’s a safety issue, the resident is always right. We want to avoid conflict. We want to make it as engaging as possible.

“I really work hard with families to help them understand that their loved one is in the right place, and that we are going to do everything for that experience to be as purposeful as possible.”

“Do I care if someone thinks it’s Friday, and it’s Tuesday? No. Whatever he thinks, unless it’s safety, I don’t care. Make it Friday, make it Christmas, make it whatever. All good,” she went on. “And I think we work hard at promoting that. It’s all about relationships that we develop with our residents in the nursing home. They can read your mind. They know if you’re on your game that day or not. And it’s up to us to provide the best relationship we can with each person.”

Home and Garden

Then there’s Ruth’s House, the assisted living facility with its own dedicated memory neighborhood, the Garden, where employees are specifically trained to care for this population.

“When it comes to caring for those who have memory issues, we adapt to them, as opposed to someone who may not have those issues, and are able to communicate their needs properly and efficiently,” Jones said.

“When it comes to someone who’s living with dementia, we are the ones that have to adapt. We are the ones that have to become the detectives and be purposeful in everything that we do for them. We are more sensitive and gear everything toward how they may respond. We are more fluid. It’s more organic,” she went on.

“When we are facilitating programs, we’re also seeing how this person feels today. It’s very important that all of the staff are trained and educated to work with those living with various forms of dementia because it’s a whole different world. It’s a whole different way of communicating.”

In that setting, Jones said, the staff makes sure to provide a daily schedule of activities that engage the whole person — physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually — while also communicating with families who may be anxious about their loved one’s experience.

“The families are pivotal in the care of the seniors. So, we must maintain a very healthy relationship with the families.”

“We take the same approach we’d have toward all the seniors [at JGS Lifecare], which is compassionate care, understanding, empathy, making sure that their feelings are validated, and then working together as a team to accomplish a goal together collectively,” she explained. “That’s really important when it comes to families as well — because we are that bridge to connect the families to these seniors living with various forms of dementia. The families are pivotal in the care of the seniors. So, we must maintain a very healthy relationship with the families.”

Families — often with the help of the resident — also fill out what’s called a resident profile, a kind of life story including a social history, background, education, interests, hobbies, and more. “It allows us to have the information and the tools to have a personalized approach to care as they join us in living here,” Jones said. “With that information, if I know Mary was a teacher, then I can definitely tap into that, no matter what stage of dementia she’s in.”

Tapping into personal history is important across the campus, even outside the dementia neighborhood. One five-year resident of Ruth’s House, Johnny Scalia, affectionately known as “Johnny Rocket,” is a DJ with infectious energy who has shared his musical mixing skills with residents and families over at the Leavitt home. “I’m living my best life here,” he said. “The music keeps me going — and I love making people happy.”

Mary-Anne Schelb, regional director of Business Development at JGS, told BusinessWest that care at any of the JGS facilities is “really a matter of meeting people where they are.”

The Garden at Ruth’s House also features a sensory room, highlighted by a high-definition projector that shows soothing scenes on a wall — think ocean, nature, and the like.

“It’s so soothing and calming and inviting,” Jones said. “Just recently, for a resident who is on hospice and who has a hard time connecting in certain programs, we played a classical symphony through this projection. It was like you were there. And his caretaker was in tears, seeing how he was able to enjoy that moment with something that he passionately loved.”

Schelb added that the room is also used to de-escalate if somebody gets a little bit agitated or is sundowning. “It’s a very calm space that is utilized to decompress or kind of level them out. And it’s been very, very successful.”

Growing Need

About 7 million Americans live with Alzheimer’s disease, a number projected to rise to nearly 13 million by 2050, according to the Alzheimer’s Assoc., mainly due to the aging of America and the soaring over-65 population. That makes it critical for senior living communities to offer specific care to people with memory issues.

“However, I would like to point out the advent of new medications and infusions that are happening now,” said Cardillo, who serves on the executive leadership committee of the regional Alzheimer’s Assoc. chapter. “In the last five years, we have some medications that are actually looking at getting rid of the amyloid plaque in the brain, not just treating the symptoms. We have some new medications for people that are in the beginning stages, and it’s promising — I think it’s a springboard for better medications to come.”

What that means, she believes, is that “we are going to see the first survivor of Alzheimer’s in our lifetime.”

In the meantime, JGS Lifecare will continue to take care of those living with dementia locally.

“We genuinely want to take care of the person as a whole, and we’re providing various forms of engagement and opportunities to provide quality of life to our seniors,” Jones said, noting, as one example, a staff member who helps residents use an Oculus Quest headset to allow residents to access virtual reality experiences, “to walk through an ocean or get an experience on a different side of the world. And this is all thanks to the technology that we have today.

“So we’re growing; we’re expanding. We’re providing quality of life with just crayons and paper, if that’s something that they enjoy, or paint. But we’re also transforming for the current age, moving forward with technology, and I’m pretty proud of where we’re going.”

“And,” Cardillo was quick to add, “we’re not just treating our residents — we’re treating our families.”

East Longmeadow Is on the Road to Progress

By George O'Brien November 10, 2025

Community Spotlight Special Coverage

Community Spotlight

The infamous rotary in East Longmeadow, as seen in this Google Earth image, with its seven converging streets.

Tom Christensen says most East Longmeadow residents have learned to live with — and drive through — the infamous rotary in the center of town.

And some even take a small bit of pride in that it once owned a line in the Guinness Book of World Records for having seven converging streets, several of which carry heavy volumes of traffic, with no traffic lights, making it — unofficially, of course — the most dangerous intersection in the world. The rotary has been featured in Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for the same reason.

“We seem to wear this Ripley’s Believe It or Not! as a badge of honor, but I believe that list is for things that shouldn’t exist in nature,” said Christensen, town manager since 2023 and, before that, deputy director of Public Works. “It’s one of the most inefficient intersections ever devised, and while, at some point, it wasn’t so cumbersome due to the number of cars — and it wasn’t even cars at the beginning — now, with the traffic we have … we need to do something.”

He’s not alone in this thinking, which helps explain why, as the town makes progress on several different fronts — from ongoing construction of a new high school to a new fiber optic network to an emerging blueprint for development in the town’s center — there is renewed interest in trying to fix this seemingly most difficult and stubborn of problems.

Indeed, the rotary has been studied, and studied, and studied some more, said Christensen, adding that there is building momentum for finally finding a practical, affordable solution.

“There’s a lot of logistics and a lot of money, but for the health of the community and the future of the community, we have to do something to make this intersection more efficient.”

It won’t come tomorrow, and will likely take 10 to 15 years, he said, but a fix involving a reduction in the number of streets converging on the rotary — maybe to four — is in the earliest of stages.

“We want to take a look at reimagining this intersection. Obviously, it handles all area traffic, not just East Longmeadow traffic, and we need to figure out how to make it more efficient,” he said. “We have this traffic problem that expands out from the hub, but it all starts in the center, where everything grinds to a halt at least a few times a day.”

As for those other projects mentioned above, most are much further along, especially the high school, which is on track to open for the start of school next September.

The new school and adjoining natatorium (which will be open to the public), with a combined price tag of nearly $200 million, will make one of the region’s more attractive communities to live and own a business even more so, said Tanzi Cannon-Eckerle, who owns two businesses in town, a law firm and a craft brewery.

She noted that a modern high school (the current structure opened in 1960) is one of the few missing pieces in a town that boasts a large industrial park, a strong and diverse business community, attractive neighborhoods, and land for new development.

“If you don’t have a fairly new high school, are you going to lose residents to the next town?” she asked rhetorically. “Maybe, maybe not, but it’s good to keep up with the latest technology; this new high school is a great asset for the community.”

Tom Christensen says that, while a fix for the rotary is 10 to 15 years away, more immediate progress is evident on many fronts in town.

Another missing piece, if you will, is a solution for the eyesore that is the long-dormant site of the former Package Machinery manufacturing plant and warehouse on Chestnut Street.

Developers who had proposed a 560,000-square-foot warehouse, a plan that met with considerable opposition from abutters and was ultimately rejected by the Planning Board, recently submitted new plans calling for four warehouses totaling roughly 450,000 square feet.

That plan is still before the Planning Board, said Christensen, adding that the area in question is considered part of the town’s industrial garden park zone — with that section of Chestnut Street being its northern border — and warehouses are therefore a permitted use.

For this latest installment of its Community Spotlight series, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at the many storylines that are, like the roads in the center of town, converging.

Round About

As he talked about the town’s rotary, Christensen acknowledged it’s a complicated engineering challenge and a problem that has defied a solution for several generations of residents.

Locals have gotten used to it, but are still put off by it, he said, adding that, for non-locals, it can be harrowing.

“I have people come to visit, and they come to my house, and their face is all white,” he said. “And they’re like … ‘you have to yield in that intersection?’ I tell them that conventional wisdom says they have the right of way, but not in our town.”

“It would be great to have that area cleared up in the form of a new development in any form, and get the property back on the tax rolls for the community. It’s hard to drive by that every day and see a derelict property of that size.”

The problem won’t fix itself, and it will only get worse as the town continues to grow and, hopefully, add more jobs, Christensen noted, adding that advances in intersection and rotary design could yield a solution.

“Many studies have been done over the years, and the design parameters were too excessive — we’d have to do some takings and knock down buildings,” he said, referring to the area around the current rotary and the size of a circle needed to accommodate seven streets. “Now, all over the region, they’re popping in rotaries and intersections that you didn’t think were feasible.

“There would be some combination of reconfiguring to a traditional circle, with only four roads coming into it,” he said of the likely fix. “The latest idea is to sort of dog-ear some of these streets into other streets before they got to the rotary by way of a stop sign; we have to figure out some way to get some of those entrances out of the circle to make it work.”

East Longmeadow at a Glance

Year Incorporated: 1894
Population: 16,430
Area: 13.0 square miles
County: Hampden
Residential Tax Rate: $19.28
Commercial Tax Rate: $19.28
Median Household Income: $62,680
Median Family Income: $70,571
Type of Government: Town Council, Town Manager
Largest Employers: Lenox; Cartamundi; CareOne at Redstone; East Longmeadow Skilled Nursing Center
* Latest information available

As he noted, this will be a lengthy process, and a solution with a steep price tag — at least $10 million, by his estimate.

“It takes a long time to even come up with a schematic; it’s going to take a long time to design, and then to come with the funding for this or for us to get on a list with MassDOT is going to take some time,” he said. “There’s a lot of logistics and a lot of money, but for the health of the community and the future of the community, we have to do something to make this intersection more efficient.”

While that project plays itself out into the next decade, there is progress on other fronts, and potential progress (depending on one’s point of view) with others.

The latter is certainly true with 330 Chestnut St., an address where industrially zoned land and residential neighborhoods abut.

The public hearing process on the newest proposal, which has included questions on everything from traffic volume to noise and pollution to whether trucks can and should navigate nearby intersections, is continuing, said Christensen, adding that the area has been an eyesore for decades now.

“It was a great idea when the town decided to move all of its industry into that corner of town in the form of the industrial garden park, but naturally, there are places it abuts that are residential,” he said. “You have to work hard to make sure that the impact is not great on any of the surrounding areas.

“It would be great to have that area cleared up in the form of a new development in any form, and get the property back on the tax rolls for the community,” he went on. “It’s hard to drive by that every day and see a derelict property of that size.”

New School Thinking

Meanwhile, crews are keeping to an aggressive timetable for the new high school, he noted, adding that the project also includes not only the natatorium, but new athletic fields, tennis courts, and improvements to the football stadium area.

“There’s obvious excitement in the community for the new school — it’s a glorious campus,” said Christensen, who graduated from ELHS in 1997 and brings that perspective to the project. “It’s really exciting on so many levels, obviously for the school system, but also for the community to have this wonderful new space.”

And as that project moves forward, the town is also working toward creating a center town district and bylaws for development in that area.

A $22,000 grant from the Massachusetts Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs will be used to hire a consultant to help with the planning of the district, said Christensen, adding that the Town Council has voted not to create the district under the state’s Chapter 40R regulations, which would make the town eligible for state funding, but also bind it to meet specific requirements for housing, including affordable housing.

“The community decided it didn’t want to be beholden to the state, so we have decided to create our own district with our own guidelines, free of any 40R requirements,” he noted. “Depending on how the final parameters of how our bylaw shake out, it could have the parameters of 40R; it just won’t be eligible for that reimbursement to the developer and/or town, because it won’t carry that designation.”

Elaborating, Christensen said that, with all industry moved to the southwest corner of town, several properties in the town center, including the former Carlin Combustion site on Maple Street, could be redeveloped for other uses, including housing. And the development community has interest in that area for that purpose.

The next step in the process is likely to be Planning Board public hearings on the district, he said, adding that he is expecting “robust conversations in a public setting” about what residents want to see regarding density, building heights, and other matters.

“We’re looking at a comprehensive study on not only what the town can handle, but what developers are willing to build,” he went on. “We want to find that happy medium so the bylaws are feasible for all.”

As that project plays out, the community is proceeding with plans to address the lack of broadband competition by building a town-owned fiber optic project with Whip City Fiber, the rapidly growing broadband arm of Westfield Gas & Electric.

“We have a design done, and we’re working with the utilities to get their make-ready costs so that we can formulate a plan on how to roll out this initiative, which we’re really excited about,” Christensen said. “Currently, the town is only served by Spectrum, and residents have long been calling for some competition in town.

“It’s a long process, and a lot of infrastructure has to be put in place,” he went on, adding that the project gives the town the ability to improve services to residents while also generating revenue, which can be put back into the community.

It’s a community that is business-friendly and does a good job of balancing business growth with quality of life for residents, said Cannon-Eckerle, whose craft brewery, Brew Practitioners, is celebrating 10 years.

“They do a really good job of asking questions and doing all the legwork up front,” she said of the Planning Board, Town Council, and other panels that consider plans from businesses. “But then, they take the time to take in the concerns of the residents; they do a very good job of listening to both sides. East Longmeadow does a good job of doing it by the book.”

BusinessTalk with Aaron Vega, President and CEO, Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council

By BusinessWest Staff October 27, 2025

Business Talk Podcast Special Coverage

With new episodes airing every other Monday, BusinessTalk features in-depth interviews and discussions with local industry leaders who offer thoughtful perspectives on the Western Massachusetts economy and the many business ventures that keep it running. BusinessTalk is sponsored and presented by Greenfield Cooperative Bank.

Go HERE to view all episodes

Episode 245: October 27, 2025

George O’Brien talks with Aaron Vega, President and CEO, Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council: The EDC’s Next Phase

Aaron Vega calls it the next logical progression in a career that has taken him from freelance film editing to directing the Office of Planning & Economic Development in Holyoke. He was referring to the role of president and CEO of the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council after prevailing in a nationwide search that attracted more than 100 candidates; he will assume that role in January. On the next episode of BusinessTalk, Aaron discusses his plans and goals with BusinessWest Contributing Writer George O’Brien. Among other things, he wants the region to do a better job of telling its story, grow the inventory of shovel-ready land for developers, create a blueprint for population growth, and make the EDC even more of a “convener and connector.” It’s must listening, so tune into BusinessTalk, a podcast presented by BusinessWest on both audio and video platforms and sponsored by Greenfield Cooperative Bank.

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Aaron Vega to Helm Western Massachusetts EDC as It Writes Its Next Chapter

By George O'Brien October 23, 2025

Features Special Coverage

Taking the Lead

Aaron Vega

As Aaron Vega was reading last spring’s announcement that Rick Sullivan would be leaving his post as president of the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council (EDC) at the end of this year, he was already thinking that his various skill sets and this high-profile job were a good match — and that this was his next logical career challenge.

“The path that I’m on in economic development and municipal work … there are only a few higher-level jobs in this area — if you want to stay in Western Mass. and care about Western Mass. — and this one of them,” he explained. “And they don’t come along very often, so I decided early on that I should throw my hat in the ring.”

And he wasn’t alone in that thinking.

“I saw Mayor [Joshua] Garcia not long after, and he said, ‘you’re applying for this job, right?’” recalled Vega, referring to Holyoke’s chief executive, beside whom he’s been working for the past several years as director of Planning and Economic Development for the city. “He knew that this was a good fit.”

“The EDC is a connector and a convener.”

Vega did go for it, and, eventually, several teams of interviewers agreed that there was indeed a good match between this job’s demands and Vega’s diverse résumé, which also includes everything from entrepreneurship — he was a freelance film editor and then a yoga studio owner — to two terms as a Holyoke city councilor and then four terms as a state representative.

Thus, he ultimately prevailed in a lengthy, national search, and will take the helm on Jan. 2. Before then, and even moreso after, he said he’ll doing a lot of listening — to EDC board members, mayors, business owners, property owners, developers, and area economic development leaders.

The plan is to take what he’s heard and use his vast experience to blueprint what will be the next chapter for the EDC, a membership-based organization formed roughly 30 years ago with a broad charge of making the 413 more competitive, taking a more regional approach to economic development, and creating a stronger voice for this area statewide.

While Vega will develop a more formal set of goals and priorities in the months and years to come, he told BusinessWest he has some initial thoughts.

“We have not done a good job of marketing Western Mass.”

They include everything from creating regular, industry-based roundtables — similar to the ones he staged in Holyoke and that many attendees, including Sullivan, thought should be regional in nature — to more aggressive efforts to tell the region’s story and market the 413.

Not with newspaper and television ads, necessarily, he said, although that might be part of the equation, but through a multi-dimensional strategy that includes having a stronger presence in regional and even national gatherings, such as the Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference, which he attended several times as a Holyoke official.

“The last one was in St. Louis, and the one before that was in Chicago,” he said, adding that communities across the country gather to hear strategies about addressing vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties. “You hear these presentations from Chicago, Detroit, big cities and small towns, on how to reactivate these spaces. I’ve been to these conferences on vacant buildings and transportation — there’s so much networking going on at these events, and we need to be out there.”

Aaron Vega (right), seen here with Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia, says the region needs to do a better job of promoting itself and its many assets.

Meanwhile, he said another priority is to work with area cities and towns to create more of the shovel-ready land that developers are increasingly demanding.

Still another priority is to increase awareness within the local business community of what the EDC is, how it functions, and what role it can play, if any, with the many pressing issues in this region.

“The EDC is a connector and a convener,” he said, settling on those two words to describe the agency, adding that he wants to put even more emphasis on regional collaboration on issues such as housing and east-west rail.

Pulling on the Same Rope

As noted near the top, Vega spent several years doing freelance film editing work for creators that included Ken Burns and his eight-part series on the history of jazz.

One project Vega worked on was “Race to the Moon,” an American Experience episode that told the story of Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, in late 1968. He referenced it as he talked about his approach to his new job, problem solving in general, and one question during one of his final interviews (concerning policies relating to airports) that he didn’t have an answer to.

“Every single challenge they had putting together those Apollo missions … when they would encounter a new obstacle or challenge, they would bring in a person who could fix it — they kept expanding their team,” he explained. “If I don’t know how to do something, let’s bring in the person who does.

“If we do our job in Western Mass. of bringing in these companies that are coming out of UMass and elsewhere and they grow here and we create new housing opportunities … people are going to take the train to come out here to work.”

“If a group of people can come together and put us on the moon, a group of people in Western Mass. who are smart and have all these abilities can come together and figure out what we need to get done,” he went on, adding that this will be the organization’s mindset moving forward.

Overall, Vega has a broad, diverse background working in many different settings to call on as he approaches his next challenge.

Indeed, while editing films, he also opened his own small business, Vega Yoga & Movement Arts, operating it for more than 15 years. And in 2010 (the year he became one of BusinessWest’s 40 Under Forty honorees), the Holyoke native won an at-large seat on the Holyoke City Council, eventually serving two terms.

He then moved from City Hall to the State House, capturing the first of four two-year terms in 2013, before returning to Holyoke to become director of the Planning and Economic Development Office.

Vega told BusinessWest that, while each career stop provided invaluable experience that will help him with his latest career challenge, that is especially true of his time in Holyoke.

Indeed, over the past five years, he’s been part of several key initiatives, from the growth, and subsequent decline, of a cannabis cluster in the city to the emergence of new clean energy and food-tech companies, such as Sublime Systems and Clean Crop Technologies; from the designation of the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center as state’s hub for artificial intelligence and quantum computing to the years-long effort to convert the long-vacant Farr Alpaca complex into 88 units of mixed-income housing for adults 55 and over.

“I understand how these things happen — how do businesses locate? How do housing developments happen? How do you put together a $40 million financial stack to make 88 units of housing together?” he said, adding that his experience on the ground, and the relationships he’s forged — with those in the State House, regionally, and locally — will also be assets in his new role with the EDC.

Returning to those thoughts about the EDC being a connector and convener, Vega said issues such as the housing crisis and the 413’s declining population require a regional approach and a high level of collaboration among area cities and towns. And that’s one example of how the EDC might be able to help identify key issues for the region, set goals, and develop strategies to meet them.

“If we want to think about Western Mass. as a hub, we need a population goal for Western Mass. because this region is bleeding population, especially among younger people, ages 24 to 45,” he said. “If we say we have a population goal for the region — 20,000, 30,000, whatever the number is — over the next 10 to 15 years, then every municipality is going to have a role in that.

“Our small towns are going to have to bring on four to 10 units of housing, while our Holyokes and Westfields are going to have to bring on hundreds of units of housing,” he continued. “How do we work together to make sure we’re pulling on the same rope? A lot of people say, ‘pull in the same direction.’ I’m saying that we need to pull on the same rope together.”

Selling the Region

And while getting communities to pull on that same rope, the EDC should also be continuing to stress a regional approach to economic development, Vega said, while spearheading better efforts to promote the region and its assets.

“We have not done a good job of marketing Western Mass.” he said. “We should be talking about the health systems we have and the education systems we have, and the idea that you can live in a farmhouse if you want and be in downtown Springfield or downtown Holyoke in 20 minutes, even without public transportation. I think we should talk about the fact that Western Mass. believes in science, believes in education, believes in opportunities.

“Maybe that story isn’t being told, but we need to make sure that, if the EDC is out there telling the story, the chambers are telling the story, the mayors are telling the story — everyone is telling the same story,” he said, citing the example of Lowell, which he acknowledged is a city and not a region, where there was a solid, consistent message about the ‘Lowell plan.’ “The message in Lowell was so strong that the barbershops were talking about it, as well as the mayor.”

He noted that, under Sullivan, the EDC has done a solid job of creating a strong voice for the region on a statewide level and making sure Western Mass. is part of statewide initiatives, and these efforts must continue as part of those broader efforts to promote the area and prompt businesses to look this way when considering expansion or additional locations.

“When those Boston-based firms are looking for R&D or prototyping, they don’t need to look any further than Western Mass.,” he said. “If they need a second location or warehouse space or their manufacturing done, it’s way too costly to manufacture inside the 495 belt. These firms should be creating partnerships and doing that manufacturing out here; we have great manufacturers and companies that can help with research and development. These connections need to be made stronger.

“People in Boston don’t know what we make out here,” he continued. “So when they look for service or they look for something, they look at the West Virginias; they look out of state before they look in-state. We need to change that.”

Summing up the challenge — and opportunity — for the EDC and the region, as well as perhaps his own job description, to some extent, Vega returned to the subject of east-west rail and what would be the best-case scenario.

“A lot of people talk about east-west rail coming and how that will be a benefit for people in Western Mass. to get on the train and go to Boston or Worcester and go to work,” he said. “But if we do our job in Western Mass. of bringing in these companies that are coming out of UMass and elsewhere and they grow here and we create new housing opportunities … people are going to take the train to come out here to work.

“That’s a shift in mindset that needs to happen,” he went on, adding that this just one of his goals as he takes on his next career challenge.

Celebrating Local Standouts

By BusinessWest Staff October 23, 2025

Special Coverage Super 60

Super 60 Honorees Impact Region in Many Ways

Dozens of area companies will be honored by the Springfield Regional Chamber in its 36th annual Super 60 Awards Program.

This year, the chamber received more than 100 nominations in five categories, one of the largest pools in the program’s history, showcasing the strength and diversity of the local business community.

The 2025 Super 60 winners represent industries across Western Mass., including healthcare, education, finance, manufacturing, dining, and more. The program recognizes excellence in five core categories: Revenue, Growth, Start-Up, Give Back, and Non-Profit. Each category celebrates a distinct measure of success, from sustained financial performance and rapid expansion to community impact and innovation.

In addition, the chamber will present its first-ever Legacy Award, recognizing an organization with deep and lasting contributions to the region’s economic and community vitality. The inaugural honor will go to Balise Motor Sales Co., a family-owned business founded in 1919 when Paul Balise began repairing farm equipment and automobiles from his backyard garage in Hatfield.

What started as a small local operation grew into one of New England’s largest automotive retailers under the leadership of three generations of the Balise family. Now headquartered in Springfield, Balise employs more than 1,400 people across Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Cape Cod.

“Super 60 is about more than business success; it’s about recognizing the people and organizations whose work uplifts our community and creates opportunities for throughout our region,” said Diana Szynal, president and CEO of the Springfield Regional Chamber. “This year’s honorees exemplify the strength and resilience that define Western Massachusetts. I’m especially proud to introduce our new Legacy Award, honoring Balise Motor Sales Co. for more than a century of adaptability, growth, and community impact.”

The 2025 Super 60 Awards Luncheon will take place on Friday, Nov. 7 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the MassMutual Center in Springfield. The event will feature Jessika Rozki, founder of Rozki Rides LLC, as the keynote speaker, and the WWLP Morning Team — Kaelee Collins, Julia O’Keefe, and Chris Bouzakis — as emcees.

Tickets for the event can be purchased online at springfieldregionalchamber.com/super60. The cost is $75 for members and $85 for non-members. Tables of 10 can also be reserved. The event attracts more than 500 business leaders each year.

2025
Revenue Winners

Baltazar Contractors Inc.
Braman Chemical Enterprises Inc.
Campora Construction Co. Inc.
The Dowd Agencies LLC
Edward F. Corcoran Plumbing & Heating Co. Inc.
Fontaine Brothers Inc.
Freedom Credit Union
Harry Grodsky & Co. Inc.
Keiter Corp.
L&C Prescription Inc.
Marcotte Ford Sales Inc.
Maybury Associates Inc.
Patriot Property Management Group
Saloomey Construction Inc.
Tighe & Bond Inc.

2025
Growth Winners

Baltazar Contractors Inc.
Braman Chemical Enterprises Inc.
Campora Construction Co. Inc.
The Dowd Agencies LLC
Edward F. Corcoran Plumbing & Heating Co. Inc.
Fontaine Brothers Inc.
Keiter Corp.
L&C Prescription Inc.
Ludlow Eye Associates, P.C.
Marcotte Ford Sales Inc.
Monty’s Motorsports LLC
Patriot Property Management Group
RE/MAX Connections
Saloomey Construction Inc.
Tighe & Bond Inc.

2025
Start-Up Winners

Caring Medical Staffing LLC
Gleason Realty Group
K. Ebner Creative
The Latest Kraez
Wash Works Laundry Services

2025
Give Back
Winners

413 Elite Professional Basketball Team
All States Materials Group
The Fontaine Community Foundation Inc.
Keiter Corp.
Lock and Key Realty
Marcotte Ford Sales Inc.
MGM Springfield
Monarch Fore Charities
Realistic CEO
Springfield Hockey LLC

2025
Non-Profit
Winners

Access Care Partners
Boys & Girls Club of Greater Westfield
Clinical & Support Options
Cutchins Programs for Children and Families Inc.
The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts
Forest Park Zoological Society Inc.
Hampden County Career Center Inc.
Hampden County Sheriff’s Workforce Initiative
Mental Health Assoc. Inc.
Rachel’s Table of Western
Massachusetts Inc.
Second Chance Animal Services
Springfield Partners for Community
Action Inc.
Sunshine Village Inc.
Work Opportunity Center Inc.
YMCA of Greater Springfield

REVENUE

Baltazar Contractors Inc.
83 Carmelinas Circle, Ludlow, MA 01056
(413) 583-6160
www.baltazarcontractors.com
Paulo Baltazar, President
Baltazar Contractors is a heavy civil construction company with services in utility construction, roadway construction, site work and development, culvert and bridge construction, earth support and shoring, and trenchless technology. The company has remained family-owned over three decades in business.

Braman Chemical Enterprises Inc.
147 Almgren Dr., Agawam 01001
(413) 732-9009
www.braman.biz
Gerald Lazarus, President
Braman has been serving New England since 1890, using state-of-the-art pest-elimination procedures for commercial and residential customers, and offering humane removal of birds, bats, and other nuisances through its wildlife division. The company has offices in Agawam, Worcester, and Lee, as well as Hartford and New Haven, Conn.

Campora Construction Co. Inc.
43 Owens Way, Ludlow, MA 01056
(413) 610-1660
www.camporacc.com
Mario Campora, President
Campora Construction specializes in full-scale building construction and sidewalk, patio, and driveway installation for residential, commercial, and governmental projects. Services include custom home design and construction, complete home rebuilds from fire damage, home additions and sunroom installation, concrete demolition and infills, and commercial office fit-outs.

The Dowd Agencies LLC
14 Bobala Road, Holyoke, MA 01040
(413) 538-7444
www.dowd.com
John Dowd Jr., President
Founded in 1898, the Dowd Agencies is the oldest insurance agency under continuous family ownership, and one of the most long-standing, experienced insurance agencies in Massachusetts. Its staff includes fully licensed and certified insurance and financial services agents and brokers in Holyoke, Hadley, Southampton, Indian Orchard, and Ludlow.

Edward F. Corcoran Plumbing & Heating Co. Inc.
5 Rose Place, Springfield, MA 01104
(413) 732-1462
www.efcorcoran.com
Brian Toomey, President
E.F. Corcoran Plumbing & Heating is a full-service plumbing and HVAC contractor, offering 24-hour plumbing services, HVAC installation, gas piping, boilers, heat recovery, and more. It serves the commercial, industrial, medical, and institutional industries and has performed work for Baystate Noble Hospital, Springfield College, UMass, Mercy Medical Center, and Stop & Shop.

Fontaine Brothers Inc.
510 Cottage St., Springfield, Massachusetts 01104
(413) 781-2020
www.fontainebros.com
David Fontaine Jr., CEO
Family-owned and operated for 91 years, Fontaine Bros. offers services such as general contracting, with a focus on K-12 schools, higher education, commercial properties, historical renovations, and municipal work, as well as construction management. As one of New England’s original green builders, it has expertise in building sustainably and responsibly for all kinds of projects.

Freedom Credit Union
1976 Main St., Springfield, MA 01103
(413) 739-6961
www.freedom.coop
Glenn Welch, President and CEO
Freedom Credit Union is a credit union that offers banking and loan services to businesses, the cannabis industry, and individuals. It also offers insurance plans for individuals and an investment-services division. The institution celebrated its centennial in 2022 and regularly involves customers and the community in philanthropic outreach.

Harry Grodsky & Co. Inc.
33 Shaws Lane, Springfield, MA 01104
(413) 785-1947
www.grodsky.com
Dave Streeter, President
Harry Grodsky & Co. delivers design; construction; service, repairs, and maintenance; energy solutions; and more, offering a full range of customized services and project delivery methods including traditional bid, design build, design assist, and integrated project delivery. It also maintains a workplace culture of community involvement, with employees actively and financially involved in a wide range of area nonprofits.

Keiter Corp.
1 Interstate Drive, West Springfield, MA 01089
(413) 586-8600
www.keiter.com
Scott Keiter, President
Keiter Corp. is a construction-services company working with clients on residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional projects of all sizes. The firm is divided into four divisions: Keiter Builders (commercial and institutional construction), Keiter Homes (residential construction), Hatfield Construction (excavation, site work, and structural concrete), and Keiter Properties (real estate and rental).

L&C Prescriptions Inc.
155 Brookdale Dr., Springfield, MA 01104
(413) 781-2996
www.medibubble.com
Dr. Kara James, President
L&C Prescription, the parent company for Louis & Clark Pharmacy, provides medication solutions to individuals, healthcare providers, and assisted-living, independent-living, and memory-care communities, and offers online prescription refills, MediBubble pre-packaged pills, blister packs to manage daily medications, vial synchronization, consultations with registered pharmacists, and a delivery service.

Marcotte Ford Sales Inc.
1025 Main St., Holyoke
(413) 536-1900
www.marcotteford.com
Mike Marcotte, President
The dealership sells new Ford vehicles as well as pre-owned cars, trucks, and SUVs, and features a full service department, including a mobile service operation that comes to customers for basic maintenance and recall servicing. Marcotte has achieved Ford’s President’s Award multiple occasions over the past decade. It also operates the Marcotte Commercial Truck Center.

Maybury Associates Inc.
90 Denslow Road, East Longmeadow
(888) 629-2879
www.maybury.com
William Maybury, President
A one-source provider of quality industrial products and services to manufacturing, distribution, and warehousing customers, Maybury Associates designs, supplies, and services a wide variety of handling equipment throughout New England and provides customers in a wide range of industries with solutions to move, lift, and store their parts and products.

Patriot Property Management Group
268 Cold Spring Ave., Suite B, West Springfield, MA 01089
(413) 707-4434
www.patriotpmg.com
Marc Murphy, President
Patriot Property Management Group is a real estate company that assists clients in the Western Mass. region with a variety of services, including buying, selling, rental assistance, property management, and more. President Marc Murphy also helms Lock and Key Realty, which is honored in this year’s Super 60 in the Give Back category.

Saloomey Construction Inc.
62B School St., Westfield, MA 01085
(413) 269-4360
www.saloomey-construction.com
Michael O’Brien, President
For more than 40 years, Saloomey Construction has built a strong reputation in both new construction and renovation work, including commercial and residential development, historic renovations, medical facilities, marijuana growing facilities, schools, student housing, senior housing, churches, and much more. The firm has also been part of many design-build projects that help clients achieve a highly customized result.

Tighe & Bond Inc.
53 Southampton Road, Westfield, MA 01085
(413) 562-1600
www.tighebond.com
Robert Belitz, President and CEO
Tighe & Bond offers engineering, design, planning, and environmental-consulting services, with focuses in building, transportation, water and wastewater engineering, coastal and waterfront solutions, environmental consulting, GIS and asset management, landscape architecture and urban design, civil engineering, and site planning.

GROWTH

Baltazar Contractors Inc.
83 Carmelinas Circle, Ludlow, MA 01056
(413) 583-6160
www.baltazarcontractors.com
Paulo Baltazar, President
Baltazar Contractors is a heavy civil construction company with services in utility construction, roadway construction, site work and development, culvert and bridge construction, earth support and shoring, and trenchless technology. The company has remained family-owned over three decades in business.

Braman Chemical Enterprises Inc.
147 Almgren Dr., Agawam 01001
(413) 732-9009
www.braman.biz
Gerald Lazarus, President
Braman has been serving New England since 1890, using state-of-the-art pest-elimination procedures for commercial and residential customers, and offering humane removal of birds, bats, and other nuisances through its wildlife division. The company has offices in Agawam, Worcester, and Lee, as well as Hartford and New Haven, Conn.

Campora Construction Co. Inc.
43 Owens Way, Ludlow, MA 01056
(413) 610-1660
www.camporacc.com
Mario Campora, President
Campora Construction specializes in full-scale building construction and sidewalk, patio, and driveway installation for residential, commercial, and governmental projects. Services include custom home design and construction, complete home rebuilds from fire damage, home additions and sunroom installation, concrete demolition and infills, and commercial office fit-outs.

The Dowd Agencies LLC
14 Bobala Road, Holyoke, MA 01040
(413) 538-7444
www.dowd.com
John Dowd Jr., President
Founded in 1898, the Dowd Agencies is the oldest insurance agency under continuous family ownership, and one of the most long-standing, experienced insurance agencies in Massachusetts. Its staff includes fully licensed and certified insurance and financial services agents and brokers in Holyoke, Hadley, Southampton, Indian Orchard, and Ludlow.

Edward F. Corcoran Plumbing & Heating Co. Inc.
5 Rose Place, Springfield, MA 01104
(413) 732-1462
www.efcorcoran.com
Brian Toomey, President
E.F. Corcoran Plumbing & Heating is a full-service plumbing and HVAC contractor, offering 24-hour plumbing services, HVAC installation, gas piping, boilers, heat recovery, and more. It serves the commercial, industrial, medical, and institutional industries and has performed work for Baystate Noble Hospital, Springfield College, UMass, Mercy Medical Center, and Stop & Shop.

Fontaine Brothers Inc.
510 Cottage St., Springfield, Massachusetts 01104
(413) 781-2020
www.fontainebros.com
David Fontaine Jr., CEO
Family-owned and operated for 91 years, Fontaine Bros. offers services such as general contracting, with a focus on K-12 schools, higher education, commercial properties, historical renovations, and municipal work, as well as construction management. As one of New England’s original green builders, it has expertise in building sustainably and responsibly for all kinds of projects.

Keiter Corp.
1 Interstate Drive, West Springfield, MA 01089
(413) 586-8600
www.keiter.com
Scott Keiter, President
Keiter is a construction-services company working with clients on residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional projects of all sizes. The firm is divided into four divisions: Keiter Builders (commercial and institutional construction), Keiter Homes (residential construction), Hatfield Construction (excavation, site work, and structural concrete), and Keiter Properties (real estate and rental).

L&C Prescriptions Inc.
155 Brookdale Dr., Springfield, MA 01104
(413) 781-2996
www.medibubble.com
Dr. Kara James, President
L&C Prescription, the parent company for Louis & Clark Pharmacy, provides medication solutions to individuals, healthcare providers, and assisted-living, independent-living, and memory-care communities, and offers online prescription refills, MediBubble pre-packaged pills, blister packs to manage daily medications, vial synchronization, consultations with registered pharmacists, and a delivery service.

Ludlow Eye Associates, P.C.
200 Center St., Suite 1, Ludlow, MA 01056
(413) 583-3600
Katarzyna Babinski, Owner
Ludlow Eye Associates provides comprehensive eye examinations, medical eye care, and contact lens fittings and examinations. Its optical staff is available to assist with new eyewear purchases, contact lens purchases, as well as eyewear adjustments and repairs.

Marcotte Ford Sales Inc.
1025 Main St., Holyoke
(413) 536-1900
www.marcotteford.com
Mike Marcotte, President
The dealership sells new Ford vehicles as well as pre-owned cars, trucks, and SUVs, and features a full service department, including a mobile service operation that comes to customers for basic maintenance and recall servicing. Marcotte has achieved Ford’s President’s Award multiple occasions over the past decade. It also operates the Marcotte Commercial Truck Center.

Monty’s Motorsport LLC
1 Arch Road, Westfield, MA 01085
(413) 642-8199
www.montysmotorsports.com
Monty Geer, Owner
Monty’s Motorsport is a parts, sales, service, and gear store for motorsport vehicles, such as four-wheelers, dirt bikes, motorcycles, electric bikes, street bikes, and more. It offers new and used vehicles, with financing options available, as well as services such as winterization, battery inspections, accessory installations, chain adjustments, oil and filter changes, and full engine rebuilds.

Patriot Property Management Group
268 Cold Spring Ave., Suite B, West Springfield, MA 01089
(413) 707-4434
www.patriotpmg.com
Marc Murphy, President
Patriot Property Management Group is a real estate company that assists clients in the Western Mass. region with a variety of services, including buying, selling, rental assistance, property management, and more. President Marc Murphy also helms Lock and Key Realty, which is honored in this year’s Super 60 in the Give Back category.

RE/MAX Connections
85 Post Office Park, Wilbraham, MA 01095
(800) 755-7595
www.remax.com/real-estate-offices/remax-connections-wilbraham-ma/100428112
Peter Ruffini and Dawn Ruffini, Brokers/Owners
RE/MAX Connections is a full-service real-estate brokerage servicing Massachusetts and Connecticut, with referral partners worldwide. Its services encompass buying, selling, and renting properties.

Saloomey Construction Inc.
62B School St., Westfield, MA 01085
(413) 269-4360
www.saloomey-construction.com
Michael O’Brien, President
For more than 40 years, Saloomey Construction has built a strong reputation in both new construction and renovation work, including commercial and residential development, historic renovations, medical facilities, marijuana growing facilities, schools, student housing, senior housing, churches, and much more. The firm has also been part of many design-build projects that help clients achieve a highly customized result.

Tighe & Bond Inc.
53 Southampton Road, Westfield, MA 01085
(413) 562-1600
www.tighebond.com
Robert Belitz, President and CEO
Tighe & Bond offers engineering, design, planning, and environmental-consulting services, with focuses in building, transportation, water and wastewater engineering, coastal and waterfront solutions, environmental consulting, GIS and asset management, landscape architecture and urban design, civil engineering, and site planning.

START-UP

Caring Medical Staffing LLC
235 Chestnut St., Unit B01, Springfield, MA 01103
(413) 435-0226
www.caringmedicalstaffing.com
Diana Preston, CEO
Caring Medical Staffing provides highly skilled nursing professionals across diverse healthcare settings, offering flexible, 24/7 staffing solutions tailored to meet each client organization’s short-term and long-term needs. Its team includes RNs (ADN, BSN, MSN), LPNs, CNAs, and HHAs. The business also offers CPR, first aid, and basic life support certification classes on a regular basis to healthcare providers and community members.

Gleason Realty Group
5 Industrial Parkway, Easthampton, MA 01027
(413) 250-7937
Anthony Gleason, President
Anthony Gleason says of his growing company, “we believe that property management is about more than just buildings — it’s about people, community, and creating spaces where businesses can thrive. We are proud to serve our local community with a thoughtful, hands-on approach to property management.”

K. Ebner Creative
www.kebnercreative.com
Kayla Ebner, Owner
K. Ebner Creative is a growing photography and videography business with a wide range of clients, business and corporate photography — everything from restaurants and food to sports and fitness; from drone footage and video business cards to events of all kinds, including weddings. Ebner works locally but is also available for destination and travel work, and offers a range of packages to meet the needs of each client.

The Latest Kraez
469 Longmeadow St., Longmeadow, MA 01106
(413) 384-2962
www.thelatestkraez.com
Rachael Kraez, Owner
Founded in 2020, the Latest Kraez is a woman-owned business serving Longmeadow and the surrounding areas. Owner and baker Rachael Kraez has an associate degree in baking & pastry arts as well as a bachelor’s degree in food and beverage entrepreneurship from Johnson & Wales University, and all her cakes and pastries are baked fresh with the best ingredients. She also services special events.

Wash Works Laundry Services
169 Hancock St., Springfield, MA 01109
(413) 889-3855
www.washworksma.com
Wash Works Laundromat is a family-owned business with multiple locations to better serve its customers. Services include self-serve wash and dry; drop-off wash, dry, and fold; pickup and delivery; commercial laundry services; and dry cleaning. Military and senior discounts are available.

GIVE BACK

413 Elite Professional Basketball Team
393 Belmont Ave., Unit 80347, Springfield, MA 01108
www.413elite.com
Charles Evans, Owner
The 413 Elite is a member of the American Basketball Assoc., whose goal is to provide quality, entertaining, and affordable professional basketball in a friendly, safe environment. Established in 2021, the 413 Elite is a part of the Northeast Division, alongside teams in Boston, Providence, New York, Long Island, New Jersey, and Canada.

All States Materials Group
11 Interstate Dr., Suite 301, West Springfield, MA 01089
(800) 343-9620
www.asmg.com
Jean Azoury, President
All States Materials Group provides a diverse range of products and solutions for the liquid asphalt, paving, and road construction industries. Its construction material supply capabilities include liquid asphalt, asphalt emulsion, specialty additives, construction aggregates, hot-mix asphalt, and ready-mix concrete. The company also provides a broad range of pavement maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation treatment options.

The Fontaine Community Foundation Inc.
510 Cottage St., Springfield, Massachusetts 01104
(413) 781-2020
www.fontainebros.com/fontaine-community-foundation
Elizabeth Wambui, Director
An arm of Fontaine Brothers Inc., thr Fontaine Community Foundation develops partnerships with organizations focused on building stronger communities in New England. Its mission is to leverage resources to help solve problems and contribute to the common good. Key priority areas include children and youth, education, health, community support, and developmental expressions.

Keiter Corp.
1 Interstate Drive, West Springfield, MA 01089
(413) 586-8600
www.keiter.com
Scott Keiter, President
Keiter Corp. is a construction-services company working with clients on residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional projects of all sizes. The firm is divided into four divisions: Keiter Builders (commercial and institutional construction), Keiter Homes (residential construction), Hatfield Construction (excavation, site work, and structural concrete), and Keiter Properties (real estate and rental).

Lock and Key Realty
268 Cold Spring Ave., Suite B, West Springfield, MA 01089
(413) 282-8080
www.lockandkeyma.com
Marc Murphy, President
Lock and Key Realty is a real estate brokerage launched in 2019, which has since grown to 60 agents and recorded $230 million in sales last year, with a portfolio of commercial and residential properties, including apartment complexes, commercial offices, and industrial sites. The firm gives back to the community through an annual golf tournament that raises money for Habitat for Humanity and the Hartsprings Foundation.

Marcotte Ford Sales Inc.
1025 Main St., Holyoke
(413) 536-1900
www.marcotteford.com
Mike Marcotte, President
The dealership sells new Ford vehicles as well as pre-owned cars, trucks, and SUVs, and features a full service department, including a mobile service operation that comes to customers for basic maintenance and recall servicing. Marcotte has achieved Ford’s President’s Award multiple occasions over the past decade. It also operates the Marcotte Commercial Truck Center.

MGM Springfield
One MGM Way, Springfield, MA 01103
(413) 273-5000
www.mgmspringfield.mgmresorts.com
Chris Kelley, President and COO
MGM Springfield recently celebrated five years of operation in downtown Springfield, offering a host of slot machines and table games, numerous restaurants, a hotel, and entertainment at Symphony Hall, Roar! Comedy Club, ARIA Ballroom, the MassMutual Center, and an outdoor plaza.

Monarch Fore Charities
One Monarch Place, 25th Floor, Springfield, MA 01144
(413) 746-4100
www.monarch-place.com
Paul Picknelly, President
Monarch Fore Charities is the philanthropic and charity-supporting arm of Monarch Enterprises, a leading commercial real-estate developer and hotel operator.

Realistic CEO
www.realisticceo.com
Mychal Connolly Jr., CEO
Realistic CEO aims to inspire and empower individuals, especially youth, to believe in their dreams and pursue them with unwavering determination. Through a book, podcast, vlog, speaking engagements, and more, Connolly aims to demystify the path to leadership and success, providing practical guidance, real-life examples, and motivational content to equip future leaders with the confidence, skills, and mindset needed to achieve their goals and make a positive impact on the world.

Springfield Hockey LLC
1 Monarch Place, Springfield, MA 02110
(413) 746-4100
www.springfieldthunderbirds.com
Nathan Costa, President
Springfield Hockey LLC, better known as the Springfield Thunderbirds, is the local affiliate of the St. Louis Blues and and the American Hockey League’s 2021-22 Eastern Conference champion. Playing its home games at the MassMutual Center since its inception in 2016, the team gives back to the community in multiple ways, like the Thunderbirds Foundation, Stick to Reading school programs, Hometown Salute, Frontline Fridays, and more.

NON-PROFIT

Access Care Partners
4 Valley Mill Road, Holyoke, MA 01040
(413) 538-9020
www.wmeldercare.org
Roseann Martoccia, Executive Director
This agency’s mission is to preserve the dignity, independence, and quality of life of elders and disabled persons desiring to remain within their own community. It offers services for elders, their families and caregivers, and people with disabilities. Programs and services include supportive housing, home care, options counseling, adult family care, nutrition programs, elder mental health, family caregiver support, and health-insurance counseling.

Boys & Girls Club of Greater Westfield
28 West Silver St., Westfield, MA 01085
(413) 562-2301
www.bgcwestfield.org
Bo Sullivan, CEO
The Boys & Girls Club aims to inspire and enable young people to reach their full potential as productive, caring, and responsible citizens. Its programs for ages 2 to 18 are designed to support youth in achieving three priority outcomes: academic success, good character and citizenship, and healthy lifestyles.

Clinical & Support Options
8 Atwood Dr., Suite 301, Northampton, MA 01060
(413) 773-1314
www.csoinc.org
Karin Jeffers, President and CEO
CSO’s mission is to provide responsive and effective interventions and services to support individual adults, children, and families in their quest for stability, growth, and a positive quality of life. Services include crisis and emergency services; outpatient mental health; family-support programs; community-based programs; and shelter, housing, and homelessness efforts.

Cutchins Programs for Children and Families Inc.
78 Pomeroy Terrace, Northampton, MA 01060
(413) 584-1310
www.cutchins.org
Tina Champagne, CEO
Established in 1979, Cutchins aims to give children and families access to compassionate and transformative mental healthcare. Its mission is to help children and families transform significant emotional distress into increased resilience, hope, and quality of life, to support the healing and learning process with innovation and integrity, and to serve as a model for best and promising practices.

The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts
25 Carew St., Chicopee, MA 01020
(413) 247-9738
www.foodbankwma.org
Andrew Morehouse, Executive Director
The Food Bank works to end hunger in Western Mass. by providing nutritious food, strengthening the region’s food-assistance network, and developing solutions to the causes of hunger. The Food Bank receives food from a number of different sources, including state and federal government, local farms, food businesses, and community organizations, and distributes it to member food pantries, shelters, and meal sites, as well as directly to families.

Forest Park Zoological Society Inc.
293 Sumner Ave., Springfield, MA 01108
(413) 733-2251
www.forestparkzoo.org
Sarah Tsitso, Executive Director
The Forest Park Zoological Society governs the Zoo in Forest Park & Education Center, a non-profit organization that serves as home to more than 225 native and non-native animal residents. The zoo works with wildlife rehabilitators across the U.S. to provide care to animals that have been deemed non-releasable to the wild due to injury, illness, permanent disability, habituation to humans, or other factors, and offers a variety of educational programming for children and adults.

Hampden County Career Center Inc.
850 High St., Holyoke, MA 01040
(413) 532-4900
www.careerpointma.com
David Gadaire, President and CEO
Since 1996, Hampden County Career Center Inc., now doing business as MassHire Holyoke Career Center, has been serving the workforce and economic-development needs of individual job seekers, social-service agencies, and the business community throughout Hampden County and beyond, offering a seamless service-delivery system for job seeking, career training, and employer services.

Hampden County Sheriff’s Workforce Initiative
627 Randall Road, Ludlow, MA 01056
(413) 858-0000
www.hcsoma.org/workforce-initiative
Nicholas Cocchi, Hampden County Sheriff
The Hampden County Sheriff’s Workforce Initiative is an innovative program designed to empower justice-involved individuals, disenfranchised job seekers, and those experiencing homelessness by providing immediate, daily employment with same-day pay. Launched by Sheriff Nick Cocchi in 2022, the initiative aims to promote personal growth, self-sufficiency, and social inclusion, ultimately leading to full-time employment and community reintegration.

Mental Health Assoc. Inc.
350 Memorial Dr., Chicopee, MA 01020
(413) 734-5376
www.mhainc.org
Cheryl Fasano, President and CEO
Mental Health Assoc. helps people with a wide variety of mental health issues to live their best life by providing access to therapies for emotional health and wellness; services for substance use recovery, developmental disabilities, and acquired brain injury; services for housing and residential programming; and more.

Rachel’s Table of Western Massachusetts Inc.
1600 Dickinson St., Springfield, MA 01108
(413) 733-0084
www.feedwma.org
Jodi Falk, Executive Director
The mission of Rachel’s Table of Western Massachusetts is to alleviate hunger and reduce the waste of food resources in Western Mass. The organization takes a holistic and collaborative approach toward food security by supporting an inter-generational volunteer effort to feed and nourish local communities.

Second Chance Animal Services
67 Mulberry St., Springfield, MA 01105
(413) 739-2343
www.secondchanceanimalservices.org
Sheryl Blancato, CEO
Second Chance Animal Services is a nonprofit animal welfare organization that operates community veterinary hospitals in Springfield, North Brookfield, Southbridge, and Worcester; subsidized rates are provided to underserved communities. Every year, Second Chance helps tens of thousands of pets through full-service veterinary care, spay/neuter services, adoption services, community and educational outreach programs, training, and a pet-food pantry.

Springfield Partners for Community Action Inc.
721 State St., Springfield, MA 01109
(413) 263-6500
www.springfieldpartnersinc.com
Paul Bailey, Executive Director
Springfield Partners for Community Action’s mission is to utilize and provide resources that assist people in need to obtain economic stability, ultimately creating a better way of life. It does so through home and energy services, income-tax assistance services, money-management services, transportation services, veterans’ services, and youth and family services.

Sunshine Village Inc.
75 Litwin Lane, Chicopee, MA 01020
(413) 592-6142
www.sunshine.us
Gina Kos, President and CEO
Sunshine Village serves more than 400 adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and autism spectrum disorders through a variety of innovative day supports. Programmatic sites are located at the agency’s main campus in Chicopee, as well as in Agawam and Three Rivers. The agency’s commercial cleaning company, Westover Maintenance Systems, employs an integrated workforce, while Sunshine Village supports individuals in their own jobs and within group settings at local businesses.

Work Opportunity Center Inc.
94 North Elm St., Suite 104, Westfield, MA 01085
(413) 786-8830
www.wocinc.org
Mary Akers, Executive Director
Established in 1969, Work Opportunity Center is a private, nonprofit organization headquartered in Westfield, with various sites throughout Western Mass. WOC provides training, employment opportunities, and community-based day services to individuals with physical and/or developmental disabilities.

YMCA of Greater Springfield
1500 Main St., Springfield, MA 01103
(413) 739-6951
www.springfiedly.org
Dexter Johnson, President and CEO
The YMCA’s mission is to serve human needs in Greater Springfield by providing programs that promote lifelong personal growth and the balanced development of spirit, mind, and body for all. Its areas of focus include youth development, healthy living, and social responsibility, and it accomplishes this through learning centers, school-age programs, childcare, summer programs and camps, and the Y-AIM social intervention program for teenagers.

A Conversation on Workplace Speech

By Contributor October 23, 2025

Law Special Coverage

After the Kirk Fallout, What the Law Protects — and What It Does Not

By Michael Lewis, Esq

After Charlie Kirk’s killing, workers across many sectors posted remarks that mocked or celebrated his death. Employers responded within hours. Some fired workers for policy violations; others suspended them pending review. Perhaps most notably, ABC temporarily pre-empted Jimmy Kimmel Live! after affiliates refused to carry the show and a federal regulator publicly criticized Kimmel’s on-air comments. Events moved quickly, and confusion spread just as fast.

The First Amendment restrains government. It does not create a job right to speak without workplace consequences. Private employers retain broad discretion, and public employers face a different constitutional test. Knowing where actual protection begins and ends will help you act quickly and lawfully.

What Counts as Protected Speech?

• Concerted activity under the National Labor Relations Act. Employees who speak with, or on behalf of, co-workers about pay, scheduling, staffing, safety, or other working conditions engage in ‘concerted’ activity. That protection covers many social media discussions directed to co-workers or seeking to start group action. It does not cover personal gripes, threats, disclosure of trade secrets, or harassing content.

• Anti-retaliation ‘opposition’ rights. Federal and state EEO laws protect employees who oppose or report discrimination in good faith, even if they are ultimately proven wrong on the facts. Crude insults and slurs fall outside that protection; specific, work-focused complaints usually fall inside it.

• State off-duty and political-activity laws. Some states protect lawful off-duty conduct or political activity outside work. New York protects many lawful off-duty political and recreational activities. California limits employer control of political activity. Colorado protects broad lawful off-duty conduct, subject to narrow exceptions. Connecticut’s statute extends free speech protections to private employees on matters of public concern, balanced against legitimate business interests. Multi-state employers should map these rules before disciplining off-duty posts.

Michael Lewis

“The First Amendment restrains government. It does not create a job right to speak without workplace consequences. Private employers retain broad discretion, and public employers face a different constitutional test.”

• Public sector balancing. Government employers must apply the Pickering/Garcetti framework. Speech by a public employee as a citizen on a matter of public concern can receive protection unless it impairs efficiency or disrupts operations, while speech made as part of job duties receives no constitutional protection.

What Does Not Count as Protected Speech?

• Policy-violating speech. Private employers may discipline speech that breaches social media, civility, confidentiality, or brand guidelines, so long as the rule and its enforcement do not infringe concerted activity rights or a state protection.

• Harassment and threats. Speech that targets protected classes or creates a hostile environment falls outside any protection and often requires prompt action.

• Disclosure of confidential or proprietary information. Revealing non-public business information, client data, or trade secrets invites discipline and potential legal remedies.

• Speech that predicts or causes disruption. Even in the public sector, officials may discipline speech that reasonably threatens operations, safety, or public trust after applying the required balancing test.

How the Rules Apply to Current Events

• Kirk-related terminations. Employers dismissed or suspended workers who posted content perceived as celebrating violence or taunting the victim. In private workplaces, the analysis turned on clear policy language, the connection to the employer’s brand, and whether the post involved co-workers or working conditions. Where a post targeted protected classes, anti-harassment duties reinforced the decision. Where a post was unrelated to working conditions and did not fall under state protection, at-will principles typically allowed discipline. Public employers had to apply the constitutional balancing test and document expected disruption before acting.

• The Kimmel pre-emption. ABC removed the show from its schedule after affiliates announced they would not air it and after public criticism from a federal regulator. While the network reversed course and reinstated Kimmel a week later, two practical lessons remain. First, business partners can force rapid action; affiliate refusals and advertiser pressure often shorten timelines and narrow options. Second, overt regulatory attention raises stakes for content decisions in media and adjacent industries. Employers should plan in advance for partner pushback and regulatory scrutiny, with ready playbooks and internal sign-offs.

• Other instructive precedents. Google’s termination of an engineer over a workplace memo survived a federal labor challenge because the content did not qualify as protected concerted activity and risked discriminatory impact. ESPN suspended an anchor for tweets that violated its social media rules, a reminder that brand and business relationships can justify discipline even when speech occurs off the clock. Franklin Templeton prevailed against a wrongful termination suit after firing an employee whose viral conduct damaged trust and reputation. Each example turns on the same themes: a clear policy, a documented business rationale, evenhanded enforcement, and — where required — a constitutional or statutory analysis.

A Clean Decision Path for Employers

When a post or clip surfaces, move in sequence and record the answers.

• Concerted or not? Does the speech seek to involve co-workers about working conditions or present a group complaint to management? If yes, treat it as potentially protected and consult counsel before acting.

• Harassment or threats? Does the content target protected classes, include slurs, or threaten harm? If yes, act under anti-harassment and safety policies.

• Public or private employer? If public, apply the citizen speech and disruption balancing; if private, proceed to the next step.

• State protections. Do any off-duty or political activity statutes apply? If yes, analyze the statute’s scope and exceptions.

• Contracts and past practice. Do CBA provisions, employment agreements, morals clauses, or progressive discipline rules constrain options, and have you enforced similar cases consistently?

• Confidentiality and brand risk. Did the content reveal non-public information or predict reputational harm with customers, partners, or regulators? If yes, incorporate that rationale into your file.

• Proportional response. Choose counseling, suspension, or termination based on the conduct, the role, and the risk, and issue a neutral, policy-based communication.

Policy and Training Steps That Work

Rewrite social media, civility, and confidentiality policies with concrete workplace examples. Cross-reference complaint channels and anti-retaliation language. Add explicit savings clauses for NLRA rights and any state-law protections. Train managers to escalate issues to HR and legal, and to avoid engaging in online arguments. Maintain a short internal script and an external statement template for high-profile events. Consistency across viewpoints reduces legal risk and public blowback.

Takeaway

Citizens hold broad speech rights against the state; employees do not gain broad job rights for speech in private workplaces. Your safest course is clear policy, measured triage, and disciplined, neutral enforcement, with special care for concerted activity, anti-harassment duties, state protections, and — if you are a public employer — the constitutional balancing test. When leaders understand what the law actually protects, they act faster and with less risk.

Michael Lewis is an attorney at the Royal Law Firm who helps employers resolve workplace challenges. He counsels and defends businesses across Massachusetts and Connecticut, handling matters involving discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage and hour claims, restrictive covenants, and breach of contract. His practice includes litigation in state and federal courts and before administrative agencies.