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Company Notebook

United Bank to Expand Longmeadow Branch
LONGMEADOW — Richard Collins, president and CEO of United Bank, announced recently that the bank will soon begin a significant expansion of its current branch located in the Longmeadow Shops on Bliss Road. “When the landlord, Grove Property Management, offered us the additional space next door to our existing branch, we jumped at the offer,” said Collins. “We have been in Longmeadow since 1997 and have been delighted by the warm reception given to us by the community. We opened our existing branch in the Longmeadow Shops in 2001. We believe that the Shops provides an excellent location for us to serve the banking needs of the Longmeadow community.” Collins said the future branch will be a financial center complete with retail banking, mortgages, commercial services, and business lending, as well as wealth-management and financial-planning representatives. “We understand the needs of the Longmeadow community,” said Jeff Sullivan, chief operating officer. “This expansion gives us the opportunity to create a new financial center that can serve all of the community’s needs in one convenient location.” According to Sullivan, the future branch will include a larger lobby, private offices, a walk-up ATM, and safe-deposit boxes. The branch expansion is anticipated to be complete by the end of the year, with a grand opening in early 2014. The present branch will remain open during the renovations. The promotion of current Longmeadow Shops branch Personal Banker Teresa Parker to the position of Springfield Region mortgage originator was also announced recently. She will work from the current Longmeadow Shops location in her new position. Personal Banker Nicole Skelly will transfer from East Longmeadow to the Longmeadow branch to fill that position.

NorthEast Solar Launches New Website
NORTHAMPTON — A new website (www.northeast-solar.com) and brand launched recently by NorthEast Solar reflects the company’s innovative approach to solar design and installation for homes, businesses, and farms, said the company’s president, Greg Garrison. “Our new brand reflects the fact that trust and a local leader is at the core of who we are and what we represent in the Pioneer Valley and beyond,” he explained. “Our leadership in the region comes from our unique solar-installation design work, but also from the fact that we live and work in the Pioneer Valley, and people know us and trust us to simplify the installation process.” The timing of the new brand parallels a rising awareness that Massachusetts is a national solar leader with strong incentive programs, he added, making solar power a cost-competitive electricity source. “If the solar industry can prove to residents and businesses across the Valley that solar is cost-effective, simple to install, and fits with the character of their town, then we will install a lot more solar.”

Tighe & Bond Moves Up in Design Firm Rankings
WESTFIELD — Last month, the Engineering News-Record (ENR) again ranked Tighe & Bond among the top 500 design firms in the nation, as it has for more than 10 consecutive years. ENR ranks companies on the previous year’s gross revenue for providing design services to domestic and international markets. This year marked a substantial bump for the firm, as it claimed the 250 spot in ENR’s 2013 report, which exceeds last year’s standing at 272. “Substantial growth across nearly all of our markets and an extension of our geographic reach drove last year’s record revenue,” said David Pinsky, president of Tighe & Bond. “We also significantly expanded our staff to provide existing and new clients with increasingly responsive and integrated services.”

Hampden Bancorp Reports Income Increase, Declares Cash Dividend
SPRINGFIELD — Hampden Bancorp Inc., the holding company for Hampden Bank, recently announced the results of operations for the three and nine months ended March 31. The company also announced that the board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.05 per common share, payable on May 31, 2013, to shareholders of record at the close of business on May 17, 2013. The company had a $249,000 increase in net income for that nine months to $2.4 million, or $0.42 per fully diluted share, as compared to $2.1 million, or $0.35 per fully diluted share, for the same period in 2012. The company had a decrease in net interest income of $131,000 for those nine months, compared to the same period in 2012. For the nine-month period ended March 31, 2013, interest expense decreased by $175,000, or 4.0%, compared to the same period in 2012. This decrease in interest expense included a decrease in deposit-interest expense of $417,000 due to a decrease in rates, which was partially offset by an increase in borrowing interest expense of $242,000 due to an increase in balances. Interest and dividend income decreased $306,000, or 1.7%, for the nine months ended March 31, compared to the same period last year, mainly due to a $270,000 decrease in loan-interest income. The provision for loan losses decreased $100,000 for the nine-month period ended March 31, 2013 compared to the same period in 2012 mainly due to a decrease in specific reserves on impaired loans and charged-off loans. For the nine months ended March 31, there was an increase in total non-interest income of $885,000 compared to the same period in 2012. Also, the company originated $31.9 million and sold $24.8 million in residential mortgage loans, compared to originations of $27.0 million and $12.9 million in sold loans for the nine months ended March 31, 2012, and there was a $218,000, or 88.3%, increase in other non-interest income, which was mainly due to an increase in mortgage excess servicing fees, and a $182,000, or 13.9%, increase in customer service fees compared to the same period in 2012. The company had a $52,000 decrease in net income for the three months ended March 31 to $825,000, or $0.15 per fully diluted share, as compared to $877,000, or $0.16 per fully diluted share, for the same period in 2012. It had a decrease in net interest income of $260,000, or 5.4%, for those three months, compared to the same period in 2012 due to a decrease in the net interest margin from 3.57% to 3.01%. For the three-month period ended March 31, 2013, interest expense decreased by $22,000, or 1.6%, compared to the three-month period ended March 31, 2012. This decrease in interest expense included an increase in borrowing interest expense of $88,000 due to an increase in balances which was more than offset by a decrease in deposit interest expense of $110,000 due to a decrease in rates. Interest and dividend income decreased $282,000, or 4.5%, for the three months ended March 31, 2013 compared to the same period last year. The company’s total assets increased $51.6 million, or 8.4%, from $616.0 million on June 30, 2012 to $667.6 million on March 31, 2013. Net loans, including loans held for sale, increased $32.4 million, or 7.9%, to $439.7 million on March 31, 2013. The majority of the loan increase was in the commercial loan portfolio. Commercial construction loans increased $12.3 million, commercial real-estate loans increased $8.4 million, and commercial loans increased $7.0 million. The company’s strategy continues to be focused on obtaining business loans.