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Community Spotlight: Pittsfield

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Community Spotlight Features
Spirit of Innovation Is Taking Hold in Pittsfield

Mayor Dan Bianchi

Mayor Dan Bianchi says the new Berkshire Innovation Center will be a boon to local businesses and will draw attention to the western part of the state.

The city of Pittsfield has a new project in the planning stages that Mayor Daniel Bianchi calls “amazing.”

It is the Berkshire Innovation Center, which is so innovative that it qualified for funding from a $1 billion investment the Commonwealth is making in projects that further the life sciences.

“We’ve been working with the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center in Boston on this for the last few years,” Bianchi said, adding that when he heard about the state’s plan to invest in the field, he thought about how Pittsfield could become part of it.

His initial idea was to build an incubator that would draw entrepreneurs from the Boston area to Pittsfield, which is home to many small, applied materials and plastics companies that make products such as sutures and suturing equipment.

But when it became clear that this concept was not feasible, a new plan was formulated that led to a $9.7 million capital grant from the Life Sciences Center to build the Innovation Center in the William Stanley Business Park on the grounds of the former General Electric complex that dominated this city’s business community for decades.

The new, non-profit facility will enable shared research between local companies and educational institutions; early-stage production and commercialization of products; and workforce training at the site.

Bianchi said officials toured Rensselaer Poly-technic Institute and Hudson Valley Community College’s new science centers, which have been very successful, to help them formulate the plan.

Local manufacturing companies, including General Dynamics, SABIC and Crane & Co., as well as regional educational institutions such as the State University of New York’s College of Nanoscience, MassMEDIC, the UMass campuses in Amherst and Lowell, Berkshire Community College, McCann Technical School, and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts have already expressed interest in becoming affiliated with the center. 

“We’ve received more than 20 letters of interest,” said Bianchi, adding that the center will give local companies access to training and advanced technology, including a clean room, 3-D prototype printers, and laboratories with reverse engineering capabilities that will allow them to make new products or improve existing ones. “There are some pretty creative companies in this area, but in order to grow they need this type of facility. A company making complex compounds will be able to work with researchers at UMass Lowell as well as at the Nanotechnology Center in Albany.”

The center will also contain incubator space for entrepreneurs. “It will be unique, and people at the Life Sciences Center are really excited about it,” the mayor said, noting that the facility will be sustainable and generate income through tiered memberships, usage and rental fees on equipment, training, and sponsorships from regional companies.

Ground will be broken this winter, and Bianchi said that if meaningful relationships can be created, it will mean “great things for local companies.”

Meanwhile, other forms of economic development are taking place in this former mill city, everything from new investments in the community’s burgeoning downtown, to more steps to bolster an already thriving creative economy,

For this, the latest chapter in its Community Spotlight series, BusinessWest talked at length with Mayor Bianchi about what’s next for the largest city in Berkshire County.

Downtown Transformation

Among the many new developments in Pittsfield is a boutique hotel taking shape within a building on 273 North St. that dates back to the 19th century. The 68,000-square foot, $14 million project will include 42 unique rooms, three conference areas, an atrium with a skylight, a bar, a revolving door, and a marquee sign with “Hotel” spelled out in lights over the entrance.

“They’re keeping the old windows as well as the 8-by-8 posts in the building, and no two rooms will be the same,” said Bianchi in a voice brimming with anticipation. “It’s very exciting because Berkshire County needs more hotel space, and it will really jazz up this part of North Street. The Crown Plaza and area bed and breakfasts are booked solid all summer, so the owners of the property believe it will be a great destination.”

The popular Spice Dragon Restaurant, which was located in the building, has closed, but a new eatery, which is yet to be determined, will take its place.

“The hotel is only a couple of blocks from the Barrington Stage Company and is right behind City Hall,” Bianchi said, adding that it will be a boon to business travelers as well as tourists.

Other improvements are also being made to North Street via a streetscape plan, and the city was able to procure money from the state much earlier than it planned to complete it.

“The work began about six years ago and we expected it would take two more funding cycles to finish it,” Bianchi said, noting that the first phase of the project ran from the corner of East Housatonic Street to Columbus Avenue and included new lighting, sidewalks, and plantings.

“But we were able to leverage the massive investment made by Berkshire Medical Center and private investors,” he continued, adding that the hospital’s new day-surgery center, parking garage, and wound clinic, combined with the boutique hotel and renovation of the Frank Howard Building (more about that later) played into the equation and convinced state officials to grant the city $4.5 million to complete the streetscape work along an additional three blocks. “We received the money six months ago and we hope the infrastructure improvements will lead to an increase in private investments.”

To that end, work on The First Street Common downtown will also be completed in the spring. “It’s one of our largest urban parks and dates back to the early 19th century,” Bianchi said. “It’s a two-minute walk from City Hall and is very important. It has a new spray park and a performance center, and Shakespeare and Co. will stage events there this year.”

Market-rate housing is being built in the Frank Howard Building as part of an historic redevelopment plan that will convert the underutilized structure into 14 apartments, with 10,000 square feet of storefront retail space on the ground floor.

In addition, the Anota Building will also be converted into 25 units of housing with commercial space on the first floor.

“The work will begin in the spring, which is wonderful, because we can’t seem to keep enough market-rate housing downtown,” Bianchi said. “Eleven new units were completed in the old Notre Dame Elementary School at the end of 2013 and they were immediately rented. Encouraging people to live downtown is part of our master plan, because there are 6,000 jobs in the downtown area. So, our downtown is being completely transformed.”

A complete analysis of every street in Pittsfield was also recently undertaken by the engineering firm Kimley-Horn Associates Inc. “It will help us take a scientific approach on how to expend our limited resources,” Bianchi told BusinessWest as he spoke about how the condition of each roadway, coupled with information on when utility work will be done, will make it possible for officials to prioritize work and avoid resurfacing roads that will be torn up a year later. “The overall condition of our streets is good, but the study is important because streets are something everyone notices, whether they live here or are just driving through the city.”

Planning for the Future

The city is also building a new, comprehensive high school. “It’s in the design stage and will have a huge vocational element,” Bianchi said, adding that when he first became mayor and began talking to small business owners, he was reminded that years ago high school students in the vocational track spent every other week working at local companies, which helped them advance their skills and benefitted local companies.

“The school has had an internship program, but the limited number of hours students spend at local businesses does not give them much exposure to their trade, and provides very little value to companies,” he noted. “So we’re framing a new educational model that will benefit students and our small businesses. There has to be a rigorous academic component to it, but there are waiting lists in the state for vocational schools.”

The goal, he continued, is to create a system that will prepare students who don’t want to pursue higher education to go directly into the workforce after graduation.

Courses of study will range from plastics and applied materials to early childhood education, and since Berkshire Medical Center is a large area employer, Bianchi surmises that students who enroll in the latter field of study may decide to become a nurse or pediatrician.

“Vocational education shouldn’t be a limitation, and the high school has to encompass a lot more than a new building. It has to offer a new model of education,” he said, adding that a program in horticulture could plant seeds of interest in farming, which is a growing venture that is being embraced by young adults in the Pioneer Valley again. “I think we can offer our young people some wonderful opportunities, which will also help small and medium-size companies to grow.”

In addition, Pittsfield is creating a partnership with Berkshire Community College that will allow students to complete courses and earn college credits while they are still in high school.

The mayor told BusinessWest that Pittsfield offers a wonderful quality of life, and the hope is that the Berkshire Innovation Center, new high school, and growth downtown will help attract people to the city and advance economic growth.

“We are too small not to have every move integrated, so every project has to have an economic development connection, whether it is housing, entertainment, educational or a new hotel. But we can offer young people a wonderful middle class life and a nice home can be purchased here for $175,000,” he said.

And with the spirit of innovation and change taking place in the city, Pittsfield’s hopes are likely to become reality.

Pittsfield at a glance

Year Incorporated: 1891
Population: 44,057 (2013)

Area: 42.47 square miles

County: Berkshire

Residential Tax Rate: $17.15
Commercial Tax Rate: $35.17
Median Household Income: $42,114
Family Household Income: $56,896
Type of government: Mayor; City Council
Largest Employers: BHS Management Services Inc.; Berkshire Medical Center; BMC Hillcrest Campus; Sabic Innovative Plastics

* Latest information available

Editorial

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Features Opinion
Free Community College: A Worthy Concept

President Obama proposed plans for providing a free community-college education for many students at his State of the Union address last week. The proposal, “America’s College Promise,” which would benefit an estimated 9 million students annually, is still very much in the formative stages, and there are a number of rather sizeable hurdles to be cleared before this concept can advance, let alone become reality, but we believe the proposal should be given full consideration and at least a chance to succeed.

Why? Because, as we’ve said on many occasions, the key to economic growth and prosperity for this region — and one of the keys to closing the huge income gap between the haves and the have-nots in this state and across the country — is education, and free community college for those who qualify is a possible place to start.

Not everyone who attends community college goes on to graduate — in fact, far more than half don’t — or get a good-paying job, and these facts won’t change if such an education suddenly becomes available free of charge. But such a development could have enormous potential to prompt more people to start college and finish it. And since one needs a high-school diploma, or the equivalent, like a GED, to get into a community college, it makes sense that providing that option free would inspire more people to stay in school.

And that’s important in communities like Springfield and Holyoke, where high school drop-out rates are sky high and a major contributor to poverty and a growing skills gap within the workforce.

But let’s back up a minute. Free community college as a national policy is certainly a long shot. The principal problem is funding it. Under the plan the president is proposing, estimated to cost $60 billion over a decade, states would have to pay roughly 25% of the cost.

Well, this state, according to Gov. Charlie Baker, is facing a budget gap of roughly $765 million, and none of the options for closing that gap are particularly attractive. And there are many states in that same boat.

Beyond the fiscal challenges, though, there are some stern logistical challenges as well. Can community colleges like the four in this region handle a surge in their student populations? Perhaps, but not easily and not without expansion of current infrastructure and the hiring of more teachers and administrators, which would greatly increase the program’s price tag.

Also, whenever something is provided free, it tends to lose some of its value. This can’t be allowed to happen in this case, and to ensure that it doesn’t, strict eligibility guidelines must be attached to a free community-college education. In the case of the president’s plan, there are such rules — students must attend at least half-time, maintain a grade point average of at least 2.5, and make “steady progress” toward graduating.

And there are philosophical and political challenges to overcome as well. Indeed, some lawmakers simply don’t believe it is the government’s — and, ultimately the taxpayers’ — responsibility to be providing a free college education. Garnering necessary political support will be difficult.

But as we said earlier, Obama and his administration should fully explore this concept. Many governments around the world subsidize or partially subsidize higher education, and they do so because they view such expenditures as a sound investment in their future.

We should have the same attitude here. It should be clear to everyone by now that, while one could become a member of the middle class decades ago without a college education, or even a high-school education, the odds of doing so now are much slimmer.

And while there are many reasons why individuals don’t enter or finish college, financial wherewithal is easily the biggest.

Providing a free community-college education is a bold, challenge-filled proposition, but it’s a concept that holds great promise and should be pursued.

Opinion

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Opinion
Education Reform: More Work to Do

By PAUL REVILLE

When the education reform bill was enacted in the early 1990s, its main goal was to educate all students to high levels. And all meant all. Many reforms and investments were implemented, and the state is now the national leader in student achievement. Still, there are deep, persistent achievement gaps and inequality of opportunity that don’t meet our goal of “all means all.’’ Too many students leave school unprepared for college or a career. Until this is addressed, we cannot consider our prodigious reform efforts and investments successful.

Since the early 1990s, education reform has been a collaborative effort between leaders in the public and private sectors and educators. This has allowed the state to avoid many of the “education wars” that have embittered the climate in other states. To be sure, there have been fierce and healthy policy disagreements here, but opposing parties have usually kept their eyes on the consensus goal of education reform: all students learning at high levels.

Education reform is always a work in progress, requiring regular changes in policy, strategy, and practices. And now, after more than two decades of good work, we must admit that our strategies — regardless of their comparative success — have failed to achieve our overall goal of all students learning at high levels. We need to ask once again: What more needs to be done? How do we customize education to meet each child’s needs so that every child achieves success?

Looking ahead, one of the major challenges is obviously the budget. Current and anticipated budget shortfalls will pose serious threats to progress. Of course change in education doesn’t always have to cost more money, but it’s clear that we will eventually have to spend more on specialized services, including early childhood education, extended school days, summer learning, tutoring, and health and human service supports. We also need to reduce the cost of higher education.

Another challenge will be to avoid distractions and debilitating conflicts. Extremists would happily drive us into full-blown warfare over their favorite causes — whether safeguarding a sacrosanct version of standards and tests or tearing down the reform architecture of the past 20 years. For example, extremists in the charter school war want us to do continuous battle over whether charters are the “silver bullet” salvation of the public schools or the scourge of public education. We have fought these battles many times before and they are costly distractions from the business of formulating effective, long-term strategies for improving the education of our students.

There are a number of strategies that the state needs to develop over the next few years, including early childhood education, expanded learning time, career pathways, increased turnaround work, the better utilization of education technology, expanded access to top quality charter and innovation schools, higher education reform, and improved quality of teaching.

This is an enormous agenda. No single player could begin to accomplish it. Collaboration will be essential. Innovation will be vital. Making progress will depend on the cooperative efforts of the state and local elected officials, educators, unions, business leaders and the media, as well as students and their families. Education is vital to our success as a people, as a state, and as a nation. Getting to “all means all” would be an unprecedented achievement, but Massachusetts is still very well positioned to make a run at such an ambitious and historic goal.


Paul Reville is professor of practice of policy and administration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he also leads the Education Redesign Lab. He is a former Massachusetts secretary of Education.

WSU to Offer Human Resource Certification Preparation Course

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Daily News

WESTFIELD — The Community Education Department at Westfield State University is offering a Human Resource Certification Preparation Program beginning Thursday, Feb. 26. This course is offered in partnership with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

An intensive, 36-hour course, the Human Resource Certification Preparation Program is designed primarily for those seeking certification as a certified professional (CP) or senior certified professional (SCP). It is also beneficial for those wanting to broaden their knowledge of human resources as part of their continuing professional development. The course relies on the SHRM Learning System, which offers the most up-to-date HR content aligned with the HR Certification Institute body of knowledge.

Program content is updated annually to reflect legislative changes and new HR developments. As a result, SHRM Learning System participants consistently beat the national pass rate on certification exams. The Learning System has helped more than 30,000 HR professionals earn their PHR or SPHR certification. This course will prepare students to take the SHRM Certified Professional and SHRM Senior Certified Professional exams.

The instructor of the program, Karen Smith, is currently vice president of Human Resources at Square One, a nonprofit that provides a range of family-friendly education and support services. She received her bachelor’s degree in human resources and labor relations from Ohio State University and earned a juris doctor from the Western New England University School of Law. She has been SPHR-certified since 2002 and has taught SPHR classes for 10 years. She effectively leverages her extensive background in HR consulting and training to provide a relevant and engaging classroom experience.

The cost of this course is $1,200. The course will meet on Thursday evenings, Feb. 26 through May 14, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. in Springfield. For more information about this course or to register, contact Community Education at (413) 572-8033 or [email protected].

HCC Benefactor Elaine Marieb Wins National Alumni Award

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Daily News

HOLYOKE — The American Assoc. of Community Colleges has selected HCC professor emerita, alumna, and major donor Elaine Marieb for its 2015 Outstanding Alumni awards.

Marieb taught anatomy and physiology at Holyoke Community College for 25 years after receiving her Ph.D. in zoology from UMass. While teaching, she enrolled in HCC’s Registered Nursing program, earning her associate degree. Her teaching and education led her to write a series of anatomy and physiology textbooks that have gone on to become international bestsellers.

Last year, Marieb donated $1 million toward HCC’s Building Healthy Communities fund-raising campaign, which is supporting two building projects at the college, a new Center for Health Education on Jarvis Avenue, and the Center for Life Sciences on campus. The AACC award recognizes community-college alumni for their career achievements, philanthropic contributions, and inspirational impact.

“We are incredibly grateful and fortunate not only to have Elaine Marieb as an alum but as a professor emeritus,” said Erica Broman, vice president of Institutional Development. “Her work in the classroom was exemplary, and she has continued to foster a relationship with students at the college, where she has been enormously generous with both her time and resources. She certainly deserves this recognition.”

Marieb grew up in Northampton and now lives in Sarasota, Fla. She will receive her award at the AACC’s annual convention in San Antonio, Texas, on April 21.

When it opens for the fall 2015 semester, the Center for Health Education will be the new home of HCC’s Nursing and Radiologic Technology programs. After that project is complete, HCC will begin construction on the Center for Life Sciences, which will be located on the first floor of the school’s main science building, the Marieb Building, which was named for Elaine Marieb, who over the years has been one of the school’s most significant benefactors.

Marieb’s financial support led to the creation of HCC’s Marieb Chair for Teaching Excellence, which is awarded annually to one member of the HCC faculty. Through the HCC Foundation, she has endowed numerous scholarships for students in HCC’s Nursing and New Directions programs. The study lounge used by the HCC Pathways program was named the Marieb Center in recognition of her support.

Last March, Marieb issued a challenge gift as a way to spur participation in the HCC Foundation’s Building Healthy Communities campaign: if 1,000 donors contributed gifts of any amount by Dec. 31, Marieb said she would donate $1 million. Thanks to that incentive, dubbed “Mission: Marieb,” the campaign had exceeded its $5.3 million goal by June, raising a total of $5.5 million — the most successful fund-raising effort in HCC history.

Eric Carle Museum Announces New Chief Curator

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Daily News

AMHERST — The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art announced that Ellen Keiter has joined the staff this month as the museum’s new chief curator. Keiter is replacing H. Nichols Clark, the museum’s founding director and chief curator. Clark, who retired in December after more than 13 years with the Carle, will continue in an emeritus role as a visiting lecturer and guest curator for the museum.

Keiter brings to the Carle more than 20 years of professional museum experience. Most recently, she was the director of exhibitions at the Katonah Museum of Art in Katonah, N.Y., specializing in contemporary art. Among the many exhibitions she curated are “Jasper Johns & John Lund: Masters in the Print Studio,” “Eye to I: 3,000 Years of Portraits,” and “Shattering Glass: New Perspectives.”

During her 13 years at Katonah, she also met and worked with numerous children’s-book illustrators through the museum’s Children’s Learning Center, which is dedicated to the display and celebration of original picture book art. Prior to her work at Katonah, Keiter was the curator of exhibitions at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, N.Y. She has a bachelor’s degree in art history from Muhlenberg College and a master’s degree in art history from American University.

“Ellen brings tremendous energy, warmth, and experience to this important role and will be an exceptional leader for our growing exhibition program and collection,” said museum Executive Director Alexandra Kennedy. “She has a great interest in collaboration and partnership. She will work closely with the board and both the collections and education teams to continue the tradition of quality and innovation that Nick began.”

As chief curator, Keiter will oversee all aspects of the Carle’s exhibition program, including the acquisition, care, research, and interpretation of the museum’s art collections and special-exhibitions program. She will also manage staff and work regularly with the public, donors, artists, students, and professional colleagues to expand the audience for the Carle and for the larger field of picture-book art.

“I am honored to join the talented team at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art,” said Keiter. “I’m eager to extend the reach of the museum through a robust travel program, while continuing to celebrate picture books with our local, national, and international audience. Just as I vividly recall Robert McCloskey’s Time of Wonder from my childhood, the Carle creates meaningful connections between art and stories that resonate for a lifetime. I am indebted to Nick Clark for his groundbreaking scholarship in the field and for assembling a world-class art collection. He has adeptly built the solid foundation from which the Carle now soars.”

ACCGS Seeks Applications for 2015 Leadership Institute

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Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — Applications are now being accepted for the 2015 session of Leadership Institute, Rethinking Leadership: Sharpening Skills for Organization and Community Service, sponsored by MassMutual Financial Group with scholarship support from the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation.

The Leadership Institute is a unique collaboration between the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield (ACCGS) and Western New England University (WNEU) aimed at teaching mid- and upper-level managers the crucial thinking and problem-solving skills needed to enable them to be effective leaders in service to the community and in their workplaces, and designed to develop high-energy and high-involvement leadership.

“As a CEO, I know that I need to engage my team and energize their strategic thinking,” said John Weiss, a 2014 graduate and president of Ormsby Insurance Agency. “Leadership 2014 provided me with the invaluable opportunity to not only continue on my own personal path of learning, but to learn from some of the most respected faculty in the region and learn from my colleagues in the program; gain new ideas, new perspectives, and new experiences; and be able to bring it all back to my team, my business, and my clients.”

Since 1982, the program has developed members of the business community for volunteer service to community organizations. Institute alumni represent many accomplished and distinguished leaders in business, education, government, and nonprofit communities, including U.S. Rep. Richard Neal; former state Sen. and Hampden County Clerk of Courts Brian Lees; Henry Thomas, president and CEO of the Urban League of Springfield; and MassMutual Financial Group Vice President Carol Demas and Community Responsibility Consultant Glenn Davis.

Directed by WNEU Dean of the College of Business Julie Siciliano and Executive-in-residence Jack Greeley, Leadership 2015 will challenge participants to think in new ways and to analyze their own strengths and organizational challenges within a dynamic economy. Taught by Western New England faculty, participants will focus on problem solving, learning to ask the right questions, and implementing creative solutions for both nonprofit and for-profit organizations.

Participants will actively explore best practices of leaders; analyze their own leadership, learning, and problem-solving styles; and experience the synergies that come from high-performing teams. Emphasis will be on experiential activities that identify, develop, and refine skill sets for effective leadership.

“By exposing me to the faculty local experts in their field and providing the opportunity to spend time with such a diverse group of fellow students, Leadership Institute has given me information and contacts that might otherwise have taken years of networking to accumulate,” said 2014 graduate Nicole Sweeney, marketing manager for Eastfield Mall. “Each class leads to valuable introspection, which, with the help of suggested follow-up materials by each instructor, I will be able to build upon for years to come.”

The Leadership Institute runs for seven consecutive Thursdays from 1 to 4:30 p.m., Feb. 12 through March 26. The Feb. 12 opening session will be held at the Sheraton Springfield, One Monarch Place, Springfield, with the remaining sessions held at the TD Bank Conference Center, 1441 Main St., Springfield. The program culminates in April with the ACCGS Beacon Hill Summit, the chamber’s annual trip to Beacon Hill, and a graduation ceremony and dinner.

Tuition is $885 per participant and includes all materials, several learning and personality inventory tools, the summit, and the graduation ceremony and dinner. Not-for-profit organizations interested in participating may apply for scholarship funding provided by the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation.

Interested participants must complete an application, obtain a letter from a sponsor supporting the application, and provide a written letter of interest with background. Information and applications are available by contacting Kara Cavanaugh at the ACCGS at (413) 755-1310 or [email protected]. The deadline for applications is Wednesday, Feb. 4.

Berkshire Bank Announces 2015 Scholarship Awards Program

By
Daily News

PITTSFIELD — Berkshire Bank has announced it will honor 30 high-school seniors in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, and Vermont through its annual scholarship awards program.

The bank will award $45,000 in total scholarship dollars to students who have demonstrated community service through their volunteer efforts, have been successful academically, and demonstrate a financial need. Additionally, students must attend a high school that is located in a community with a Berkshire Bank office or in a community primarily served by Berkshire Bank.

Lori Gazzillo, director of Berkshire Bank Foundation, said the scholarship program has grown in popularity each year. “We believe that one of life’s most exciting moments is going to college, and Berkshire Bank wants to do our part to help make college more affordable for students in need. This program exemplifies our support of education and commitment to promoting volunteerism in our communities. Each year, our employees rally around this program, volunteering their time to review the hundreds of applications to help select the recipients.”

Through the program, 30 $1,500 scholarships will be awarded to high-school seniors who will be attending a two- or four-year college in the fall. Applications are evaluated based on their record of volunteerism in the community, academic standing, and financial need. Applicants must have a minimum GPA of a 3.0 and a family household income under $75,000 to be eligible to apply. Students must apply online by 4 p.m. on Wednesday, March 25.

An independent team of bank employee volunteers will review all applications and select this year’s winners. Scholarships will be awarded in the regions where Berkshire Bank branches are located, with 14 available in Massachusetts, 11 in New York, two in Connecticut, and three in Vermont.

Students can apply online at www.berkshirebank.com/scholarships. Additional information about this year’s program can be obtained on the bank’s website or by contacting the Berkshire Bank Foundation at [email protected].

Springfield College Recognized for Community Engagement

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Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — Springfield College has been recognized by the Carnegie Foundation as one of a select group of colleges and universities throughout the country to earn its community-engagement classification. This classification recognizes Springfield College for its curriculum, which involves students and faculty addressing community needs, as well as outreach and partnerships that benefit the external community and the campus community.

“This classification is highly respected and valued by the higher-education community,” said Springfield College Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Jean Wyld. “The essence of a Springfield College education is preparing students for careers and personal lives that improve the lives of other people, and this classification attests to that mission.”

Springfield College is one of 361 institutions that now hold the community-engagement classification. This honor represents a higher-education institution’s excellent alignment among mission, culture, leadership, resources, and practices that support dynamic and noteworthy community engagement.

There are many examples of community-engagement initiatives sponsored by Springfield College in Springfield on the main campus and at nine regional campuses. One of the largest such efforts in Springfield is the AmeriCorps program, through which students serve as academic coaches for schoolchildren, as well as counselors and health-case managers for community agencies.

The Carnegie Foundation introduced the community-engagement classification in 2006 as part of restructuring the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The basic classifications rely on national data to categorize all U.S. colleges and universities by what they teach, characteristics of their student body, size, and location. It is popularly known as the source of categories in U.S. News & World Report’s annual “America’s Best Colleges” issue.

Unlike the foundation’s basic classifications, the community-engagement classification is elective. Institutions may apply by documenting the nature and extent of their involvement with the community, local or beyond. The category enables the foundation to address characteristics of the institution’s mission and distinctiveness that are not represented in national data.

Incorporations

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Departments Incorporations

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

AGAWAM

JM Funding Inc., 24 Royal St., Agawam, MA 01001. Jake Malkoon, same. Finance consultant for auto dealers.
 
BELCHERTOWN

Homerun Property Group Inc., 331 Old Springfield Road, Belchertown, MA 01007. Daniel Hennessy, same. Purchase, sale, and lease of real estate.
 
CHICOPEE

Lucky Traders Inc., 205 Newbury St., Chicopee, MA 01013. Rafael Medina, 16 Sheldon St., #1L, Springfield, MA 01107. Gas station.
 
FLORENCE

Inward Bound Mindfulness Education Inc., 221 Pine St., Suite 206 Florence, MA 01062. Lori Deckert, same. Charitable organization established to make distributions to organizations that qualify as tax exempt.
 
HOLYOKE

Hampden County Pest Control Service Inc., 60 Pine St., Holyoke, MA 01040. Armando Santiago, same. Pest control or extermination services to commercial customers and private dwellings.
 
MM Senior Housing Inc., 32 Lower Westfield Road, Holyoke, MA 01040. Yitzchok Rokowsky, 274 Ridge Ave., Lakewood, N.J. 08701. Purchase, sale, lease, and maintenance  of real estate.
 
PITTSFIELD

Morawski Inc.,  343 Pecks Road, Suite 3, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Brad Morawski, 81 Longview Terrace, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Installation and servicing of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems and commercial appliances.
 
SPRINGFIELD

Hand in Hand Lyme Disease Inc., 111 Garland St., Springfield, MA 01118. Edward Closser, same. Nonprofit organization established to provide assistance to individuals with Chronic Lyme Disease to receive proper medical treatment, provide education, and raise awareness.
 
Ogun Inc., 1371-1374 Allen St., Springfield, MA 01118. Halil Kuru, same. Turkish restaurant.
 
STURBRIDGE

Integrated Healthcare Logistics Inc. 7 Fiske Hill Road, Sturbridge, MA 01566. Francis McNeill III, same. Consulting, healthcare-management consulting.
 
WEST SPRINGFIELD

New England Professional Group Inc., 105 Lennys Way, West Springfield, MA 01089. Wayne Gavryck, 705 Lampblack Road, Greenfield, MA 01031. An organization committed to the education of healthcare professionals about chemical dependency and addiction treatment, providing a path to a lifetime of recovery for healthcare professionals. The loosely formed group has been holding annual educational conferences since 1978.
 
WILBRAHAM

In Home Child & Family Services Inc., 2324 Boston Road, Wilbraham, MA 01095. Kimberly Anderson, same. Counseling services.

Briefcase

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Briefcase Departments

$5 Million Allocated to UMass Amherst for R&D Center at Westover
CHICOPEE — Gov. Deval Patrick recently released a business plan on growth opportunities at Westover Airport, outlining numerous steps the Commonwealth and Greater Chicopee region can undertake to grow the economy in Western Mass. and to support the mission of Westover Air Reserve Base (ARB), the joint user of the military and civilian airfield. As a result of the plan’s findings, Patrick announced four initiatives to benefit the Westover region, including the proposed creation of a UMass Amherst Research, Development, and Training Center in Chicopee. “Westover Airport and Westover Air Reserve Base are two stellar assets with so much potential for smart growth,” said Patrick. “To support the region’s economy and potential for more private and commercial air service, I commissioned this report to look at a wide variety of options. I’m pleased with the team’s effort and with UMass Amherst’s plan to open a research, development, and training center in Chicopee to tap into the innovative minds in the city and region.” Patrick has allocated up to $5 million to UMass Amherst to support the creation of a research and development partnership program at Westover ARB. This funding would be used to lease and renovate a vacant Westover ARB building to establish a National Aeronautics, Research, Development, and Training Center with UMass Amherst as the lead institution. UMass Amherst is in the process of partnering with NASA on several innovative research projects leveraging promising new technologies to promote efficiencies, safety, and economic growth in aviation. This research would be performed at the proposed center by UMass Amherst and its industry partner M2C Aerospace, a Massachusetts-based, woman-owned small business. The Commonwealth’s funding leverages $15 million in private investment and sponsored research to be conducted by UMass Amherst and benefiting federal agencies. This site would also host a school to train air-traffic controllers and pilots and provide aviation-related courses for the next generation of researchers and engineers to develop future technologies. The proposed aeronautics center will also serve as a nexus for government and industry to collaborate on future aviation initiatives. The Westover site will house state-of-the-art laboratories, including a high-fidelity, 3-D, simulation-based training capability that meets the FAA’s requirements for certifying air-traffic controllers at U.S. aviation facilities. A significant number of air controllers in the New England region are expected to retire in the next 10 years, which will increase the demand for a modern educational facility. This approach could be adapted for new civilian controllers, which — in combination with the transitioning military controllers — would help alleviate the FAA’s shortage of certifiable controllers and allow for joint military training with Westover’s staff. It is estimated that this partnership could generate millions of dollars annually in research, education, and training from a combination of government agencies, such as the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, NASA, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Federal Aviation Administration, as well as the aviation industry. This fall, Patrick celebrated the grand opening of the UMass Center in Springfield, and the Chicopee site will add to its already-strong educational assets in Western Mass. “This partnership involving UMass Amherst, NASA, and industry will address vital national needs in the aviation sector and help revitalize the Western Massachusetts economy,” said UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, who also serves as a member of the Military Task Force. “This is a perfect match for our role as one on the country’s top research universities, applying our expertise to enhance the safety of air travel and foster economic opportunity.”

Feb. 6 Deadline Set for 40 Under Forty Nominations
BusinessWest is currently accepting nominations for the 2015 class of its 40 Under Forty program. Launched in 2007, the initiative identifies 40 rising stars in Western Mass., individuals excelling in business, nonprofit management, and service to the community. The process begins with nominations, which will later be sent to a team of five judges for scoring. Nominations should be thorough and essentially answer the question, ‘why is this individual worthy of a 40 Under Forty plaque?’ The winners (those with the highest total scores from those five judges) will be announced in BusinessWest’s April 20 edition, and they will feted at the annual gala on June 18 at the Log Cabin Banquet and Meeting House. Nomination forms can be found in the next few issues of BusinessWest and also online HERE.

Festival of Trees Breaks Fund-raising Record
SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield Boys & Girls Club’s 14th annual Festival of Trees had a record-breaking year, drawing more than 13,000 visitors and raising more than $116,000 to support the club’s mission. Featuring 141 trees in 2014, the hallmark holiday event for families and children raises much-needed funds for after-school and summer programs that serve 1,500 inner-city youth each year. The 2014 Festival of Trees officially kicked off on Nov. 28 and closed its doors for the season on Dec. 14. After the final viewing, volunteers made 141 phone calls to the lucky winners of the fully decorated trees that were raffled off as part of the event. All of the trees were donated by businesses, organizations, families, and individuals. The majority of the festival’s visitors participated in the raffle hoping to win one of the trees, valued between $200 and $2,000. The Springfield Boys & Girls Club provides youth-development programs for more than 1,500 children each year in the areas of recreation, educational enrichment, technology training, career development, substance-abuse prevention, health and fitness, and leadership. All of the proceeds from the Festival of Trees directly fund the club’s operations. For more information, visit www.sbgc.org or call (413) 785-5266. The names of all sponsors, and tree winners, can also be found on the website.

Unemployment Up Slightly in November, Down for Year
BOSTON — The state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported that the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rates for November were up in 20 labor market areas and two areas remained unchanged over the month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over the year, unemployment rates were down in all the labor market areas. The preliminary statewide unadjusted unemployment rate estimate for November was 5.2%, up 0.1% from October.  Over the year, the statewide unadjusted rate was down 1.5% from the November 2013 rate of 6.7%. During November, eight of the 12 areas for which job estimates are published recorded job gains. The largest job gains were in the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Framingham, New Bedford, Peabody, Worcester, Brockton-Bridgewater-Easton, Lowell-Billerica-Chelmsford, and Leominster-Fitchburg-Gardner areas. Losses occurred in the Barnstable, Springfield, Haverhill-North Andover-Amesbury, and Pittsfield areas. Since November 2013, all 12 areas added jobs, with the largest percentage gains occurring in the Lowell-Billerica-Chelmsford, Worcester, Barnstable, Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, and Peabody areas. 

State to Strengthen Manufacturing Industry
AMHERST — Building on the Patrick administration’s historic commitment to strengthening the advanced-manufacturing industry in Massachusetts, Housing and Economic Development Secretary Greg Bialecki recently joined Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Rachel Kaprielian and State Senate Majority Leader Stan Rosenberg to announce nearly $2 million in funding to support manufacturing workforce training across the Commonwealth. The announcement was made at the Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative (AMC) Pioneer Valley Summit, held at UMass Amherst. “I am proud of the work the AMC has accomplished over the years, creating opportunities for workers with a range of skill levels that will strengthen our economy for years to come,” said Bialecki. “Collaborative efforts like this are a critical reason why Massachusetts is leading the nation in growing a 21st-century advanced-manufacturing sector.” Nearly $1.5 million of the total funding was awarded through the Advanced Manufacturing Pipeline Training Grants Program to support five regional workforce-investment boards throughout Massachusetts. This funding will help recruit and train approximately 280 unemployed or underemployed participants for careers in advanced manufacturing. The grants program is a cross-secretariat initiative between the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development and the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. Two Western Mass. organizations are among those receiving funding:
• The Hampden Regional Employment Board received $219,960 to conduct the Advanced Manufacturing Training Program, in partnership with the Western Mass. Chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Assoc. The Hampden Regional Employment Board will contract with local community colleges, part-time instructors from two vocational technical high schools, and an advanced-manufacturing company to train unemployed or underemployed adults of Hampden County.
• The Franklin/Hampshire Regional Employment Board received $276,705 to continue collaboration with employers from across the region, as well as community partners such as Greenfield Community College (GCC), the two area vocational-technical schools, and two adult-education sites, to enable the Regional Employment Board and GCC to offer three additional cycles of entry-level precision-machine training over the next two years in Franklin County. This will expand it from 220 hours to 300 hours and add skill building in the areas of blueprint reading, metrology, grinding, and lean manufacturing.
“The quick turnaround in awarding these grants reflects the urgency the Patrick Administration has adopted in scaling up these pipelines to help fill current job openings in advanced manufacturing all over the state,” said Kaprielian. “These awards will allow the grantees to build upon their proven successes and their capacity to work collaboratively through industry partnerships to increase the number of seats in their existing pipelines.” Through a separate grant program, the Industry Training Capital Equipment grant program, also aimed at supporting the manufacturing industry in Massachusetts, Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School in Northampton was awarded $400,000 to rebuild its precision-manufacturing training program. With the support of more than 25 regional manufacturing and workforce leaders in Hampshire County, the rebuilt training program will be a site for daytime students and evening adult learners, in partnership with the Franklin-Hampshire Regional Employment Board.

EDC Sounds Alarm on Rising Energy Costs
CHICOPEE — The Economic Development Council of Western Mass. recently voiced its concerns regarding the rising costs of natural gas and electricity in the region. “More expensive energy affects all of us negatively. All of us need to be concerned. Individuals face a reduction of disposable income and increased hardship,” the agency said in a prepared statement. “Businesses face reduced competiveness that threatens job growth and retention. Municipalities face increased energy costs while facing decreasing revenues. Hospitals and higher-education institutions must divert more resources to energy purchases, thus diverting resources from their core missions. Shrinking business and consumer spending reduces investments in those things that define quality of life in Western Massachusetts.” Through a series of meetings and discussions with entities familiar with the issues, the EDC infrastructure committee released the following findings:
• Recent and future closings of oil- and coal-fired plants have boosted, and will continue to increase, Massachusetts’ dependency on natural gas for electric power generation. Nearly 50% of all electricity in Massachusetts is generated by natural gas, and that proportion is rising. These conditions, when combined with inadequate supplies of natural gas, are resulting in dramatically increased power costs during the winter.
• Gas companies serving this region are reaching the limits of their capacity to serve new customers. Berkshire Gas will stop adding customers in Greenfield at the end of 2014, and in Amherst in 2016. Columbia Gas is reaching the end of its capacity to serve Northampton and Easthampton. It could serve 10,000 more customers in the region if it had additional capacity. The inability to serve new customers will negatively affect economic growth in the region.
• Kinder Morgan is proposing a pipeline-extension project through Northern Mass. that will increase natural-gas supply to Berkshire, Franklin, and Hampshire counties as well as Eastern Mass.
• NU/Spectra proposes an expansion of the Algonquin Pipeline that would increase natural-gas supplies available to the Springfield area and Eastern Mass.
• Several New England states have been working to bring electricity generated by Hydro Quebec to the region.
EDC Infrastructure Committee Chair Paul Nicolai summarized the committee’s work, suggesting that “supplying cost-effective, responsibly clean energy for our people and businesses is a complicated problem requiring balanced approaches and moderate thinking. EDC has struck that balance and encourages policymakers to do so as well.” At a recent meeting, the EDC board of directors approved a resolution supporting the following actions, which, if implemented, will help to provide an adequate, stable supply of energy at competitive prices:
• Increase natural-gas supply by permitting both natural-gas pipeline-expansion projects proposed for the region and state;
• Increase the sources of power generation by enabling the purchase of hydro-generated electricity from the north;
• Continue support of conservation and renewable-energy technologies; and
• Encourage a regulatory environment that promotes market stability and competitive outcomes.

Leaders Celebrate Springfield Park and Recreation Investments
SPRINGFIELD — State Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) Secretary Maeve Vallely Bartlett and Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno recently celebrated Camp STAR Angelina, Mary Troy Park, and Balliet Park, all park projects reflecting the more than $7.7 million invested in parks and open space in Springfield by Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration. “Open space and outdoor recreation investments are a critical component of building robust, healthy communities,” said Bartlett. “Gov. Patrick has made urban neighborhoods a top priority, and the evidence of that is clear today in Springfield and across the Commonwealth.” Sarno thanked Patrick and Bartlett “for your continued vision in providing funding to increase and revitalize recreational and green spaces in urban areas. The legacy you are leaving here in Springfield is one of inclusion and opportunity, which is evidenced by the $3.5 million investment made here in Springfield, which demonstrates the Patrick administration’s commitment in creating strong and healthy communities.” Located in Springfield’s Forest Park and operated by the city, Camp STAR Angelina offers inclusive recreational programs for youth and young adults with and without disabilities, medical concerns, and hearing and visual impairments. EEA provided more than $1.325 million in capital funding to help fund the construction of a nearly complete, fully accessible pool and accessible bath house, as well as a universal outdoor amphitheater, construction of which will begin soon. As part of Monday’s celebration, Sarno announced that the pool and bath-house facility would be named after Gov. Patrick, in recognition of his efforts to increase access outdoor recreation for all children. North Riverfront Park sits along the northern end of Springfield’s portion of the Connecticut River Walk and Bikeway, a proposed 20-mile corridor that would run through Agawam, Springfield, West Springfield, Chicopee, and Holyoke. EEA invested $1.2 million in North Riverfront Park to transform a property surrounded by barbed wire into a welcoming, vibrant site that will better connect Springfield’s North End to the riverfront. The city’s design features a reduction of pavement, installation of picnic tables, and an increase of pervious lawn areas, plant beds, rain gardens, and additional trees to provide shade. The city is contributing an additional $300,000 toward the project, and construction will be beginning shortly. Mary Troy Park, a new park in the densely populated Liberty Heights neighborhood, will provide green space and access to outdoor recreation for residents. The park, set to be completed next spring, was made possible by a $400,000 Parkland Acquisition and Renovations for Communities (PARC) grant from the Patrick administration. The city will use this funding to design and build a new park, including a universally accessible series of free-standing play structures, including a water-spray feature and exercise equipment along a central pathway, as well as park amenities like drinking fountains and trash receptacles. The city of Springfield is contributing $380,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant funding toward the project. Balliet Park received a $400,000 PARC grant to renovate the baseball diamond and tennis courts, install a playground and swingset equipment, establish a picnic area, and improve access to park entrances and walkways. Springfield is using its Our Common Backyards Grant to construct a splash pad at the park, which will be completed by the year’s end. Springfield is one of seven cities to receive funding through the governor’s Signature Urban Parks program.

Construction Employment Expands in Most Areas
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Construction employment expanded in 224 metro areas, declined in 64, and was stagnant in 51 between November 2013 and November 2014, according to a new analysis of federal employment data by Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials said contractors in many parts of the country were benefitting from growing demand, yet labor shortages threaten to undermine the sector’s recovery. “It is good news that construction employment is now rising in two-thirds of the nation’s metro areas,” said Ken Simonson, chief economist for the association. “But now that the unemployment rate for construction workers has fallen to a seven-year low, it has become a major challenge to find qualified workers in many fields.”

Company Notebook

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Company Notebook Departments

United Financial Unveils Restructuring Initiatives
GLASTONBURY, Conn. — William H.W. Crawford IV, CEO of United Financial Bancorp Inc. and United Bank of Glastonbury, Conn., announced that the company expects to record certain charges in its fiscal 2014 fourth-quarter earnings, aggregating to a total of approximately $5.5 million pre-tax. The company has initiated certain restructuring initiatives in order to achieve greater operational efficiencies. The charges relate to a reduction in an unspecified number of management and staff positions and the implementation of a branch-optimization strategy, which includes the closure of five non-strategic branches in United’s branch network, pending regulatory approval. The five branch locations are 180 Main St. in Northampton, 491 Pleasant St. in Northampton, 6 Church St. in Northborough, 701 Church St. in Whitinsville, and 124 Main St. in Broad Brook, Conn. These branch closures are in addition to the four branches United said it would consolidate after it announced its merger in November 2013. Those four branches officially closed in October 2014. The company expects to realize approximately $3 million pre-tax in ongoing cost savings as a result of this restructuring. Nearly all of these benefits will be fully realized in fiscal 2015. “A continuing focus on cost efficiency has always been a key driver in making our company a success. We said we would continue to look for ways to strengthen United when we announced our merger last year, and we are delivering on that promise,” said Crawford. “Therefore, it requires some difficult but prudent financial decision making to make the company stronger and more efficient without compromising our commitment to exceptional customer service or our unwavering commitment to our communities. With expectations of continued pressure on spread income in 2015 due to the likely interest-rate environment, we thoughtfully and strategically identified key operational efficiencies that will result in significant ongoing costs savings in 2015.” The bank considered many factors before making a final decision, including the location of the branches and whether they supported its branch network, performance of the branches and deposit levels, demographics, and the level of customer foot traffic at these locations as well as business activity in the area. “Deciding to close these branches is not a reflection of the hard work and dedication of the employees who work at these locations. Instead, based on many factors, we just couldn’t make these five branches successful,” said Crawford. “We know change is not easy for employees and our customers. However, we will always be focused on delivering great customer service, providing convenient access to full-service banking through different channels, and giving back to the communities we serve. Implementing this branch optimization plan does not deter us from those priorities.” The company also announced that Scott Bechtle, chief risk officer, will be leaving United Bank effective Dec. 30. The bank’s risk-oversight responsibilities will be divided into a credit-risk function overseen by current Executive Vice President and Chief Credit Officer Mark Kucia. The enterprise risk-management and compliance will now be overseen by United’s newly-appointed chief risk officer, Elizabeth Kenney Wynnick, its current executive vice president and director of Internal Audit, who is replacing Bechtle.

American Benefits Group Receives Innovator Superstar Award
NORTHAMPTON — Helping companies navigate healthcare-benefit options while controlling costs and improving service has earned the American Benefits Group an Innovator Superstar Award from the Institute for HealthCare Consumerism (IHHC). The Annual HealthCare Consumerism Awards, published in the journal HealthCare Consumerism Solutions last month, recognize companies who excel in executing innovative health and benefit management programs or providing those solutions to organizations. As healthcare costs have steadily increased, employers nationwide have been responding with large-scale adoption of high-deductible health plans paired with pre-tax, employee-controlled benefit spending accounts. American Benefits Group provides employers with turnkey, third-party administration of a wide range of pre-tax employee benefits, including health reimbursement accounts (HRA), health savings accounts (HSA), and flexible spending accounts (FSA). These accounts help companies and their employees offset the cost of deductibles, co-pays, and other medical expenses that are not covered by their healthcare plan, allowing employees and employers to contribute pre-tax funds into accounts designated for healthcare expenditures. Since pre-tax account contributions are not subject to employment and personal income taxes, they create substantial tax savings for the employees. The company also provides COBRA administration and compliance, as well as pre-tax commuter accounts. “We’re honored to be recognized by the Institute for HealthCare Consumerism,” said Robert Cummings, CEO and managing principal of American Benefits Group. “Our company delivers concierge-level services with cutting-edge technology for our customers who range from Fortune 1000 organizations to Main Street businesses. Using leading-edge technology, such as consumer web and mobile applications and a smart-benefits, debit-card payment system, we’re delivering efficiencies and a superior consumer experience for our customers and their employees.” American Benefits Group was founded by Cummings in 1989 and has 27 Northampton-based employees. Current customers include more than 650 companies nationwide with 50 to 15,000 employees, including international, iconic brands like Ferrari Maserati, Wall Street giant Cantor Fitzgerald, and Mitsubishi, as well as many area employers, such as Mount Holyoke College and Florence Savings Bank.

Conca Brings Elite Baseball Development Program to Palmer- Wilbraham Area
WEST SPRINGFIELD — The Elite Baseball Development Program that helped develop Arizona Diamondback Nick Ahmed into the powerful shortstop he is today has come to Palmer.  Conca Sport & Fitness, LLC (CSF) will be bringing its Conca Sports Performance division to AP Player Development in Palmer, located at 1 Chamber Road. Conca Sports Performance is the highly specialized athlete-development division of Conca Sport & Fitness, LLC, which offers sport-specific strength and conditioning. One such program, the Elite Baseball Development Program, has been offered at its West Springfield facility since 2009, training high-school, collegiate, and professional athletes. Athletes in Palmer and surrounding areas will have the same opportunity. With the dynamic collaboration between CSF and AP Player Development, athletes will now have the opportunity to train on and off the field, using AP’s outdoor and indoor resources. “We’re pleased to have him bring Conca Sports Performance to our facility and provide the expert strength and conditioning for the talent we are developing,” said Peter Fatse, owner and director of AP Player Development. The Elite Baseball Development Program includes individual assessments and program design, supervised strength and conditioning, and nutrition education. Pitchers and hitters are assessed using cutting-edge ZenoLink 3-D technology to create an accurate performance profile that serves as the basis for their training programs. These programs are tailored to the players’ specific needs, including strengths, deficiencies, and injury history. “What happens in the offseason is just as important, if not more so, than what happens during the season with regard to strength and conditioning,” said Steve Conca, owner of Conca Sport and Fitness. “The proper program design can make all the difference on the field, and our Elite Baseball Development Program identifies the individual needs of the players to ensure they perform their best while reducing the chances of an overuse injury.”

Elms Upgrades Library to Meet Evolving Needs
CHICOPEE — To help today’s digitally advanced students get the best possible use out of their library system, Elms College is giving the Alumnae Library a facelift this month in the form of a new ‘learning commons’ that will encourage learning through collaboration, discussion, research, and inquiry. Learning-commons spaces are an exciting trend at higher-education institutions, driven by the increasing availability and use of digital modes of information retrieval and sharing. Students now get their information not only from texts, but also online and from each other, and academic libraries are evolving into dynamic, integrated spaces that do far more than house books. Such spaces combine the library, computer lab, research center, support services, and meeting places to give students every possible resource for learning. Education has grown more collaborative over the years, and these common landing spots allow groups to innovate and collaborate much more freely than they could in the past, establishing connections and improving participation to promote learning and academic development. “Students need space to work together on learning projects, access technology, utilize academic support, and explore library resources,” said Joyce Hampton, dean of Student Success and Strategic Initiatives at Elms. The college has invested approximately $50,000 for the technology and the collaboration-friendly furniture, and also invested in a new transformer. The investment gives all Elms students — undergraduates, graduate students, and non-traditional students — a common space that is devoted to them and their scholarship, with resources designed to enhance academic success, facilitate degree completion, develop interpersonal skills, and ultimately make students more marketable. “I am hopeful that students will view the investment in their library as an investment in themselves, and will begin to treat the library as if it were their second home,” said Anthony Fonseca, Alumnae Library director. It’s also an investment in Western Massachusetts, as the library and its resources are open to the public. The new area will include computer workstations; lounge chairs with tablet tabletops that can be powered up; Backbone media platforms with 50-inch, wall-mounted flatscreens that allow for media sharing and collaboration; mobile whiteboards; café-height worktable areas with power and data access; mobile worktables with power access; laptops available for library use; new printer technology; and upgraded wireless capacity.

Holyoke Medical Center Named a Top Hospital
HOLYOKE — For the first time, the Leapfrog Group has named Holyoke Medical Center (HMC) to its annual list of Top Hospitals. An elite distinction awarded to hospitals nationwide for demonstrating excellence in hospital safety and quality through the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, the Leapfrog Top Hospital award is given to fewer than 7% of all eligible hospitals. “Earning the Leapfrog Top Hospital award tells us that we are succeeding in our mission to set a new standard in patient care,” said Spiros Hatiras, HMC President and CEO. “We believe that being a premier medical institution requires a commitment to safety and quality, as well as a fundamental respect for the patient. At Holyoke Medical Center, we treat patients with authentic compassion and empathy, as we would our own families.” Leah Binder, president and CEO of the Leapfrog Group, noted that the Top Hospital award “is widely acknowledged as one of the most prestigious distinctions any hospital can achieve in the United States. It recognizes institutions for their excellence in quality of care and patient safety, as well as their commitment to transparency. By achieving Top Hospital status, Holyoke Medical Center has proven it’s a premier institution and deserves to be recognized for its dedication to the families and patients in Western Massachusetts.” Holyoke Medical Center was one of 94 Top Hospitals recognized nationally, including academic medical centers, teaching hospitals, and community hospitals, and children’s hospitals in rural, suburban, and urban settings. The selection is based on the results of the Leapfrog Group’s annual hospital survey, which measures hospitals’ performance on patient safety and quality, focusing on three critical areas of hospital care: how patients fare, resource use, and management structures established to prevent errors. Performance across many areas of hospital care is considered in establishing the qualifications for the award, including rates for high-risk procedures and a hospital’s ability to prevent medication errors. To see the full list of institutions honored as a 2014 Top Hospital, visit www.leapfroggroup.org/tophospitals.

ENERGIA Fitness Studio Opens Second Location
HADLEY — ENERGIA Fitness has announced its second location and the launch of 50/50 Fitness/Nutrition, a Balanced Approach to Health & Wellness, at 226 Russell St. in Hadley. ENERGIA changed ownership late last year and has rapidly expanded, outgrowing its space. “50/50 Fitness/Nutrition wasn’t established simply because we ran out of space or were just looking to expand on our class and personal-training offerings,” said Justin Killeen, program director and owner of ENERGIA. “We’re completely revitalizing our systems and rebranding to ensure that people really get the full ENERGIA experience. A lot of what we provide our clients with is extremely unique, almost unexplainable in a way. Every client is different. We all learn differently, respond differently to various methods of teaching, and obtain very different results. Our method of coaching and relationship building takes the average training experience and drives it where other trainers, other gyms, won’t go.” He went on to note that one of the biggest initiatives in the new space will be to bridge the gap between healthcare professionals — doctors, nutritionists, physical therapists, massage therapists, etc. — and fitness professionals. “We don’t prescribe diets, we don’t promise instant results, and we don’t injure anyone. What we do offer is a renewed sense of balance, a promise for lifestyle change, and a community of support unlike any other.”

People on the Move

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Departments People on the Move

L. Alexandra Hogan

L. Alexandra Hogan

The Springfield-based law firm Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin, P.C., announced that attorney L. Alexandra Hogan has been appointed the new vice chair of the New England division of the International Women’s Insolvency and Restructuring Confederation (IWIRC). In 2012, Hogan was voted in to join the organization’s board of directors. The New England IWIRC is a networking organization pursuing the goal of creating a vibrant community of restructuring practitioners from every discipline. For more than two decades, IWIRC has been connecting women worldwide through a global membership of more than 1,200 attorneys, bankers, corporate-turnaround professionals, financial advisors, and other restructuring practitioners. “IWIRC provides valuable networking opportunities and leadership roles on a global and local level,” said Hogan. “Whether members are just beginning their careers or they are looking to take their profession to the next level, IWIRC has a platform to help them get there. I am proud to serve on the board of an organization devoted to improving the professional opportunities for women in my field, and I’m excited to take my own involvement with the organization to the next level as the vice chair for the New England division.” Hogan concentrates her practice primarily in bankruptcy, litigation, and business law. She graduated from Western New England University School of Law with cum laude honors in 2008 and from Bay Path University with summa cum laude honors in 1996. For the years 2011-14, she has been selected by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star and a Top Woman Attorney. She also currently serves as vice chair of the Hampden County Bar Assoc. Bankruptcy Division. Hogan volunteers to the Financial Literacy Program for U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts and the Boston Bar Assoc. to aid high-school students in personal finance, and also provides pro bono services through the Law Consortium for Western Mass.
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Peter Hazel

Peter Hazel

North Brookfield Savings Bank announced that Peter Hazel has been hired as vice president and commercial loan officer. Hazel has more than 30 years of commercial-lending and business-development experience, including as senior vice president/business banking officer at Fidelity Bank in Gardner and vice president of Business Development and senior commercial lender at GFA Federal Credit Union, also in Gardner. He is proficient in Small Business Administration and USDA Rural Development lending programs. Hazel joins NBSB’s growing team of business-lending experts located throughout the bank’s business centers and seven branches in Central and Western Mass. The bank has been named an SBA preferred lender, with membership in the program given only to financial institutions that have a proven capability and commitment to small-business lending and strict adherence to SBA guidelines. Involved in a number of local community organizations, Hazel is a Gardner Chamber of Commerce board member and finance committee member, a Community Foundation of North Central Massachusetts board member and grant committee member, a North Worcester Country Development Corp. board member, a board member and treasurer of RCAP Solutions, and a former president of the Gardner Rotary Club, where he twice received the Paul Harris Award for community service.
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Avital Levy Carlis has joined Cooley Dickinson Hospital as administrative director of the Massachusetts General Cancer Center at Cooley Dickinson Hospital and service-line development. Carlis earned a master’s in public health, with a concentration in health policy and management, from the University of California, Berkeley, and holds bachelor’s degrees in both biology and international history from the University of Rochester. Most recently, she served as director of Finance for the Mass General Cancer Center and was the administrative director for the division of Hematology and Oncology at Mass General. Cooley Dickinson and the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center have collaborated in providing cancer care since 2009. In 2015, the Mass General Cancer Center at Cooley Dickinson Hospital will open.
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Salon Herdis announced that Tara Abramowicz, a Redken creative colorist and image consultant, has joined the staff. She holds several certifications, including Redken certified hair colorist and Redken certified design and finish specialist, and sharpens her skills regularly with continuing education. She also travels and educates other hairstylists on color. “I’ve always been inspired by fashion, since I was a little girl,” Abramowicz said. “It’s great to be a part of something bigger than myself, in making people look and feel their absolute best.” Salon Herdis is an 11-year old downtown Northampton institution, providing a full range of hair and spa services to clients looking for a big-city experience in the Pioneer Valley. “The beauty industry is one of the few industries where women take the lead,” said Salon Herdis owner Linda Hannum, “and Tara is truly a leader among her peers.”

Agenda

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Agenda Departments

Speed Networking Event
Jan. 14: Back by popular demand, the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield (ACCGS) will hold an afternoon of speed networking on at the Sheraton Springfield, followed by an evening of informal networking at its After 5. The combination of events will provide attendees the opportunity to meet new contacts in a formal manner, then continue conversations in an informal and casual setting. The core concept to speed networking is the ‘elevator speech,’ a short summary of an individual, business, organization, product, or service that a person could deliver in the time span of a short elevator ride. Attendees will be divided into groups A and B. Members of each group will be seated across from each other. Each member of Group A will have 60 seconds to give his or her elevator speech to a member of Group B. A bell will ring, signaling the 60-second time is up, and each member of Group B will then get a chance to speak. The facilitator will signal when the 60 seconds are up again, and members of Group A will then move one seat to the right and begin the process again with a new partner. The round-robin format of networking will continue until the event is over, at which time attendees can then move to the casual atmosphere of the MVP Pub for the ACCGS “Score a Touchdown” After 5, sponsored by Wolf & Co. and DevelopSpringfield with support from the Springfield Falcons, United Way of Pioneer Valley, and BusinessWest. The event begins at 3:30 p.m. with registration and instructions. To accommodate the event, no admittance will be allowed after 3:55 p.m. The event ends at 5 p.m., and the After 5 runs from 5 to 7 p.m. Reservations are $20 in advance, $25 at the door, and only members of the ACCGS, Springfield Chamber of Commerce, or East of the River Five Town Chamber of Commerce are eligible to participate. Reservations include a complimentary ticket to the After 5. Reservations for the After 5 only are $5 for members, $10 for general admission. The After 5 is open to the general public. Reservations may be made online in advance at www.myonlinechamber.com or by contacting Sarah Mazzaferro at [email protected]. 
 
Employment-law Seminar
Jan. 27: Now that the new year here, it’s an ideal time to review the past year’s changes in labor and employment law. Royal LLP will host a seminar from 8 to 9 a.m. to review some of the most interesting and significant labor- and employment-law changes from 2014 and provide timely and practical advice on how these changes will affect businesses in years to come. Attorney Sarah Torres will conduct the roundtable-style seminar, where she will provide practical pointers to assist organizations in ensuring they are up-to-date and in compliance with these new laws. She will cover topics such as sick leave, domestic-violence leave, minimum-wage increases, and more. The cost for the seminar is $30 per person, and it will take place at Royal LLP, 270 Pleasant St., Northampton. Advance registration is required, and seating will be limited. Contact Ann-Marie Marcil at [email protected] to register or if you have any questions about the seminar. Checks should be made payable to Royal LLP and mailed to 270 Pleasant St., Northampton, MA 01060.

WNEU Mini-Law School
Feb. 10 to March 10: Western New England University School of Law will open its doors to the community with a five-week program focused on demystifying the law. Starting on Feb. 10, the Mini-Law School will be held on Tuesday evenings from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Blake Law Center, Room D, 1215 Wilbraham Road, Springfield. “Individuals interested in becoming better-informed and engaging in stimulating dialogue will find this program rewarding,” said Pat Newcombe, associate dean for Library and Information Resources. “No legal knowledge is necessary, just a curious mind.” Mini-Law School offers non-lawyers an understanding of legal topics that impact their everyday lives. Each class is taught by School of Law faculty and moderated by the Hon. Kenneth Neiman, magistrate judge, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts. Blending theory and practice, the classes will focus on family law, health law, constitutional law, and environmental law. The sessions include:
• Feb. 10: “Welcome to Mini-Law School: An Inside View of Law School and the Courts,” presented by Neiman and School of Law Dean Eric Gouvin;
• Feb. 17: “Family Law: What Defines a Family?” presented by 
Professor of Law Jennifer Levi and Neiman;
• Feb. 24: “Health Law: End-of-Life Choices,” presented by 
Professor of Law Barbara Noah and Neiman;
• March 3: “Constitutional Law: Real Law or Just Another Kind of Politics?” presented by Professor of Law Bruce Miller and Neiman; and
• March 10: “Environmental Law: Legal Solutions to Pollution Challenges,” presented by 
Professor of Law Julie Steiner and Neiman.
“After five weeks, you won’t be a lawyer,” said Western New England University Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Beth Cohen, “but you will be able to better understand laws that have an effect on your life, and, unlike traditional law school, there are no tests or homework.” Tuition is $35 for all five sessions, or $10 for each individual session. The program is free of charge for any high-school, college, or graduate student with a valid student ID. To register by phone or for more information, call Newcombe at (413) 782-1616. Registration will continue through Jan. 19. Learn more at www.law.wne.edu/minilaw.

PAWSCARS Fund-raiser
Feb. 28: Dakin Humane Society will present a fund-raising event on at the MassMutual Center in Springfield that will affectionately spoof Hollywood, the Oscars, and red-carpet fashion. Dubbed “The PAWSCARS & Red Carpet Fashion Parade,” the show will be emceed by Ashley Kohl and Seth Stutman, hosts of Mass Appeal on WWLP-22News. Beginning with a VIP Reception at 6 p.m. and a plated dinner at 7 p.m., the evening will also include a red-carpet fashion parade featuring local people of prominence, accompanied by rescue dogs (among them former Dakin dogs, now adopted). Short videos of animals recreating iconic moments in cinematic history, created by members of the public, will also be screened during the evening. “We’re looking forward to presenting a one-of-a-kind event with the PAWSCARS,” said Dakin Executive Director Leslie Harris. “We’re blending fashion, fun, and film with a healthy dose of humor for an unforgettable night. Plus, as our major fund-raising event of the year, it will be a terrific opportunity for our supporters to come together and enjoy themselves while providing much-needed aid for the many animals in our care.” With a targeted audience of 500, The PAWSCARS is Dakin’s most ambitious fund-raising event in its 45-year history. Tickets for the event are available at www.dakinhumane.org for $125 per person (dinner and show) or $50 (show only). Dakin is currently seeking video submissions from the public for viewing at the event, and the deadline is Saturday, Jan. 31. All videos will be reviewed, and a committee will select nine finalist videos to be screened at the PAWSCARS. Each of the nine people submitting a video will be awarded a free ticket to the PAWSCARS event (including dinner and entertainment). Corporate sponsors for the PAWSCARS include Baystate Health, Piepul’s Camera Center, Clinical & Support Options, United Personnel, C.A.R. Data Management and Program Evaluation Services, Hampden Bank, and Robinson Donovan. The Republican, Reminder Publications, WMAS, the Daily Hampshire Gazette, and the Recorder are among the media sponsors for the event. Visit www.dakinhumane.org for complete contest and video-submission information, as well as additional information about the event. Dakin Humane Society provides shelter, education, advocacy, and assistance for animals and people in need from its two locations in Springfield and Leverett. The organization shelters nearly 6,000 animals every year and provides low-cost spay/neuter surgery and vaccinations to 12,000 more. Dakin is a local, private, nonprofit organization that relies solely on contributions from individuals and businesses that care about animals to bring its services to the community.

Difference Makers
March 19: The sixth annual Difference Makers award program, staged by BusinessWest, will be held at the Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House. Details on the event will be published in upcoming issues of the magazine. Difference Makers is a program, launched in 2009, that recognizes groups and individuals that are, as the name suggests, making a difference in this region. This year’s class will be profiled in the Feb. 9 issue.

40 Under Forty
June 18: The ninth annual 40 Under Forty award program, staged by BusinessWest, will be held at the Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House. Details on the event, which honors the region’s most accomplished and civic-minded professionals under age 40, will be published in upcoming issues. Nominations are now open for the class of 2015, and are due by the end of the day (5 p.m.) on Feb. 6. The nomination form can be found HERE.

Springfield College Names Christopher Neronha General Counsel

By
Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — Christopher Neronha, an attorney with extensive experience in higher education, has been named general counsel at Springfield College, effective Jan. 20, President Mary-Beth Cooper announced. Neronha will provide legal counsel and guidance to the leadership of the college and will serve as secretary to its board of trustees. He will be a member of the president’s senior leadership team.

Neronha has 19 years of experience as an in-house corporate attorney, nine of those as a senior in-house attorney for Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I., where he previously was employed since 2006, as the associate general counsel and executive director of risk management. Prior to Roger Williams, Neronha was assistant general counsel and assistant secretary at National Life Insurance Co. in Montpelier, Vt., where he provided legal support for all company operations. He is an attorney licensed in the federal and state courts of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

“I am delighted that Chris will join the senior leadership team of Springfield College,” said Cooper. “His strong professional background and his expertise in higher-education legal issues will provide a great resource to the college and ensure that we continue to provide the best experience for our students.”

A graduate of Providence College with a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, in political science, Neronha received a juris doctor, magna cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame Law School.

Body of Work

By
Features
Tattoo Shops Thrive as Industry Gains Acceptance

Tattoo Afterlife co-owners Timmy Barnes and Matt Olivieri

Tattoo Afterlife co-owners
Timmy Barnes and Matt Olivieri

When Timmy Barnes was busy drawing on his friends in high school, he never considered making a career out of tattoos.

But it wasn’t long before he was making a more permanent impression, tattooing customers out of his basement. Licensed in Massachusetts since 2005, he’s now known widely — internationally, actually — as Timmy B, and co-owns Tattoo Afterlife in Northampton.

“Most people get tattooed for the same reason they buy a certain type of clothing or get plastic surgery: it’s an expression of themselves,” he told BusinessWest. “When you see a tattoo, you instantly know a little more about that person without them having to say anything.”

At the custom shop he opened with business partner Matt Olivieri, customers don’t pick images from a book; the artists who work there, in a converted auto garage on Pleasant Street, are aiming for something more unique.

“You come in and tell us what you like, things about your life that you want to showcase, and we will make you something we feel best represents you,” Barnes said. “This is a shop that people seek out, rather than walk in and wing it.

“A lot of people can mimic what we do, but it’s not the same,” he added. “It’s like a pair of shoes you really like — you’re not going to pay for a knockoff; you’ll pay for the version you really want. There is a difference.”

Olivieri, who also owns a line of organic skin-care products (more on that later), isn’t a tattoo artist himself, but has long loved the craft.

“I’m somebody who gets tattooed because I like the art. Some of mine have personal meaning, but I’d say 80% don’t. I like to get tattooed by friends, people I trust, and I let them run with the art. Then again, some people only want something on their body that has meaning. It’s really all about you and how you want to express yourself.”

Scot Padgett, the resident artist at Living Art Studio on Main Street in Northampton, has been practicing body art for decades, and has seen attitudes toward tattoos shift dramatically over the years.

Scot Padgett

Scot Padgett, whose work is seen here, says custom tattoos have become increasingly popular as clients have become more savvy.

“Make no mistake, there was a lack of social acceptance years ago,” he said. “Today, if you walk down the street here, it’s not unusual to find arm sleeves and body pieces and even people with work on their faces, which a lot of us in the businesses don’t necessarily agree with. There is a level of social acceptance now. For that reason alone, there’s a whole additional clientele who, maybe 20, 25, 30 years ago, wouldn’t have even considered it.

“We used to deal with the 18-to-25, male demographic,” he continued. “Today, the median age is around 40, and 70% female. Before, people were covering stuff up so they wouldn’t give their mother a heart attack; now they’re coming in with mom — or grandma. I definitely think there’s been a lessening of the social stigma.”

Mary Bowen, shop manager of Off the Map Tattoo in Easthampton, sees the same, ever-widening range of customers.

“We have lots of 18-year-olds getting their first tattoos, and 75-year-olds getting their first tattoos … someone working on a full body suit to someone pretty committed to getting just one,” she said.

Bowen recalled a three-generation appointment, where a woman came in with her mother and her 89-year-old grandmother for matching tattoos. “When we say you’re never too old, we mean it literally.”

Padgett welcomes the new openness to tattoos, which first became legal in Massachusetts in 2001. “People ask how long I’ve been doing this, and I say, ‘since before it was cool,’” he said. “When I got into this, you were just as likely to be ostracized by your own family members than by the community at large.”

Moving the Needle

Padgett tattooed in Connecticut for more than a decade before the Bay State came calling in 2001, and he worked with Northampton’s Board of Health on the language regulating tattoo shops, which vary from community to community.

“Unlike many states, there’s no statewide regulation,” he said. “I think there should be a federal mandate that, if it’s legal in one state, it should be nationwide. Not only is that not the case, but our state has put the onus on individual municipalities.”

Like Barnes, he emphasizes custom tattoos, a philosophy that has gained a significant foothold in the industry.

“In the old days, you’d have what was known in the vernacular as ‘flash’ on the walls,” he said, referring to stock art that tattooers would reproduce on clients. “There would be commercially available flash that people would buy and sell and circulate around the industry. When you’d go into a shop, you’d see the same designs hanging on the wall, and typically people would come in and choose from the commercially available product. It was not unusual to see the same eagle or sailing ship on other people — hundreds of people.”

Not only are custom tattoos more gratifying for him, they also allow the customer to fully embrace the experience, which results in fewer regrets.

“You’re less likely to make an error in judgment if you take the time to think about it, make an appointment, show up for the appointment, talk about it, as opposed to walking in off the street on a whim and pointing to a piece of art,” Padgett said, noting that he emphasizes the education and information aspect of his trade. “I’d rather you call me Tuesday and say, ‘I’m not sure about Wednesday’s appointment’ than call me Thursday and say, ‘I’m not sure about Wednesday’s appointment.’”

After all, he added, “it’s not like getting a bad haircut.”

Padgett, a widely recognized artist, recently tattooed a customer from Iceland, and attracts repeat business from far-flung tattoo enthusiasts. “I have clients from all over the place. That’s not a ‘hooray for me’ thing; it’s just that people have a comfort level for certain people. We try to provide an experience. I think that’s what brings a lot of people back.”

Tattoo Afterlife is a much newer presence in Northampton, having opened just five months ago.

“Business has grown every single month,” Olivieri said, adding that the shop will soon offer the services of six artists. The other side of the business is Tranquillity Massage, with two full-time massage therapists offering five types of massage, for customers who want to relax before getting inked. “We try to take care of our clients, make it a whole experience for them. We want them to feel as comfortable as possible while they’re here.”

Tattoo Afterlife has also made connections with local businesses — a hotel, restaurants, a neighboring bar — to offer discounts to customers, especially those traveling to Northampton from far away. And many do — the weekend before speaking with BusinessWest, Barnes tattooed clients from New Jersey and Australia, who had come specifically to seek him out.

“It’s a huge thing, with people from all over the world seeking out their favorite artists and turning appointments into vacations,” Olivieri said. “At the end of the day, it’s permanent, so if you’re going to fly across the world, you might as well check out the scenery and what’s going on locally. We try to be a part of that whole process when people come to town. We want to bring something to the table.

“At the end of the day, this is a service industry,” he added. “We’re all about customer service.”

Global Outlook

Gabriel Ripley, who opened Off the Map nine years ago and has since expanded it to shops in Oregon and Italy, got into the field via a different type of customer service: by using his computer-programming expertise to launch tattoonow.com, which develops and designs websites for tattoo artists. From there, he branched out by opening a tattoo shop, which features seven artists in Easthampton alone.

Mary Bowen

Mary Bowen says today’s tattoo enthusiasts often seek out favorite artists, and appreciate the fact that Off the Map brings in guest artists regularly.

“We’ll also bring in guest artists regularly — from all over the country and overseas as well,” Bowen said. “It’s great for the tattoo artists here because everyone can continue to learn from each other, and it’s great for the clients, who get access to these artists close to home. As custom tattooing is becoming more popular, people are becoming collectors of tattoo artists. The old-school way was to buy from the same person forever; now people seek out a specific style for each tattoo.”

She said the people have myriad rationales for wanting body art. “Oftentimes it’s a celebration, or people get a memorial tattoo to deal with life changes, whether it’s dealing with grief or getting a new job or getting divorced. Everyone has their own personal catalyst.”

Olivieri tells a similar story. “The other day, we had a guy who fought in Vietnam, 60 years old, who had never gotten a tattoo but was intrigued by it. Timmy has tattooed rock stars, medical doctors, and kids who turned 18 and just wanted a tattoo. It used to be that, if your were tattooed, you were looked at as a certain genre of human being, but that has now vanished. It’s now mainstream and socially acceptable to get tattoos, so all those people who were on the fence all those years are making appointments. They know they won’t be frowned upon or looked at differently.”

Bowen agrees. “They might have been thinking about this for years, if not decades. But reality shows have brought tattooing to the forefront, and it’s become more socially acceptable; at this point, it’s almost more unusual to meet someone who doesn’t have a tattoo.”

Still, she added, it’s a decision that shouldn’t be rushed. “It’s important for people to look at websites, do some research, check out the quality of the work, call the studio or stop in. I’ve gotten comments here like, ‘you’re nicer than I expected; you’re not scary at all!’ There’s this old-school perception of bikers in leather and jeans, smoking cigarettes and doing tattoos.”

Though the reality, in most cases, is far more pleasant — and sanitary — “the anxieties about getting a foot in the door are pretty significant for people,” she continued. “It’s a lifelong choice, so we don’t want them to feel pressured.”

That said, “we’re definitely growing. We’ve officially maxed out our space. Most of our artists are booked out weeks, if not months, ahead of time. A lot of times, it’s the guest artists who take walk-ins. We have a large clientele and huge support in the Valley,” Bowen said, citing several best-of citations in Valley Advocate reader polls. “It’s wonderful to hear that positive reinforcement. And we’re certainly not slowing down.”

Piece in the Valley

Olivieri and Barnes opened their first venture on Long Island, but weren’t happy with the lifestyle there, so they opened Tattoo Afterlife in Northampton, not far from Barnes’ hometown of Belchertown, and put the custom nature of the shop’s art front and center.

“You can’t come in here with a photocopy and say, ‘put it on my body,’” Olivieri said. “Every single person here is an artist. Tattooers understand the trade and can take anything and put it on your body, but here, everyone has an art background; they strive to give you something 100% original and custom, one of a kind. They’re trying to create art every single day.”

Olivieri focuses most of his energies on running the business end of the shop and selling products, particularly Redemption Aftercare, an organic, vegan, petroleum-free balm designed to be applied during and after a tattoo. A New Yorker named Bili Vegas created the formula, and he and Olivieri own and market the product. He also sells tattoo and skin-care products from other companies, including Eternal Ink and Stencil Stuff.

Redemption Aftercare, Olivieri said, “is the only balm in the world that’s USDA-certified organic and contains no chemicals and no petroleum — both things that stop the healing process. There’s a huge niche for us, as people are starting to become more aware of what they’re putting in their bodies.”

That’s particularly true in progressive Northampton. “It’s a very liberal town, and it’s open to new ideas,” he said. “And, frankly, there are five colleges with 65,000 students within a 15- to 20-mile radius. With tattooing becoming more popular, kids want to get tattooed, and lot of kids here are well-off. It’s a very good market for what we do.”

Northampton, Barnes added, “has everything you want from a big city, but mom-and-pop versions of it. All the businesses know each other, and all the employees downtown know each other. It’s an easy place to market and cross-promote. Everyone is on each other’s team.”

In that spirit, Barnes wants Tattoo Afterlife to become known for more than body art, as he and Olivieri plan a series of community events and fund-raisers to boost the profile of their craft.

“Tattooing has always had this stigma, but it’s getting harder to stereotype us,” Barnes said. “How can you call us a bunch of gnarly drug addicts and bikers when we’re raising money for children’s charities? I want to take this thing to the next level, to push the boundaries. We’ll always do tattoos, but what else can we do?”

Cost and Effect

Bowen admits that tattoos can be a significant financial investment, but added that enthusiasts are willing to pay the artists they admire. “You have to keep your budget in mind, of course. But the choice shouldn’t be made solely on price; if someone is very inexpensive, there’s probably a good reason why.”

The other big anxiety, beyond price and permanence, is pain.

“Lots of people get nervous about the pain; it’s not a pain-free process,” Bowen said. “A lot of times, people have nerves, but in the end, it’s not nearly as bad as they thought it would be. The mental is often far more significant than the physical pain of it.”

Usually, a glass of water or coffee is enough to calm a new customer’s nerves, Olivieri said, but for others, “we have a good rapport with the bar across the street. If they need a couple of hours to think about it, they can go there and have a drink. There’s no pressure here. Our job is to make the client feel as comfortable as possible.”

That said, “people are more excited than nervous,” he noted. “Timmy has a six-month waiting list, and some customers have been waiting years to see him, so when they get here, it’s like Christmas morning. They say, ‘you don’t know how long I’ve waited,’ and we say, ‘no, we get it.’”

Bowen likes to quote Ripley, her shop’s owner, in explaining that kind of excitement.

“One of the phrases Gabe uses is ‘making the world better, one tattoo at a time.’ We hope, by creating art, we’re positively impacting people’s lives — helping them move their lives in a more positive direction.”

Making art, in other words, that’s much more than skin deep.

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Top Entrepreneur 2014: Delcie Bean

By
Cover Story Sections Top Entrepreneur
Paragus Founder Reflects on Life in the Very Fast Lane

DelcieEntrepreneur2014DPartYou know you’re getting somewhere in life when your first name is all anyone really needs to make an identification.

That was the case with people named Elvis, Ringo, and Tiger (OK, his real name is Eldrick). And, to a lesser extent, it’s working for the 29-year-old that BusinessWest has chosen to be its Top Entrepreneur for 2014 — Delcie Bean.

Or just ‘Delcie,’ because that’s all that’s generally required when he becomes the subject of conversation. That’s true in part because, well, let’s face it, there are not many Delcies out there. But it’s also because Bean, in just a few years, has become a dominant force in the business community — and also with regional initiatives in the broad realm of economic development, education, and even office design.

By now, most everyone knows the story of how he first started selling things, like Creepy Crawlers and Ozark Lollipops, to classmates in the second grade, and started his own computer-repair company at age 14, when he was too young to drive but had no shortage of clients willing to pick him up and drive him to their home or business.

Most also know that he shaped what was named Valley Computer Works and later renamed Paragus Strategic IT (after asparagus — well, sort of) into one of the fastest-growing IT firms in the country, a fixture on Inc. magazine’s lists of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies, now boasting $4.25 million in annual sales.

They also know that he was the driving force behind Tech Foundry, a nonprofit, launched last year and still in the midst of a one-year pilot program, with the goal of training unemployed and high-school-age individuals and matching them with the precise needs of area companies. It’s an undertaking that’s drawn the praise of local and state officials alike for addressing one of the business community’s most perplexing, and persistent, problems — the dreaded skills gap.

Some might also know that Bean is a principal with a second business venture. Called Waterdog, it’s what he called a “tech-distribution company,” which partners with companies that make technology products and helps them find markets for those products. The enterprise, based in downtown Springfield, is closing on a $500,000 angel-investment round involving the Springfield Venture Fund and River Valley Investors, and is expected to add another 10 employees over the next year.

But less is known about what drives Bean and fuels his many passions. During a wide-ranging, quite enlightening interview, it became abundantly clear that Bean is very serious about:

• Entrepreneurship and fostering more of it;
• Careful and precise allocation of what has become a precious commodity — his time;
• A business philosophy that goes way, way beyond simply making money;
• Work-life balance;
• Getting unplugged much more than most could imagine given his success, his line of work, and the age we live in; and
• Playing a very significant role in the revitalization of Springfield and this region as a whole.

In short, his answers to BusinessWest’s many questions were quite revealing, and what emerged from this Q&A was a sentiment that Bean wants to be, and in many respects already is, a leader on several fronts, but especially when it comes to the growth and maturation of this region as a center for innovation, entrepreneurship, and jobs, something it was a century or more ago — and that he believes it can and will be again.

“If I can serve any benefit to inspiring others to get stuff done and to get motivated, then to me, that’s what’s ultimately worth it,” he said. “We have to continue to prove to people that you can do stuff, and that these things are possible. And I think the more people that have that positive spirit and get in the right perspective … that’s what’s going to change the Valley and bring us back to the glory days. Springfield was one of the biggest cities in the Northeast at one point, and there’s no reason why we can’t return to those days, just in a different way.”

In Good Company

As he settled back into one of the comfortable chairs in the conference room at Paragus’ recently opened, ‘outrageous green’-dominated headquarters in Hadley, Bean started the conversation by relating an exercise he recently undertook with some colleagues.

“We started talking about all the things that happened just in 2014,” he explained. “Within about 12 hours, I’d thrown up this website called springfield99.com where we started listing all the things that happened just in Springfield and just in 2014. And it’s amazing just how many things happened in this one year alone, some of which I was part of, some of which I would have loved to have been part of, but all of which I’m just proud to say are going on in the Valley.”

Delcie Bean

Delcie Bean says that a vibrant Springfield “is something I really want to play a role in.”

When asked for a list, he mentioned everything from the formal launching of Tech Foundry to the success enjoyed by Valley Venture Mentors; from TechSpring, the initiative launched by Baystate Health to foster entrepreneurship within the healthcare spectrum to the innovation center being built downtown; from Barbara Walters speaking at Bay Path University’s annual leadership conference to an American Pickers episode taped in the city that involved old Indian motorcycles.

“We got to item 45, and then we remembered that MGM got approval to open a casino,” he went on. “It was so cool to see that there was so much going on that isn’t necessarily in the shadow of the casino; it’s not a footnote to the casino — the casino is just part of this movement that’s going on.”

Before elaborating on the many aspects of that movement, BusinessWest first asked Bean about his various business ventures and what’s likely to happen next.

We started with Paragus, the IT-solutions company that now boasts more than 40 employees. The coming year shapes up to be an intriguing one, with Bean initiating an employee stock-ownership program (ESOP), and the Paragus team eyeing a host of avenues for expansion — in a variety of forms.

BusinessWest: Talk about the ESOP. It’s a big step, and there are risks involved. Why take this step now, and what does it mean for Paragus for the short and long term?

Bean: “In a lot of ways, this transition to an ESOP is a gamble on my part. I’m betting that the company will grow even faster and net even bigger returns in the hands of the employees than it would have if I had continued to remain as 100% owner.

“The employees will own 51% of the company, and I’ll own 49%, and the hope is that, by being owners and thinking and behaving differently, they will drive better results. It has to not only happen, but it has to happen at a multiple big enough to offset the growth I would have gained on my own if I had retained 100% of the shares.”

BusinessWest: How are you preparing your employees for what will be a dramatic shift in their role — and also in their outlook about the company and where it can go?

Bean: “We’ve spent that past 18 months preparing employees for that transition, because it is a big change. I led a class recently called ‘What Does it Mean to be an Owner?’ and we went through the process together of defining what are the characteristics of a truly great owner. I then challenged them to identify one characteristic that they had room to improve upon, and work with me one on one to develop an action plan for how they could make progress on improving on that characteristic.”

BusinessWest: Talk about your own role moving forward. Will it change, and if so, how?

Bean: “One of my goals and objectives is to create businesses that are not dependent upon me. Another way that I define success is getting people to be self-reliant, or empowered, or in a position where they’re not dependent on me. Every day, Paragus is less and less dependent on me personally, and that’s a huge mark of success.

“It means that we have a strong leadership team, it means that we have empowered employees, it means that we have good systems and processes. It means we have a healthy business. It’s great seeding companies and getting them started, but then empowering and finding just the right people, the right mix, and the right plan so they can grow and thrive and succeed on their own.”

BusinessWest: What is your long-term vision for the company, and how does the ESOP affect that? Is this a company that you envision someday being sold to a much larger entity?

Bean: “I decided a few years ago that Paragus was never going to be that company — it was never going to be the company that we grew to sell externally, and the ESOP is putting a nail in that coffin. By making an ESOP, we’re very publically saying, ‘this is a company that’s going to remain here in the Valley, owned by the Valley, and here to support and contribute to the Valley.’

“But that doesn’t mean that they don’t have big, aspirational goals. They want to look at some acquisitions, they want to open up some other offices, they want to expand into some other markets. They want to make this company big, and they want to be the ones who own it and do it. We don’t want to grow it to sell it.”


BusinessWest: Can Paragus meet all those lofty goals you mentioned by remaining a Western Mass. company, or just a Western Mass. company? There are some competitive disadvantages to being in this region, and it can’t be easy to recruit top talent to this region. Will Paragus still be a fixture here in five, 10, or 20 years?

Bean: “I think Paragus can always be here and will always be here. But if Paragus wants to continue to grow at 30% a year, as it has for the past five years, at some point, and probably not too far from now, they’re going to have to expand their market, and that might mean opening up a Paragus in another market. But that won’t mean leaving Western Mass.

“I can’t imagine a future where Paragus abandons Western Mass., but I can imagine a future in which we have a branch anywhere from Denver, Colorado to Hartford, Connecticut. In fact, there has been a lot of talk, probably just because people love the area, about Denver — it’s a really cool city going through some exciting times, and a place where the Paragus team members can see themselves having a lot of fun. There’s been nothing serious, but there has been some talk about how maybe, someday, that would be a cool place to put some new roots.”

Bean says the employee stock-ownership program

Bean says the employee stock-ownership program he’s initiating should enable the company to grow even faster and net bigger returns than if he remained sole owner.

The Future Is Now

BusinessWest: Let’s switch gears and talk about your participation in economic-development-related initiatives and your thoughts on Springfield and the region as a whole. If we were doing this interview 10 or 15 or 20 years from now, what would you like to have said you’d accomplished beyond success with your businesses?


Bean: “Right now, I have become so excited about the prospect of a revitalized, rejuvenated Springfield that I’d like to be able to say that, not only has Springfield accomplished that, but some actions that I took part in contributed.

“What that looks like is so hard to define, but I think it’s one of those things where you know it when you see it, whether it’s the energy or the excitement or the pure quantity of people on the street. But a vibrant Springfield is something I really want to play a role in.”


BusinessWest: You sound quite upbeat about the Valley’s prospects. What is the basis of that optimism?

Bean: “Things are coming together in many ways, especially in Springfield. Through Valley Venture Mentors, the innovation center, the accelerator program, and other initiatives, we’re creating entrepreneurial energy, and the possibilities are very exciting.”


BusinessWest: Beyond Tech Foundry and its mission of helping to create a large, talented workforce, what are some of the other ways you’ve become involved in economic-development efforts?


Bean: “I sit on two EDC [Economic Development Council of Western Mass.] boards, the Entrepre-neurship Committee and the Homefield Advantage Committee, and I really enjoy that work. I also get involved in other ways, such as mentoring entrepreneurs.”


BusinessWest: Mentoring entrepreneurs? Do you do a lot of that?

Bean: “I do, either through a program like Valley Venture Mentors or separately on the side. I also take phone calls … I don’t know how I got signed up for this, but people will come to me and say, ‘hey, I’m thinking of moving to the Springfield area, and someone gave me your name as somebody I should talk to before I move there.’ I’ll give them an idea about jobs and positions and what I think the economic landscape looks like and how awesome and exciting it is to be here right now. Maybe once a week I’ll get a call like that, and it’s great to know that, once a week, someone’s thinking about moving back here.”


BusinessWest: Many economic-development leaders are bullish about improved rail service between Vermont and Southern Connecticut. Do you believe such service can change the equation in this region, and if so, how?

Bean: “The Tofu Curtain drives me crazy, and I’m hopeful that maybe Northampton, Holyoke, and Springfield start working better together. Maybe the ease of getting from one place to another because we don’t have to deal with the car … maybe it makes the communities more connected and work more synergistically.

“That’s my most aspirational hope for this train; we call it ‘the Valley,’ but it’s really two very distinct sections, and you could argue there’s three because of Franklin County. Look at Holyoke and Springfield — it is amazing how little those two cities work together, and they’re so much alike; they’re both Gateway cities within a stone’s throw of each other with similar problems and similar challenges, and they’re not working collaboratively as they should be, and I’m hoping one stop on the rail line changes all that.

“I’d love to see the Valley function as one neighborhood, and if you look at Silicon Valley and so many other parts of the country, they’re the same size as our valley, but we’re so much more insular. And people complain that it takes 20 minutes to get from Northampton to Springfield. Look at Boston — it takes 20 minutes to get anywhere, and they’re doing just fine.

“That’s my hope, that maybe this rail service gives us one less excuse to not do business with each other, or have lunch together, or have meetings together and not fight about whether it’s in Northampton or Springfield.”

BusinessWest: What about the casino? This is not exactly innovation, but it is economic development and jobs. Will this be a positive force in the city and the region?

Bean: “I have very positive feelings about the casino’s impact and what it’s going to do for the city, but I think’s it’s important that it doesn’t define us — and it doesn’t sound like it is. It sounds like we’re defining ourselves.”

Time and Space

BusinessWest: Considering the many types of demands on your time, you have probably become adept at how that resource is allocated. Talk about how you distribute the hours in your day and find time for everything you want to do.

Bean: “It’s definitely challenging. There are a lot of things competing for my time, and I’m one of those people who has a hard time saying no to things I’m passionate about or that I think are good and worthy. But there are plenty of things I do say no to; for example, I’m not an advocate for long meetings where there’s no clear purpose and the dialogue isn’t going to result in any clear action items. I’ve been to more than a few of those, and I’ve learned my lesson; those meetings do have a purpose, just not a purpose that I’m able to contribute much to, so I’ve learned that they’re not a good investment of my time.”


BusinessWest: Talk about those occasions, and those causes, for which saying ‘no’ is not an option.

Bean: “There are three different buckets that I put my time into right now, and maybe one sub-bucket. For starters, there’s Paragus and Waterdog; I work from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. most days, and in that 12-hour span, Paragus gets six of those hours, and Waterdog probably gets two of those hours. But what’s nice is that still leaves me with four hours a day, and that’s where I would put my outside interests or economic-development interests, or giving back, or however you want to classify that.

“A big piece of that goes to Tech Foundry, but that still leaves plenty left over to be a speaker at various events, to attend different meetings, to mentor entrepreneurs, to go to city planning meetings, and a lot of other things.”

BusinessWest: Time management is a critical assignment for all business leaders. Talk some more about your approach to it and how you get the most out of each hour in the day.

Bean: “I have a very, very full calendar — every minute is booked between 6:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., and two nights a week I work late, and that usually means I have some event I need to attend. That’s where I’m really selective; there are so many great events in the Valley to go to at night, and I only pick two a week. And if I’m going to do a late night, I’ll try to do two or three things that night.

“I live an hour and 15 minutes away in New Hampshire, and a few years ago I hired a driver, so I use my commute time to do all my e-mail so that during the day I don’t even look at my computer — I just go from meeting to meeting as my phone instructs me to, and then I have two hours at the beginning and end of each day to catch up on e-mails, get proposals, or correspond with people.

“Hiring a driver was an economic decision. I ran the math and looked at how productive I could be with an extra two hours a day and what it cost to pay someone for those four hours, and decided it made perfect sense. This gives me a guaranteed two or two and a half hours a day when no one can walk into my office, call me on the phone … it’s just a guaranteed two hours of e-mail and going over proposals.”

Investments in the Valley

BusinessWest: You must get a lot of requests to serve on boards and take part in economic-development-related initiatives. How do you decide where to put your time and energy?

Bean: “We get a lot of those requests, and they all go to Margie, my assistant. She’s gotten to know really well what I’m passionate about, what I’m interested in, and what I’m not, so she will vet them, send me to ones that she thinks are worth me at least looking at, and then I’ll figure out what the commitment is going to be.

“For example, I’ve been very good about not getting on the boards of nonprofits, only because there are so many of them, it would be hard to choose, and I have my own nonprofits for which I’m president of the board, and I don’t want to distract from those energies. But there was an opportunity that came along where an organization is going to be forming a charter school in Springfield, and that organization, Up Academy, has a track record that’s just mind-blowing. It will take over an existing Springfield middle school, serve the same students and use the same money, but run it privately.

“I started hearing about that, and I started researching the track record and learning more about that organization, including the work they did in Lawrence, the work they did in Boston. It was so impressive that I did agree to join their founding board because I feel that education in Springfield has got to be a priority, and what it needs right now are some new, fresh perspectives, some new minds, and some new thoughts. So this was one where I broke my own rule and got involved.”

BusinessWest: You also get a number of requests to speak to different groups and offer keynote addresses at events. First, do you like public speaking — is it something you’ve become good at? And, second, how do you decide which speaking requests to accept?

Bean: “Speaking is always something I’ve enjoyed, and it’s always something I thought came naturally to me. I don’t know; I’ve never sat in the audience, so I don’t know how I come off. But it’s never something that’s made me nervous or uncomfortable.

“And what I really like about public speaking is having the opportunity to use that platform to energize an entire group of people at one time around a thought, an idea, an interest, an excitement level, and really get people to leave that room thinking differently and feeling differently. If I accomplished that, then I’m thrilled.”

BusinessWest: What have been some of your recent assignments, and did you feel you’ve been able to energize the room, as you mentioned?

Bean: “One of the most exciting ones I got to do recently was the Grinspoon Foundation entrepreneurship dinner, where they asked me to be the keynote speaker. What I liked about it was that here were 300 to 400 college kids who had a demonstrated interest in entrepreneurship, and were asking themselves those questions in their heads: ‘can I do this? Is this right for me? How would I even get started? Am I really cut out for this?’ And being able to share my story with those kids and talk to them about my experiences and my perspective on the situation and give them the confidence and encouragement to go off and do it … I certainly left that night feeling energized and excited.

“At least when compared to when I spoke at the Massachusetts Developers Conference. That was certainly fun and exciting, but I don’t think I changed a lot of hearts and minds that day. It will be the same when I speak at a Federal Reserve Bank event in Boston in January. That will certainly be fun, and it will be a great audience, but I don’t think I’ll change a lot of hearts and minds. Hopefully I will, because that’s when I really enjoy it — when I get a bunch of people really excited.”

Managing Expectations

BusinessWest: Let’s talk about your management style, your thoughts on running a business, and your opinions on what makes a true business leader. And maybe the logical place to start is by asking if you’ve had any mentors or any business owners you’ve borrowed from or tried to emulate.


Bean: “I personally like to draw on the best of everybody, so I have a handful of mentors, and there are things about them that I emulate and maybe things about them I’m not so keen on. I try to pull the best characteristics from everyone I know. But if there was one person I had to point to … I really like what [Zappos founder] Tony Hsieh has done, not just with that company, but his philosophy, his mindset, his personality.

“He’s someone who’s really gotten the economic-development bug and is trying to rebuild the entire city of Las Vegas, which was worse off than the city of Springfield was, and turn it into a vibrant, functioning city again. And that’s inspirational, because it’s rare that somebody with that much money, where there’s so little that he’s going to gain from this personally, is so passionate about a city and its revitalization. To see him dedicate his time and energy to that project definitely gives me encouragement to know that’s there’s nothing wrong with not spending all of your time trying to make money.”

BusinessWest: Can you elaborate on that thought, because making money is what has driven most entrepreneurs throughout history.

Bean: “There are some people who go from one enterprise to the next one to the next one, and it’s always about ‘how big can I make the coffers?’ There’s nothing wrong with that — that’s capitalism — but there’s a lot of room for also making sure you understand what makes you happy, what you enjoy, and for me, that’s seeing things happen. And if I can make things happen, even if those things don’t directly correlate back to some financial interest of mine, I get joy from the act of seeing them happen.

“Seeing Tech Foundry launch … maybe it helps Paragus someday with workforce — maybe. But there are many things I could do that are a lot less expensive and a lot less time-consuming, but seeing it happen, seeing those kids show up, seeing the impact on the community, that, to me, totally justifies the time, the money, and everything else.”


BusinessWest: Who else inspires you, enough for you to want to emulate them?

Bean: “There are so many people, it’s hard to narrow it down. I’m certainly inspired by (long pause) even Bill Gates to a certain extent. It’s a tough one — he’s very controversial; there are a lot of things you can say about him. But I’ll say I’m inspired by the fact that, despite all the money he’s made, he’s dedicated so much of his time to giving it away — but not just by writing big, fat checks.

“He’s trying to figure out how to make a meaningful impact on the world, whether it’s through the malaria work they’re doing or … he’s got a project where he’s trying to use spent nuclear rods to create clean electricity. It’s so much easier for him to write a check, but for him, as it is for me — not that I’m comparing myself to Bill Gates — he’s taking his time, his energy, and his passion and using it for more than creating wealth for himself.”


BusinessWest: Anyone in this region who has been a mentor or a source of inspiration?

Bean: “There have been many. The Davis Brothers [John and Steve, former third-generation owners of American Saw, now Lenox] are a good example. Those are guys who don’t have to be here; they can be doing a lot of other things, but they’ve chosen to spend their time, money, and energy impacting the community that they’re in, and in ways that are really inspirational.

“They could be doing financial investing in areas that are probably going to net them better returns, but they’re committed to everything from for-profit investment to not-for-profit investment, but also giving their time. The fact that Steve Davis is chair of the Entrepreneurship Committee, and John Davis has his Springfield Business Leaders for Education, another group I decided to join, shows they’re dedicating more than their time; they’re here every day, they’re giving their money, their effort, and they don’t have to be. And that’s inspiring. Watching them almost makes me feel obligated; if they’re doing it, how could I not do it?”

BusinessWest: You’re 29 years old, but you’ve been the boss your entire life. Most people have the opportunity to learn and grow by watching and drawing out those on the higher rungs on the ladder. You’ve never really had that opportunity; do you feel that maybe you missed out on some learning opportunities?

Bean: “That’s a good question. ‘No’ is the short answer. I had never been taught that who you learn from are the people above you in your own organization, because I’d never been in an organization big enough to do that. I was naive in the sense that I didn’t know that’s how it’s supposed to work.

“So I learned from everybody. I learned from my clients, from my vendors, from my banker, my lawyer, my accountant — I wouldn’t just let them do stuff for me, I’d make them explain it to me; I’d look over my accountant’s shoulder while he’s doing my tax returns and my books, asking him mind-numbingly boring questions, because I really wanted to know, and I needed to see the big picture.
“I learn from my staff, I learn from community leaders, and I read a lot. I’ve learned a lot from the books I’ve read; I can’t understate the amount of knowledge I’ve accumulated from reading some phenomenal business books.”

Hanging in the Balance

BusinessWest: We’ve talked about business, economic development, mentoring, community service … what do you do when you’re not doing any of that?

Bean: “When I’m really not working, I love just being with my family. We moved to New Hampshire because I love the outdoors and I love being in a rural environment. I’ve got two young kids — a 3-year-old and an 18-month-old — and I love just being out with my wife and kids.

Delcie Bean, seen here with his wife, Julia

Delcie Bean, seen here with his wife, Julia, and sons Delcie Bean V (Jack), left, and James, says he values work-life balance and has a strict no-work policy on weekends.

“We live on 16 acres that abut 16,000 acres of state land, and so we just love going on hikes in the woods — endless trails where you can never walk the same path twice. I love that stuff. I love just being at home with my family, just taking it really easy and relaxed.

“One of the reasons I moved up there is I spend so much time around people all day long, so it’s really nice being up somewhere where the only thing you can hear are the birds and the trees; it’s so quiet and peaceful up there.”

BusinessWest: Can you really just put aside the various kinds of work you have like that?

Bean: “I don’t really have much choice. It’s also very unplugged up there — we barely have Internet; I have a crappy DSL connection. Even if I wanted to work. it would be miserable.”

BusinessWest: Somehow, you don’t seem like the type who could be unplugged for very long.

Bean: “You’d be surprised. I work almost a 12-hour day, but then when I do get home, especially on the weekends, I have a very strict no-work policy. That time is for me and for my family. It takes a lot of energy to do what I do, and I need to kind of recharge and regroup, and part of that is being unplugged and not being ‘on.’

“When my wife and I go on vacation, we go to these really, really secluded destinations where we don’t do anything — we’re just vegetables where we just spend time with each other and there’s no other people.”

BusinessWest: Where do you go?

Bean: “My favorite place … there’s this villa in Jamaica on the other side of the island from where everyone else goes, in a tiny little fishing village. We rent it out, and the only people there are a cook, a maid, and a pool guy; those are the only three people you see the entire time you’re there. They make all your meals for you, and you live in this beautiful house with your own private beach and your own swimming pool. You can completely just unplug and relax; there’s no Internet, no TV. I just read and read and read, and enjoy disconnecting.”

BusinessWest: Where else do you go?

Bean: “I make a clear distinction between vacationing and traveling. We try to commit to a system where every other trip we travel — we’ll go to some city and walk around, like we just got back from Quebec City this past summer — and the alternating trip is what I call vacationing, where we don’t do anything.”

BusinessWest: Do you think you have a proper balance between life and work?

Bean: “I do, and that’s because I work hard at it. I decided to hire a driver around the time I had my first kid. It allowed me to get home an hour earlier because I wasn’t staying at work that extra hour doing my e-mail. So, except for those two nights I work late, those other three I make it home in time to put the kids to bed, and that’s important to me.

“And two days a month I go into work late so I can drive my kid to school. I really enjoy it, and it means a lot to him. Finding a balance was tough, and I’m very fortunate that my wife is able to stay home with the kids; that has helped a lot. And my no-work-weekend policy makes a huge difference, because those two days are 100% about being with the kids and the family.

“And that also speaks to my point earlier about how one of my objectives is to create businesses that are not dependent upon me. That gives me the flexibility to go to that Little League game when my kids get a little older, or that school play, and not feel like the whole world revolves around me being at my desk. I don’t want people so dependent on me I’m handcuffed.”

He Gets IT

To say that Bean has been successful in remaining un-handcuffed would be a huge understatement.

By carefully managing time, empowering people, and putting effective systems in place, he’s found the hours, the energy, the will, and the freedom to be a force in the Pioneer Valley on a number of levels.

And at 29, and with a firm commitment to remain at the forefront of efforts to both grow his businesses and be a part of the efforts to revitalize the region economically, he’s certain to be a force for years and decades to come.

Stay tuned.

Previous Top Entrepreneurs

• 2013: Tim Van Epps, president and CEO of Sandri LLC
• 2012: Rick Crews and Jim Brennan, franchisees of Doctors Express
• 2011: Heriberto Flores, director of the New England Farm Workers’ Council and Partners for Community
• 2010: Bob Bolduc, founder and CEO of Pride
• 2009: Holyoke Gas & Electric
• 2008: Arlene Kelly and Kim Sanborn, founders of Human Resource Solutions and Convergent Solutions Inc.
• 2007: John Maybury, president of Maybury Material Handling
• 2006: Rocco, Jim, and Jayson Falcone, principals of Rocky’s Hardware Stores and Falcone Retail Properties
• 2005: James (Jeb) Balise, president of Balise Motor Sales
• 2004: Craig Melin, then-president and CEO of Cooley Dickinson Hospital
• 2003: Tony Dolphin, president of Springboard Technologies
• 2002: Timm Tobin, then-president of Tobin Systems Inc.
• 2001: Dan Kelley, then-president of Equal Access Partners
• 2000: Jim Ross, Doug Brown, and Richard DiGeronimo, then-principals of Concourse Communications
• 1999: Andrew Scibelli, then-president of Springfield Technical Community College
• 1998: Eric Suher, president of E.S. Sports
• 1997: Peter Rosskothen and Larry Perreault, then-co-owners of the Log Cabin Banquet and Meeting House
• 1996: David Epstein, president and co-founder of JavaNet and the JavaNet Café

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

Under Attack

By
Sections Security
Companies Need to Stay Vigilant Against Hackers

Charlie Christianson

Charlie Christianson says small companies should not assume their size protects them from hacker attacks.

It turns out Target wasn’t the only … well, target.

A year ago, Target announced that hackers had stolen personal information from some 110 million customer accounts. A handful of similarly high-profile breaches followed, including the breach of some 83 million JPMorgan Chase accounts in August and financial data from 56 million Home Depot customers in September.

Other high-profile victims of cybercrime in 2014 included Staples, Healthcare.gov, Neiman Marcus, and, of course, Sony, which endured the release of e-mails that strained relationships across the entertainment industry.

But those are major corporations, household names. The smaller companies that dot Western Mass. don’t have to worry about such attacks, right?

Think again.

“Small to medium-sized businesses tune out because they think, ‘I’m just too small; no one’s going to want to attack me.’ The reality is, attacks on soft targets are going up astronomically every day,” said Charlie Christianson, president and CEO of Peritus Security Partners and CMD Technology Group.

“We want businesses to understand that there’s no magic bullet, no one product or solution that’s going to eliminate all the security risks,” he added. “Defenses need to be layered, and you have to include your people in the process. You’ve got to educate the people using your systems and make sure the culture in your organization is security-centric, and that everyone understands the risks that are out there.”

James Baker, lead security consultant for Peritus, agreed.

“Those are extreme cases,” he said of cases like Target and Sony, “but people shouldn’t have the attitude that ‘it won’t happen to me.’ A lot of hackers go after low-hanging fruit; they’re not focusing on a specific company or organization. Maybe your firewalls are misconfigured, and someone’s doing a scan, looking for certain ports open, and all of a sudden you pop up. It can be done fairly easily. It’s not a direct attack on your organization — it’s about low-hanging fruit, and your fruit is exposed.”

Although awareness is growing of the threats, he added, smaller companies often figure it’s not worth investing scarce resources into hiring a full-time cybersecurity professional or using a consultant.

“They think, ‘we don’t find a significant need for this. Why would we want to budget money on something we don’t feel we need?’” Baker told BusinessWest. “But once people do get compromised, they become very reactionary. Target did not have a CISO [chief information-security officer]; they did not have a security representative in the executive organization. Since this happened, they hired a brand-new CISO and compliance officer, who have that voice in management.

“But at smaller companies, where budgets are tight and personnel are overworked, they just go to the IT person whose responsibility is to keep the organization running, thinking, ‘he understands security.’

“We see that a lot,” Christianson added, “especially in small companies, where one person in the house has a little tech savvy and they’re the guy or woman who handles everything, who wears a whole bunch of hats. They put out the fires as they exist, and although they give it their best shot, security is not what they do. They don’t understand what the best practices are; they don’t understand all the things you need to do to secure an organization.”

For this issue’s focus on security, BusinessWest explores the reasons why that mindset is changing at many companies — sometimes, unfortunately, after the damage is done.

Head in the Cloud

One major change that has complicated cybsersecurity is the fact that so much data is stored in the cloud and shared among remote devices, said Dave DelVecchio, owner of Innovative Business Systems in Easthampton. He believes companies need to take a hard look at how data is shared and where, with the goal of “letting the good guys in and keeping the bad guys out.”

For example, “if you’re a 40-, 50-, or 100-person company, whether you have an internal IT department or outsource to a company like us, what are the appropriate safeguards to put in place if you want to allow remote access on company-owned devices?” he asked. “Now that employees have more technology in their hands, and they want to store their calendars and contacts on their smartphone, what if a device is stolen or falls into the wrong hands?”

Mark Jardim (right, with James Baker)

Mark Jardim (right, with James Baker) says that, when it comes to remote access, companies must strike a balance between employee convenience and protecting data.

The question companies need to ask is what benefit they’re getting from allowing remote sharing of data. “I think it’s important to go back and see what people are trying to accomplish. The goal of working with technology in any business is to improve efficiencies and be able to get more done with less. That goal hasn’t changed in 40, 50 years, since ENIAC, in fact,” he said, referring to the first computer, built in the 1940s.

“Ultimately, what really matters is providing a secure and stable user environment to allow users access to technology to allow them to do their jobs,” he went on. “Employers need to decide whether allowing sensitive data on [remote] devices helps them achieve those efficiencies, and if so, they need to make sure employees understand how to protect that data.”

Baker agreed. “Years ago, there was a perimeter around your infrastructure to protect you. But that perimeter is gone. With the cloud and mobile devices and the need for businesses to virtualize and have information in the cloud, the idea of having a perimeter around your infrastructure to protect your assets is going away,” he told BusinessWest.

More important, he said, is the human element — educating employees in best practices to protect data, whether that’s creating strong passwords and storing them properly or restricting company-wide access to certain records. “Whether they work for a hospital dealing with patient records or they’re handling credit-card information, your employees have got to understand the data they’re working with, how to protect it, and what are the tools in their repertoire to assist in that.”

Mark Jardim, lead engineer for CMD, said companies can’t secure data without knowing where it is. “We see laptops out in the field, and they have Dropbox, and the person is saving all his stuff there, maybe synching the laptop to work, and it’s not encrypted. Now he has all this data, not encrypted, not backed up. What happens if someone steals or hacks the computer?”

One common hacker ploy is to break into a device, encrypt important data, and extort the victim for money — often hundreds or thousands of dollars — to unencrypt it. “A police department in Massachusetts got infected with malware and actually paid the hacker money to get the data back,” Jardim said.

Christianson said his company recently tested a client’s employees by creating an e-mail that looked like it came from an internal source but was actually a faux phishing scam. “When they clicked the link, it took them to a bogus webpage that looked like the organization’s webpage, where they were asked to enter their name and password.” Thirty percent of the recipients gave up their data.

“People opened the e-mail thinking it was from a trusted resource,” Baker said. “That is where education and awareness come into play. You can explain to them what happened and how they were tricked and how they can protect themselves in the future.”

Because of the sophistication of hackers and phishing scams, Jardim concedes that today’s environment is much more of a minefield for companies. “Before, you had a firewall, and everything was behind the firewall. Now you have data everywhere, and you have to find a good balance between user convenience and protecting that data.”

Compliance and Common Sense

DelVecchio noted that companies in regulated industries, like finance and healthcare, face a strict regulatory environment that guides their cybersecurity decisions and, in many cases, forces them to employ compliance and security personnel. But for other types of business, it’s a gray area.

“The industry is a big determining factor in how they define their security and remote-access plan,” he said. “But for any business, regardless of industry, there should be a plan. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail — it’s an old, silly line, but it’s true in this case.”

Even with the Sony hack, which didn’t necessarily threaten regulated data, “they got into sensitive e-mails,” Christianson said, “and now all these stars are getting this information about what people are saying behind their backs. It affects contract negotiations and all kinds of things.”

Jardim said the fundamentals are still strong passwords, strong firewalls, and lots of education. “The easiest way to get a lot of the risk out is to have good practices in place. When JPMorgan recently got hacked, basically, one of their servers didn’t have two-factor authentication. What’s scary is, JPMorgan spent $250 million on secure systems. But, because of one small mistake, they got violated. Best practices were overlooked.”

Christianson agreed, noting that the security of an entire system is only as good as the weakest point.

“Security companies have to be right 100% of the time,” Baker added. “A hacker only has to be right 1% of the time.”

And the threats come from everywhere, he noted. “Somebody from Canada can hack you as easily as a 15-year-old in the Philippines practicing his hacking skills, or the guy next door. There are no boundaries. And to think you can call some sort of law enforcement to assist in this is a bit naïve. If you’re a Home Depot where billions of dollars are involved, the federal government will get involved, but otherwise, it’s not significant enough in cost. They have much bigger fish to fry.”

For the hacked organization, however, it’s a very big deal. The Target attack cost the company $148 million and affiliated financial institutions $200 million. In Home Depot’s case, those figures were $62 million and $90 million, respectively. For small companies, the cost of cleaning up a breach can be even greater, even though the numbers are much smaller, because budgets are already stretched thin.

“The culture starts at the top, with management or the board of directors,” Baker said. “They play a key role in this. They need to realize this is an important aspect of their organization, that there are consequences if you don’t protect sensitive data.”

In other words, don’t make yourself a target.

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Keys to Success

By
Sections Security
Serv-U Locksmiths Knows the Nuts and Deadbolts of This Business

Steve Horowitz

Steve Horowitz says he deals with both clients making long-term security plans and those facing an immediate crisis.

The phone rings at all hours of the day and night, 365 days a year.

Many callers have an immediate crisis, which might range from a business owner who just terminated an employee and needs to have the locks on their building changed, to a supervisor who misplaced the master key to an apartment block that opens hundreds of units, and fears it could get into the wrong hands.

There are also new store managers who want to change the combination to a company safe, and others who discover their door won’t close properly due to damage or wear and tear, and thus cannot be locked.

“About 80% of our business is commercial, and our customers call us whenever they have a security issue and need help resolving it — we’re on the road every day,” said Steve Horowitz, owner of Serv-U Locksmiths in Springfield, adding that the company’s fleet of six mobile vehicles allows it to respond quickly.

But selling and servicing security products is not all Serv-U does. Educating clients is critical to its success because the security industry has changed significantly over the years and continues to evolve. So, in addition to selling locks, keys, and devices, and replacing, rekeying, or repairing them, the company’s employees spend time talking to clients to determine what products will best meet their needs.

Solutions can range from something as simple as a deadbolt doorknob with a key lock to a highly sophisticated security system, to a fire-resistant or burglar-proof safe.

Horowitz told BusinessWest that specific types of security devices, locks, or systems are used in certain industries.

“For example, retail storeowners often have shoplifters leave through their back doors with merchandise,” he explained. “They need a lock with an alarm built in that will go off if someone opens the door, but still allow them to maintain the door as a fire exit. We have products to solve every security issue and fit every situation.”

Hospitals also require special security in areas such as rooms or closets where medications are stored. “If a hospital gave an employee a generic key, it could be copied at any hardware store,” Horowitz said. “So, we have several high-security lock systems that are exclusive to our store.”

He added that, whenever a key to these systems is issued, the person who gets it must sign a registration form. The forms are kept in the store, and a key can be duplicated only by a Serv-U employee after the person requesting it shows their driver’s license and re-signs the registration form, to ensure the signatures match.

“It makes it impossible for them to go to any other locksmith to get another key. It’s a very high level of security used to prevent stealing or ensure safety,” Horowitz went on, noting that special keys are also used in areas that contain hazardous materials within a factory or hospital.

Seven of Serv-U’s 12 employees have worked for the company for more than 20 years and continually take classes to stay current with changes within the industry.

“There is a lot more to security than buying a lock or having a key made, and a lot of customers come to us after they purchase a product and find that it doesn’t resolve their problem,” he added.

Business Evolves

The first Serv-U store was opened in 1954. “My father, Sam Horowitz, and two of my uncles, Ben Horowitz and Jordan Rosenkrantz, opened Serv-U Hardware in Springfield. The original store was part of the True Value Home Center chain, and in addition to other products, they duplicated house and car keys and sold locks to homeowners,” Horowitz said, as he recounted the history of the business.

In the ’70s, the trio recognized the growing demand for security and hired a locksmith, which allowed them to expand their line of products.

During the next decade, Horowitz, his brother Lenny, and four of their cousins took over from their fathers and expanded the operation. “We opened hardware home centers in Northampton, Westfield, and Enfield, which all included full-service lock shops,” Horowitz said. They also added a number of specialty sections, including a home-decorating department that carried everything from paint and wallpaper to unfinished furniture; an automotive supply department; and a Baby Castle that sold infant furniture and accessories.

However, by 2001, big-box stores made it difficult to compete, and the family closed everything except the Springfield store. “My brother Lenny and I owned it, and we kept the lock shop and the decorating center open,” Horowitz said.

Things changed again three months ago, when Lenny moved to Florida and Horowitz became the sole owner. He closed the home-decorating department in October and made the decision to dedicate the business entirely to locksmithing.

Today, Serv-U Locksmiths has a fleet of six fully equipped service vehicles and a long list of commercial customers who have been with the business for decades. “They include banks, hospitals, colleges, manufacturing facilities, property-management companies, federal and state agencies, and housing authorities,” Horowitz said, adding that the company also provides products and services to homeowners.

Its mobile team serves clients within a 30-mile radius of the store, which extends into the Berkshires, Northern Conn., and even south of Hartford. “People call us with a variety of problems, and if someone needs us, we are there, which is how we have built our business and our reputation.”

One thing that sets Serv-U apart from other area locksmiths is its large showroom. “It makes us unique and gives customers the opportunity to talk to a locksmith, see how different products work, and get advice,” said Horowitz. “It also allows them to bring their locks here to be repaired, which can save them money.”

The number of security systems Serv-U carries is extensive, he added. “Originally, locks were only used with keys. Today, keys are still very prevalent, but there are also locks that use combinations or key fobs.”

He explained that the key-fob system is used frequently by businesses due to its sophistication.

“A fob can be programmed to only allow a person to enter a building or area at a certain time or certain day of the week,” Horowitz said. “The idea is to give a company more control over which employees have access to certain parts of their building. For example, someone with a fob who works third shift may not be able to enter the building at other times of the day. Plus, the person managing the fobs can delete them at any time and can also print out an audit trail, which shows not only who entered the building, but what door they used and the time they entered.”

He added that, when a company purchases this type of system, a Serv-U employee goes to their office and trains designated staff members in how to use the software.

“The fobs can be reprogrammed from a computer, which gives a manager control over security even when he or she is not there,” Horowitz went on, adding that many hospitals, banks, and colleges use this type of system.

Educated Choices

Safes are another important security product, and Serv-U sells, services, delivers, and installs models that range from $100 to $3,500. Some are made to secure guns, while others are fire-resistant, burglar-resistant, or both.

But they are not all created equal, and Horowitz said people frequently purchase models that are inadequate for their needs.

“People think ‘safe’ means secure. But it depends on the type of security they are seeking,” he told BusinessWest, noting that, although most safes have undergone testing by Underwriters Laboratory, the length of time they can withstand fire, water, or other elements can differ greatly.

In fact, the materials used to make the safe, as well as the way it is constructed, play an enormous role in whether or not it is likely to protect against theft.

“Although they have locks, fire safes are not constructed to keep burglars out, and safes that protect against burglary have a hole drilled into the floor of the unit that allows the safe to be bolted to the floor of the building, so once the door is closed, it can’t be removed; the materials need to be strong enough to resist drills and other power tools,” Horowitz said. “We see a lot of commercial customers using safes that are not appropriate for their needs. It all goes back to education. There are answers to things people don’t know to ask about and solutions to every security problem.”

In addition, Serv-U also installs and repairs commercial doors. “We carry far more than locks. We also sell door closers, hinges, doors, door viewers, and weather stripping,” Horowitz said, adding that these products are also necessary to ensure security.

The business also serves the public, and the demand for car keys with embedded computer chips is on the rise. “In most cases, we can cut them for less than the car dealers,” Horowitz said. “But since these keys contain anti-theft devices, they typically cost between $25 and $200. And although some people say they don’t want to spend that much, we inform them that, if they lose all of their car keys, we can make new ones, but it will be much more expensive if we have to generate a key from nothing.”

Keys to the Future

Times have changed since Serv-U Hardware first opened its doors. “But our locksmith business has survived for 60 years and will continue to do so; it’s satisfying because we solve problems every day,” Horowitz said, adding that his employees take a proactive stance in continuing their own education as well as educating the public about changes in the industry.

“Our business keeps growing,” he added, “and although I am not sure where the locksmith trade will be in the next 15 years, I can assure you that Serv-U Locksmiths will be there too.”

Growing Clientele

By
Health Care Sections
Pediatricians Adjust to a Changing Landscape

Dr. John O’Reilly

Dr. John O’Reilly says communicating with parents about their concerns is one of the most important parts of his job.


Years ago, pediatricians were authority figures, and new parents reverently followed their instructions. But now, these doctors consider themselves partners with parents.

“Thirty years ago, pediatricians told mothers what to do; today, we give advice, but we also have true conversations. We are the experts in medicine, but parents are the experts on their child,” said Dr. Laura Koenigs, interim chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Baystate Children’s Hospital and a pediatrician who specializes in adolescent medicine. “It’s a change that has been good.”

Dr. John O’Reilly agrees. “Most of what happens to children takes place in the home,” said the general practitioner at Baystate Pediatric Associates and assistant professor at Tufts University. “The environment a child lives in has a profound impact on their health, and there are many areas to deal with in addition to medical care. Pediatrics is not just about giving shots. It’s only a small part of what we do.”

Indeed, the relationships that pediatricians form with families are critical to a child’s health, and Dr. Robert Leavitt says knowledge about a family’s history can help pinpoint concerns that may not be overtly expressed. For example, if a child has a persistent cough and the pediatrician knows their grandparent died of lung cancer that started with a cough, it allows them to alleviate fear that the parents may be harboring. “The more we know, the easier it is to help,” he said, adding that he opened Meadows Pediatrics, L.C. in Longmeadow in 1994 after working for Baystate Medical Center and a practice affiliated with the University of Rochester.

Many pediatricians see patients from birth through age 18, while others care for them until they graduate from college or are in their early 20s. “Young adults don’t always know where they will be living, and it can be difficult for them to find a primary-care doctor,” Koenigs explained.

But whether they are dealing with infants or young adults, education plays a critical role in their work as medical advances in areas such as brain development yield new information about topics ranging from the effects of screen time on children (see related story, page 38) to the ways in which poverty impacts health. In addition, doctors discuss developmental and behavioral issues that can be hard to deal with.

“Parenting is not a natural skill. It’s complex, difficult, and stressful, and different kids have different personalities that can be seen from day one. So we talk to parents about appropriate discipline, routines, and other things they are concerned about,” O’Reilly said. “Sometimes we can put a spin on problems that makes it easier for them to deal with. For example, when we explain that a tantrum is a way of showing independence, it helps parents get through the terrible twos.”

Leavitt says it’s also important to realize that children are not small adults.

“Things can be a big problem for them that would not bother adults. If an adult gets the respiratory syncitial virus, they will usually feel like they have a cold. But if a child under age 2 has the virus, they can develop bronchiolitis and may need to be hospitalized,” he said, explaining how it affects their tiny airways. “But kids are a lot of fun and are pretty healthy. They usually get better if they are sick, while adults tend to have more chronic problems and may have self-inflicted conditions.”

Koenigs concurs, and says children are a joy to work with. “I love what I do. It’s interesting, and it keeps me young. Kids have a wide-open outlook on life that makes you look at the world differently.”

Justifiable Concerns

One problem pediatricians face is educating parents who don’t want their child to be immunized against disease.

“Since we haven’t seen most of the diseases we vaccinate against for a very long time, people forget how horrible they are. They don’t remember tetanus and diphtheria or understand that a child can die from chicken pox or pertussis [whooping cough],” Koenigs said.

“Anyone who has seen these diseases would never want their child to get them, and with the exception of smallpox, they are all on the rise,” she went on, adding that a child with measles was treated at Baystate Medical Center last year, and a number of players in the National Hockey League were recently diagnosed with mumps.

Leavitt agrees. “These diseases are preventable, and parents who refuse the vaccinations are not making decisions based on scientific facts,” he said, citing the now-disgraced British doctor Andrew Wakefield, whose fraudulent study suggesting a link between vaccines and autism has contributed to plummeting vaccination rates.

O’Reilly agrees that immunizations are more important than ever as the world becomes more interconnected.

Dr. Robert Leavitt

Dr. Robert Leavitt says pediatricians deal with issues ranging from irrational vaccine fears to childhood obesity to decisions about antibiotic use.

“A case of measles in Ireland can result in cases in Massachusetts due to travel between the countries, and parents who refuse to get their children immunized are putting others at risk,” he said. “But if they read scary stories on the Internet that are not scientifically based, it becomes difficult to have a conversation, as you are dealing with fear instead of facts.”

Koenigs said liberal state laws in Massachusetts also play a role in the problem. Although children are required to get certain immunizations before they can attend school, if parents sign a form saying they object to them, the requirement is waived.

Another pressing issue called ‘toxic stress’ can range from domestic violence to child abuse or a contentious divorce with ongoing conflict. The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University says prolonged activation of stress-response systems in the body (especially the brain) have damaging effects on learning, behavior, and health across a person’s lifespan, but the effects often don’t show up until adulthood.

“We don’t understand why this happens, but studies show there is a direct correlation between toxic stress in childhood and high blood pressure, strokes, and obesity in adults. It’s also hard on the heart, even if children appear to have adjusted to the situation,” Koenigs said.

O’Reilly cited other, equally important research on the brain. “Some studies show that language develops rapidly during the first year of life, and the more words a child hears during that time period, the better they do in elementary school,” he told BusinessWest. “We do simple things in our practice such as giving every baby a book and explaining to parents that sitting with a child and reading not only helps with language development, but also helps them to focus, improves their fine motor skills as they turn the pages, and helps them with visual tracking and hearing. Many people think that education happens when children get to kindergarten, but parents can do things to build their child’s brains long before that.”

Environmental Factors

Diet is another issue that can certainly impact health, and Koenigs asks parents if they have enough food to last each month, because many don’t. “Nutrition is a problem for a lot of children who are not getting enough food or the right kind of food,” she said.

Play is also critical to development, and doctors are concerned that many children are falling short in this arena. “Children need to burn off energy, and kids are active in their natural state, which helps them to build muscle and focus better in school,” Koenigs said. “But many schools have gotten rid of recess.”

She added that exercise is also important for teens, and activities such as swimming, kayaking, hiking, bicycling, and kickboxing may interest them.

“If a child is very sedentary, it makes it difficult for them to become physically active when they get older. Exercise and eating habits are often established when children are young, and a lot of that depends on the parents,” Leavitt said, acknowledging that socioeconomic factors play into the equation, and some parents don’t live in neighborhoods where it is safe to let their children play outside.

Gun safety is another problem that affects children’s safety. “Seven to eight children in this country die every day from gunshot wounds,” Koenigs said. “You cannot educate children about guns. They need to be locked up because children are naturally curious.”

Overall, the relationship that parents form with their child’s pediatrician plays a critical role in whether they feel free to share concerns about their personal situations. For example, O’Reilly says many mothers suffer from postpartum depression, and it’s important for them to share how they are feeling because it can affect a baby’s development.

“If a baby is cooing and trying to get an adult to engage in an interaction and the parent is depressed, they may not notice or may have an abnormal response,” he said. “It’s also important for people to tell us if they don’t have enough food or money because things that happen in early childhood can lead to chronic disease in adulthood.”

He added that pediatricians can make referrals and help families access help, which ranges from family therapy to community support groups to early-intervention programs for children who are developmentally delayed.

Springfield suffers from a high rate of asthma, and housing in poverty-stricken neighborhoods can be related to the disease, as children can develop reactions to dust mites and become sensitized to antigens produced from exposure to cockroach droppings.

“Baystate has a program that sends home health workers to people’s apartments to help them improve the environment,” O’Reilly said. “Being a pediatrician involves far more than medicine. We have to do many other things. We are educators, but we are also coaches.”

Leavitt says partnerships mean shared responsibility, and doctors take parents’ requests seriously. “We used to routinely treat ear infections with antibiotics. If it’s a toss-up and the parent really wants the antibiotic, we can give it to them unless it is medically inappropriate,” he said, citing just one example. “But if you have developed a good relationship with the parents, they are more likely to agree to a let’s-wait-and-see approach.”

Moving Forward

Trust also comes into play when patients reach their teenage years. As children mature, pediatricians typically talk to them alone to provide them with the freedom they need to ask questions.

“It’s my job to help them navigate their way through adolescence and give them factual advice,” Koenigs said, explaining that, unless it becomes clear that someone is hurting them or they are in danger of hurting themselves or another person, these conversations are kept confidential. “Our job is not to drive a wedge between them and their parents. We are simply another link in their support system.”

Leavitt concurs, and says teens have told him they are depressed. “We see a lot of mental-health issues in teens. There is a lot of peer pressure in middle and high school, and as their social world becomes more complex, it can lead to anxiety or depression.”

Local pediatricians say they enjoy watching their patients mature. “We get excited about helping children get a good start in life and watching them grow through good times and bad,” Koenigs said.

Leavitt agreed. “We get to see how proud their parents are of their accomplishments. Plus, it’s rewarding to see medical problems get resolved or watch a child overcome challenges. It’s also rewarding to watch kids graduate from our practice and return to us with their own kids or go out into the world and do big things,” he said.

But the road to adulthood contains many roadblocks, and parents bring a variety of issues to the examining table.

“Being a doctor is like gardening; we plant seeds to weed out things that will be detrimental and help parents to make good choices,” O’Reilly said. “Sometimes being a pediatrician is pure medicine, and sometimes it’s purely behavioral. But our goal is help families so their children grow into healthy adults.”

Left to Their Own Devices

By
Health Care Sections
Child-development Experts Worry About the Effects of Screen Time

Dr. Jack Fanton

Dr. Jack Fanton says the increasing time kids are spending in front of screens may be coming at the expense of real-world social skills.

Television, computer, and smartphone screens shouldn’t replace human contact, doctors say, but increasingly, they are doing just that. And the results may be surprising to some.

“In our clinical practice, we definitely see an overrepresentation of children who have difficulty with handling limits on screen time, especially when parents aren’t enforcing them,” said Dr. Jack Fanton, medical director of the Child Partial Hospital Program at Baystate Medical Center.

“We see children who have too much screen time, or devices are being brought into their rooms and are at the bedside and interfere with sleep continuity,” he added. “And lots of anecdotal evidence and research suggests this increased screen time is coming at the expense of real-world social skills.”

He cited a study at UCLA, published recently in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, suggesting that sixth-graders who went five days without exposure to technology were significantly better at reading human emotions than kids who had regular access to phones, televisions, and computers.

The researchers studied two groups of California sixth-graders, sending one group to an outdoor education camp, where they had no access to electronic devices, and making no changes to the media diet of the other group.

At the beginning and end of the study period, both groups were shown images of 50 faces and asked to identify the feelings being modeled. The researchers found that the students who went to camp were significantly better at reading facial emotions and non-verbal cues than the students who had access to their devices.

“Even after just five days, there was a measurable decline in their ability to recognize the emotions expressed on the faces, compared to a group of kids without any screen time,” Fanton said.

The study’s senior author conceded that the camp experience itself, fostering personal connections with other people, probably boosted that group’s scores as much as ditching technology, and she would like to expand the study to retest the camp group again, after they went home and spent five days with their smartphones and tablets. But the implication is clear that there is a measurable difference between human interaction and screen time.

And that worries pediatric experts who worry that a generation of kids may be growing up lacking sufficient empathy or emotional maturity.

“We’re acutely aware of how important it is to promote healthy social skills, and that emotional intelligence predicts more favorable outcomes than academic or intellectual intelligence,” Fanton told BusinessWest. “With cultural trends toward decreasing recess, music, and art, and then increasing screen time, neuroscientists worry that children are not exercising the circuits in the brain that are involved in emotional regulation. When kids are not involved in independent play and creative activities, when they’re not responding to social nuances, cues, and direct feedback, they’re not exercising the circuits involved in helping them nurture emotion and self-esteem.”

Healthy Choices

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has long advocated that young people up to age 18 restrict their screen time — including TV viewing, Internet use, video games, tablets, and smartphones — to no more than two hours per day, and that children 2 and under have no screen time at all.

“It’s not that media itself is bad, evil, or a pox on society,” Fanton said. “It’s that it’s coming at the expense of social needs and developmental processes critical to later success.”

The AAP cites studies that connect excessive media use with obesity, lack of sleep, school problems, aggression, and other behavioral issues, although Fanton stressed that any one of these correlations does not prove causation. Still, pediatricians fret over statistics showing that the average 8- to 10-year-old spends nearly eight hours a day with different media, and older children and teens spend more than 11 hours per day — much more than the recommended two hours.

Meanwhile, children and teens who have a TV in their bedroom spend even more time with media, and about 75% of 12- to 17-year-olds own cell phones, with nearly all teenagers adept in text messaging. The key, according to the AAP, is not banning all this activity, but directing it into a considered strategy.

“A healthy approach to children’s media use should both minimize potential health risks and foster appropriate and positive media use. In other words, it should promote a healthy ‘media diet,’” said Dr. Marjorie Hogan, co-author of the AAP policy (see sidebar, page 39). “Parents, educators, and pediatricians should participate in media education, which means teaching children and adolescents how to make good choices in their media consumption.”

Dr. Robert Leavitt, a Longmeadow pediatrician, tells parents that it is not a good idea to put a TV in a child’s bedroom, and advises them to set limits on cell-phone use before they give the child their own device. If they don’t do this initially, he explained, it may become difficult to enforce rules later on, and their teen may become sleep-deprived as they respond to non-stop text messages from peers.

Some parents will no doubt argue that familiarizing their kids with the latest technology is only preparing them for the world they will inhabit as adults, but Fanton said this philosophy ignores more critical needs.

“I would remind parents that kids are not little adults. Kids are still developing, and it’s not automatic they will develop these social skills as adults; they acquire these skills through innumerable hours and exchanges with other people.”

And there are societal consequences to raising a generation of young people who lack the ability to empathize and relate emotionally to their peers — skills that come in handy when dealing with bullying, for example.

“No one’s saying that not spending time with devices will help kids treat each other better,” he told BusinessWest, “but we want to promote a culture of tolerance and respect, where kids spend time with each other, and screen time interferes with that.”

Media and Message

The amount of time spent with screens is one issue, but content is another. Positive media can educate children — not just with hard facts, but in empathy, racial tolerance, and a wide range of interpersonal skills. However, it can also desensitize them to sexuality, violence, and negative attitudes.

Fanton cited a study conducted by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, claiming that less than half the time kids between 2 and 10 spend in front of media is spent on educational programming. “It’s still being used for entertainment.”

Dr. Victor Strasburger, co-author of the AAP policy on screen time, noted that, “for nearly three decades, the AAP has expressed concerns about the amount of time that children and teenagers spend with media, and about some of the content they are viewing. The digital age has only made these issues more pressing.”

Dr. Laura Koenigs, a Springfield pediatrician who specializes in adolescent medicine, notes that violent programs, including cartoons, create their own host of issues. “Children who are exposed to violence experience long-term effects from watching it, even if it is not real,” she said, adding it can lead to aggressive play.

Still, Fanton said, some parents willingly accept a heavy dose of media exposure to the negative influences just outside their door.
 

For children in urban neighborhoods, for example, “the parents figure, ‘they’re not out on the street, getting themselves into trouble, so what’s the harm?’ Parents see these devices as safe. We have lots of families here in Springfield in these urban settings, and they don’t want their children in the neighborhood after school. Yes, it’s tricky.”

On the other hand, social media has been a boon to families who have moved away from their extended social supports, and their devices become proxies for face-to-face interaction. That’s why parents need to set their own limits, Fanton said.

“The truth is, we’re all addicted. It’s not going away. Kids are modeling at a fundamental level what they see us doing,” he said, noting that singling out an obese child and cutting off unhealthy snacks is likely to be counterproductive if the whole family isn’t modeling good nutrition.

“The same is true for screen time,” he said. “On one hand, there has never been more content, more ease of access through all these different platforms. But it’s up to adults to say, ‘we’re modeling this for the kids, too.’ They’re not little adults; they have different developmental needs that parents need to monitor and police and promote.”

In other words, put down that smartphone and engage with your child. It’s never too late to make emotional development a priority.

Take These Steps to Create a Family Plan for Healthy Media Use

While media consumption can contribute to health risks, kids can still take positive lessons from media. The key is to teach children to make healthy choices.
To that end, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends the following tips for creating a family plan for healthy media use.

• Take into account not only the quantity, but the quality and location of media use. Consider TVs, phones, tablets, and computers. The rules should be written down and agreed upon by all family members.

• Screens should be kept out of kids’ bedrooms.  Insitute a ‘media curfew’ at mealtime and bedtime, putting all devices away or plugging them into a charging station for the night.

• Excessive media use has been associated with obesity, lack of sleep, school problems, aggression, and other behavior issues. Limit entertainment screen time to no more than two hours per day.

• For children under 2, substitute unstructured play and human interaction for screen time. The opportunity to think creatively, problem solve, and develop reasoning and motor skills is more valuable for the developing brain than passive media intake.

• Take an active role in your children’s media education by co-viewing programs with them and discussing values.

• Look for media choices that are educational or teach good values, such as empathy and racial tolerance. Choose programming that models good interpersonal skills for children to emulate.

• Be firm about not viewing content that is not age-appropriate in terms of sex, drugs, violence, and language. Movie and TV ratings exist for a reason, and online movie reviews can also help parents to stick to their rules.

• The Internet can be a wonderful place for learning, but it also is a place where kids can run into trouble. Keep the computer in a public part of your home, so you can check on what your kids are doing online and how much time they are spending there.

• Discuss with your children that every place they go on the Internet may be ‘remembered,’ and comments they make will stay there indefinitely. Impress upon them that they are leaving behind a ‘digital footprint.’ They should not take actions online that they would not want to be on the record for a very long time.

• Become familiar with popular social-media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You may consider having your own profile on the social-media sites your children use. By ‘friending’ your kids, you can monitor their online presence. Preteens should not have accounts on social-media sites.

• Talk to them about being good ‘digital citizens,’ and discuss the serious consequences of online bullying. If your child is the victim of cyberbullying, it is important to take action with the other parents and the school if appropriate. Attend to children’s and teens’ mental-health needs promptly if they are being bullied online, and consider separating them from social-media platforms where bullying occurs.

• Make sure kids of all ages know that it is not appropriate or smart to send or receive pictures of people without clothing or sexy text messages, no matter whether they are texting friends or strangers.

• If you’re unsure of the quality of the media diet in your household, consult with your children’s pediatrician on what your kids are viewing, how much time they are spending with media, and privacy and safety issues associated with social media and Internet use.

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

STCC Offers Free Tax-filing Assistance to Springfield Community

By
Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — Starting Tuesday, Jan. 27, Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) will offer a free income-tax filing-assistance program for low-to-moderate income-tax payers through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program in partnership with Single Stop USA.

Single Stop is a national organization that works with community colleges to help connect students to state and federal financial resources and local community services. The aim is to help students overcome economic barriers, continue with their education, and move toward economic mobility.

The VITA program will assist STCC students and surrounding community residents with preparing and filing their tax returns. Volunteers from the community, including STCC students, are IRS-trained and certified to help filers prepare and submit their returns electronically. Volunteers are members of the Mass. Tax Assistance Coalition and can also prepare taxes for Connecticut and other surrounding states.

“Through VITA, filers will get their refund just as fast as they would if they went to a commercial tax-preparation company,” said Richard Keller, STCC’s VITA site coordinator. “It can often cost as much as $200 to $300 to have an outside company prepare a family’s taxes, but our program is free, so there’s significant savings.”

This is the second year STCC will offer the VITA program. According to Leona Ittleman, dean of the STCC School of Business and Information Technologies, the program served more than 100 filers last year, and she expects the number to increase this year. As a kickoff to the start of tax-preparation season, a ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held on Jan. 27 at 10 a.m. in the VITA office.

“One of the advantages of students having their taxes filed here is that we can screen them for additional financial resources and benefits through our Single Stop program,” said Roosevelt Charles, STCC’s director of access and student success. “They can also make appointments for assistance with their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms.”

Those who would like to take advantage of the program can schedule appointments online at www.stcc.edu/cas/vita or by calling (413) 755-4215. Walk-ins are welcome, though appointments are preferred, especially during peak filing periods. The VITA office will be open Tuesdays through Fridays, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and is located in Building 15, Room 105.

Westfield State Online-education Programs Lauded by U.S. News

By
Daily News

WESTFIELD — Westfield State University led Massachusetts’ state universities and placed in the top 30% out of 214 schools in U.S. News & World Report’s 2015 “Best Online Education Programs” rankings. Westfield State’s official ranking was 58 out of 214 in the category of online-education bachelor’s programs.

“We are committed to finding new ways to expand access to a high-quality college education,” said Elizabeth Preston, president of Westfield State University. “Offering online access to our academic programming allows us to support the needs of students who might not otherwise be able to take advantage of the educational opportunities we offer.”

Westfield State has offered online classes since 2002 and currently offers six online bachelor’s-degree-completion programs, in business management, criminal justice, liberal studies, history, sociology, and psychology. Evolving the program has been key to its success and expansion.

Last year, Westfield State signed the MassTransfer Plus agreement that allows students who have completed an online associate’s degree at Holyoke Community College (HCC) to transfer to the university’s online bachelor’s-degree program, making it possible for them to complete a four-year degree fully online. The MassTransfer Plus agreement builds on the growing number of fully online degree programs available at HCC and Westfield State, as well as the institutions’ determination to make it easier for Massachusetts residents to obtain an education and move into higher-paying, in-demand career fields.

When determining scores, U.S. News chose factors that weigh how online programs are being delivered and their effectiveness at awarding affordable degrees in a reasonable amount of time. Rankings were determined by four different criteria: student engagement (40%), faculty credentials and training (20%), peer reputation (20%), and student services and technology (20%).

Conca Brings Elite Baseball Development Program to Palmer / Wilbraham Area

By
Daily News

WEST SPRINGFIELD — The Elite Baseball Development Program that helped develop Arizona Diamondback’s Nick Ahmed into the powerful shortstop he is today is coming to Palmer on Jan. 5. Conca Sport & Fitness, LLC (CSF) will be bringing its Conca Sports Performance division to AP Player Development in Palmer, located at 1 Chamber Road. Conca Sports Performance is the highly specialized athlete development division of Conca Sport & Fitness, LLC which offers sport-specific strength and conditioning. One such program, the Elite Baseball Development Program, has been offered at its West Springfield facility since 2009, training high school, collegiate and professional athletes. Athletes in Palmer and surrounding areas will have the same opportunity. With the dynamic collaboration between CSF and AP Player Development, athletes will now have the opportunity to train on and off the field, using AP’s outdoor and indoor resources. “Steve Conca has designed an Elite Baseball Development program that addresses the needs of players at all levels,” said Peter Fatse, owner and director of AP Player Development, LLC. “We’re pleased to have him bring Conca Sports Performance to our facility and provide the expert strength and conditioning for the talent we are developing.” The Elite Baseball Development Program includes individual assessments and program design, supervised strength and conditioning, and nutrition education. Pitchers and hitters are assessed using cutting-edge ZenoLinkTM 3D technology to create an accurate performance profile that serves as the basis for their training programs. These programs are tailored to the players’ specific needs, including strengths, deficiencies, and injury history. “What happens in the off-season is just as important, if not more so, than what happens during the season with regards to strength and conditioning,” said Steve Conca, MS, CSCS owner of Conca Sport and Fitness, LLC. “The proper program design can make all the difference on the field, and our Elite Baseball Development Program identifies the individual needs of the players to ensure they perform their best while reducing the chances of an overuse injury to the shoulder and or elbow.”

Construction Employment Increased in 224 out of 339 Metro Areas Over the Past Year

By
Daily News

Construction employment expanded in 224 metro areas, declined in 64 and was stagnant in 51 between November 2013 and November 2014, according to a new analysis of federal employment data released today by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials said contractors in many parts of the country were benefitting from growing demand, yet labor shortages threaten to undermine the sector’s recovery. “It is good news that construction employment is now rising in two-thirds of the nation’s metro areas,” said Ken Simonson, chief economist for the association. “But now that the unemployment rate for construction workers has fallen to a seven-year low, it has become a major challenge to find qualified workers in many fields.” Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas added the largest number of construction jobs in the past year (16,200 jobs, 9%), followed by Dallas-Plano-Irving, Texas (11,000 jobs, 10 %), Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, Ill. (9,100 jobs, 7%) and Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Wash. (8,900 jobs, 12%). The largest percentage gains occurred in Pascagoula, Miss. (24%, 1,500 jobs), Fargo, N.D. (19%, 1,600 jobs), Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, Fla. (18, 700 jobs) and York-Hanover, Pa. (18%, 1,700 jobs). The largest job losses from November 2013 to November 2014 were in Bethesda-Rockville-Frederick, Md. (-3,600 jobs, -11%), followed by Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, Ariz. (-3,000 jobs, -3%), Edison-New Brunswick N.J. (-2,700 jobs, -6%), Gary, Ind. (-2,500 jobs, -14%) and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla. (-2,500 jobs, -4%). The largest percentage decline for the past year was in Steubenville-Weirton, Ohio-W.Va. (-39%, -900 jobs), followed by Cheyenne, Wyo. (-17%, -600 jobs), Fond du Lac, Wis. (-15%, -400 jobs) and Gary, Ind. Association officials noted that most contractors report they are having a hard time finding qualified workers to fill key positions as demand rebounds. They cautioned that if labor conditions get even tighter, contractors will have to pass on new projects, and possibly delay existing ones, because of a lack of workers. Indeed, 25% of contractors reported over the summer they were already declining to bid on certain projects because of the lack of available workers. “It is time to start rebuilding the once robust career and technical education programs that used to exist in most school districts around the country,” said Stephen E. Sandherr, the association’s chief executive officer. “Without a solid network for preparing future workers, we are likely to spend much of 2015 talking about how the construction industry is failing to keep up with demand.”

Young Gun

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Cover Story Law Sections
New D.A. Anthony Gulluni Makes His Case

COVER1214cAnthony Gulluni says he was in Boston recently for a meeting of the state’s district attorneys and district attorneys-elect — he’s in that latter category, having won the position in Hampden County in September.

And he noted that he was subjected to more than a few not-unexpected cracks about his age.

“Someone said I brought down the median age by 20 years, or something like that — there were quite a few jokes,” said Gulluni, who turned 34 in October, looks even younger, and is believed to be one of the youngest district attorneys — if not the youngest — in the state’s history.

While he takes the ribbing in stride, he makes it clear that he intends to have people talking about something other than his age — and soon.

Indeed, Gulluni, who will be sworn in early next month and has been hard at work on transition matters for several weeks now, has some ambitious plans for his office. Specifically, and repeatedly, he talked about fighting crime not only in the courtroom, where he intends to be much of the time, but outside it as well.

“We have a fundamental obligation to work with police departments and prosecute cases in the courtroom and keep people safe,” he explained. “But it’s a two-phase approach; there’s prevention, education, and addressing core issues such as mental health and substance abuse. But there’s also performing that fundamental function of the D.A.’s office — promoting public safety by prosecuting cases.”

Elaborating, he stressed that the D.A.’s mission to serve the public means working to assist not only the victims of crimes, but, when possible and when appropriate, those committing them as well.

“I see this as a position in which I’m serving the public; I’m serving the people of Hampden County and promoting public safety and ensuring criminal justice,” he explained. “There’s a great responsibility with that criminal-justice part, where serving people means serving the defendants that come into that courthouse.

“It’s very often overlooked that we have such impact on those people’s lives — and very often they’re repairable lives,” he went on. “All but a very, very small percentage of these defendants are people we’re not looking to save in some way or improve. And this goes into the job of being a district attorney and being a prosecutor, especially at those lower levels in Juvenile Court and District Court, where the focus should be, and often is, on rehabilitation.”

Gulluni told BusinessWest that he has a number of priorities for the months and years to come. They include everything from lobbying the state’s elected leaders for funding he said would be commensurate with the size of the county’s courts and their volume levels (more on that later) to creation of a new position, one dedicated to what amounts to public relations and telling the mostly unknown story of what the D.A.’s office does within, and for, the community.

And he will place heavy emphasis on stemming the tide of gun violence in the county and especially its two largest communities, Springfield and Holyoke.

“I’ve handled a lot of gun cases, and I think it’s the scourge of urban America,” he said. “Very literally, guns are necessary components in the street violence and many of our murders. An emphasis has been placed on prosecution of defendants with illegal guns, and this emphasis will continue. It’s a major problem, especially in Springfield, and there’s a trio that often travels together — guns, drugs, and gangs — and this is manifesting itself in the deaths of a lot of young people and the destruction of countless lives.”

For this issue and its focus on law, BusinessWest talked at length with Gulluni about his new position, the philosophy he brings to it, and his goals for his office and the diverse county it serves.

Law and Order

When asked why he joined the D.A.’s office and later chose to try and lead it, Gulluni started by talking about his father, Frank, and the legacy he left in public service.

“My father worked very hard for many, many years to help people, essentially, and was a public servant in the truest sense of the word,” he explained, noting that his father founded and then managed the Mass. Career Development Institute (MCDI) for roughly a quarter-century, until the late ’90s. “That record of service certainly influenced me. He helped thousands and thousands of people; I really learned a lot from that, and this passion for public service was ingrained upon me as a young person watching him help so many people.”

Anthony Gulluni

Anthony Gulluni says he intends to fight crime both in the courtroom and in the community.

That fondness for public service is reflected in his career path following graduation from Western New England University School of Law. After first serving as a law clerk in the Springfield Law Department and then as an assistant city solicitor, he joined then-District Attorney Bill Bennett’s team as an assistant D.A. in June 2009.

He said that both Bennett and his successor, Mark Mastroianni, served not only as mentors, but, like his father, as individuals who embodied the importance of public service.

“I had great mentors in that particular job,” he told BusinessWest. “But once I started in that office, I realized a love for the job because of the work, particularly the trial work, but moreso the public-service side of it and the impact that we as prosecutors have on individuals, particularly the individuals who come into the courthouse and those whose cases we prosecute, and those victims who are involved in the cases we prosecute.

“And because I live in the county and especially a place like Springfield, I also realize the impact that the office has collectively, and that we have individually as prosecutors, on the communities we serve in Hampden County,” he continued. “That was a source of great pride; I had opportunities to leave, and thought about it, but ultimately I stayed because I loved what I was doing.”

Soon after Mastroianni was appointed to a federal judgeship, Gulluni announced he would seek to succeed him as the region’s top prosecutor. He said his triumph over three opponents in the Democratic primary in September (there were no Republican candidates) was verification that he made the right career decision.

“If I lost, I think that would have shown that I was wrong in seeking the office at this time,” he said. “To win by a resounding margin in a four-person race really answered the question of whether I chose right, whether my sense was right, and whether my reasons were right.

“The way in which I ran my campaign was a manifestation of my reasons for running,” he went on. “And that was to show people that I care about the community. I’m a lifelong Forest Park resident, and I’ve been in the county my whole life, I was educated in this county, and I have a familial background in public service.”

As an assistant under Bennett and Mastroianni, Gulluni said he gained invaluable experience in the courtroom — which was another motivation for making that career transition — but also developed an appreciation for the many kinds of rewards that come from assisting the victims of crimes.

“Those are the cases I remember, the ones where someone was victimized and who was looking to me, the prosecutor, to bring some sense of satisfaction, maybe, or some sense of wholeness or repair for what happened to them,” he noted, adding that this category of crime includes everything from gun offenses to many OUI cases, to instances of breaking and entering. “That’s a solemn responsibility I always took very seriously. But in some cases, you let people down or you could never really satisfy them, which is understandable.

“However I could help that person in the healing process was always of great satisfaction to me,” he went on. “Sometimes you do let people down — maybe they’re unsatisfied with the sentence, or the case could not go forward — and that’s an inevitable part of the system, but I always worked as hard as I could to make people happy and give them a sense of closure.”

Bullet Points

Looking ahead, while also surveying the county and assessing the issues confronting it, Gulluni expects his office and its staff of 160, including 65 lawyers, will be busy not only assisting victims and providing that sense of closure, but also working to limit and perhaps reduce their numbers.

And, as he stated earlier, a critical piece of this assignment is work to rehabilitate, or save, the defendants in such cases.

“My focus is going to be especially on people who are suffering from mental and substance-abuse issues,” he told BusinessWest. “We need to address those core issues and give these people a hand. Very often there’s some punishment that goes with that, and this goes with the territory, but we’re looking to help some of those people we can help and who have issues — with crime being an outgrowth of those core issues.

“And if we can address those core issues, we’re acting in that humanitarian way by trying to help those people,” he continued. “But we’re also being fiscally prudent as well, understanding that the initial investment in these people hopefully will prevent future expenditures in terms of prosecution, probation, and incarceration if things were to continue in that way.”

As an example, he cited the national, and regional, problem of opiate addiction. The numbers of those who become addicted to painkillers and potent drugs such as heroin are rising at alarming rates, and with this surge comes criminal activity on many levels as individuals struggle to feed their addiction.

“We have to fight this inside the courtroom and outside it,” said Gulluni. “It comes to us as a criminal-justice issue, but it’s really a health issue. These people dealing with mental-health and substance-abuse issues are coming to us with the outgrowth of their problem — the commission of a crime — but that underlying issue is a health issue. Whether we’re equipped to our not, we have to deal with this issue and make a difference through whatever means we have. It’s going to be my obligation to better prepare and treat those issues through cooperative arrangements with nonprofits and outside agencies, but also with the trial court and the probation department.”

To this end, a so-called Veterans Court is being established through a pilot program to deal with individuals suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other issues, he said, and, likewise, a drug court is being considered to identify and handle cases where there are no real victims of the crimes in question, other than those suffering from addiction, and such individuals do not have a significant criminal history.

Such facilities, similar to a mental-health court already in existence, would enable prosecutors to take such cases out of the mainstream criminal-justice system and deal with them in a specialized way, Gulluni went on, adding that a drug court has been discussed for some time now, and he intends to make it a priority of his administration.

There are other priorities, as well, and Gulluni and has transition team have been addressing them since the end of what the D.A.-elect called a “time to rehabilitate” and then a “thank-you tour” that followed the election.

One of the first matters to be considered is personnel, said Gulluni, adding that the process of assembling his team is ongoing and will continue for some time.

Meanwhile, another priority is forging relationships with elected officials, with the goal of communicating the need for more funding and, hopefully, seeing that need addressed.

“We’re going to work hard to bring in as much money as we can,” he noted. “For fiscal year 2013, we were the fifth of the 11 districts in the Commonwealth in terms of funding, and our Superior Court during that time period disposed of the most cases of any district. Our District Court is among the busiest in the state; the volume is there, but the funding is not commensurate with the work that we’re doing.”

While funding is indeed tight, he will strive to find room in his budget for a professional to work with the media to better tell the story of what the D.A.’s office does, how, and why.

“We haven’t had such a person in a long time, and we need one,” he explained. “It’s a positive thing for us and a positive thing for transparency, most importantly. We’re accessible — this is essentially the people’s office, and we’re prosecuting on behalf of the people of Hampden County, and I’m beholden to them, so being able to communicate readily with members of the press is very important.

“Whether you’re in business or in the public sector, you want to get your message out,” he went on. “You want to show people what you’re doing and show them that what you’re doing is positive and impactful. It’s not just putting a face on the office — it’s preventing crime.”

Beyond greater exposure, Gulluni wants the D.A.’s office to be more visible and more active in the community, especially when it comes to young people and keeping them from taking the wrong path.

“We need to get in front of young people and send a message that there are things they have to avoid, especially in the urban atmosphere,” he said. “If we can get to some kids before they fall into that trap of crime, street violence, gangs, guns, and drugs, we might be able to keep them from getting into trouble.”

Bottom Line

When asked if he thought he’d be in the D.A.’s office long enough to be on the other end of jokes about 30-something prosecutors, Gulluni laughed before explaining that he’s focused now on the weeks and months ahead, not a few decades down the road.

He said he expects to serve in this office for at least two four-year terms, and hinted that his stay might be considerably longer.

At the moment, his only commitment is to the people of Hampden County and his pledge to fight crime inside the courtroom and out.

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

Briefcase

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Briefcase Departments

UMass President Robert Caret to Step Down
AMHERST — University of Massachusetts president Robert Caret has announced he will leave his job after four years to become the next chancellor of the University of Maryland system. Caret, who became president of the five-campus UMass system in July 2011, begins his new position in July. Before coming to Massachusetts, he had spent much of his career at Towson University, near Baltimore, where he worked as a faculty member, dean, executive vice president, president, and provost. “I could not say no to an offer to return to my home state, where I will be closer to my family,” Caret wrote in a statement. He will succeed chancellor William “Brit” Kirwan, who has led the 12-institution Maryland system for the past 12 years. In a statement, Kirwan praised his successor, saying, “I’ve known Bob Caret for several years. He has had significant positive impact on each institution he has led. The University System of Maryland and the state will benefit greatly from his leadership in the years ahead.” Caret, who will be formally introduced to the University of Maryland community at a news conference Friday, will earn $600,000 a year, and his contract will run for five years. At UMass, he was paid about $500,000 a year. He will be taking over a much larger system, with 162,000 students and an operating budget of $4.9 billion. UMass has half as many students and a budget of $2.9 billion.

MassBenchmarks Report Optimistic About Area’s Economic Prospects
HADLEY — The state’s workforce and job seekers have reason for optimism, according to the economists behind MassBenchmarks, a study of the state’s economy prepared by the UMass Donahue Institute. “State gross product growth has kept pace with strong national growth for the past two quarters,” according to the report. “State job growth has been steady, with software, information technology, and staffing-services sectors doing well. The Commonwealth’s labor force has grown consistently since June, as workers who were previously discouraged re-enter the labor market. And strikingly, Massachusetts has the fastest-growing population not only in New England, but in all of the Northeastern U.S. This is in large part due to international immigration and a lower level of domestic net outmigration than has been experienced in recent recoveries.” The state also appears to be benefiting from a national economic expansion that is gaining traction. The national jobs report for October was strong, with more than 300,000 jobs added, an increase in the average workweek, modestly rising wages, and upward revisions in job growth for August and September. Falling oil and gas prices are putting more money in the pockets of consumers and lowering business costs. Still, challenges remain, the report notes. “Electricity prices in Massachusetts are expected to rise steeply this winter largely as a result of the New England region’s ongoing difficulties in accessing a sufficient supply of natural gas to power its electricity generators. Rising electricity prices can be expected to partially offset the beneficial effects of the drop in oil prices and will create significant financial challenges for energy-intensive industrial users. Federal-government expenditures, long an important funding source for a variety of private-sector contractors and nonprofit research institutions (universities and hospitals), will continue to be squeezed. And, absent action on the part of the incoming governor and Legislature, state infrastructure spending will be significantly constrained in coming years now that state voters have determined that the gas tax will not be indexed to inflation.” In addition, housing production, especially single-family units, remains well below pre-Great Recession levels. “Despite these challenges,” the report goes on, “the Massachusetts economy continues to experience solid economic growth, particularly in the Greater Boston region, and the prospects for continued growth remain strong. After a weak first quarter of the year, the Massachusetts economy has rebounded strongly. While there continue to be serious concerns about the geographically and financially imbalanced nature of this recovery, the MassBenchmarks editorial board is as optimistic as it has been in some time and expects the state’s economic expansion to continue for the foreseeable future.”

Valley Gives Day Brings In More than $2.67 Million
SPRINGFIELD — Western Mass.-based nonprofits sent out the call, and their supporters gave — and gave and gave. In 24 hours, 14,189 donors made 28,824 gifts for a grand total of $2,676,595 at the third annual Valley Gives Day. In addition, a prize pool of $225,000 was distributed among several nonprofits. Organizations in three budget categories competed for bonus grants presented to the top three slots for ‘most unique donors.’ First prize was $5,000, second was $4,000, and third was $3,000. In keeping with a In addition, nonprofits in 12th place in each category were awarded a $1,200 bonus grant. In the category of large nonprofits, the winners were New England Public Radio (839 unique donors), Dakin Humane Society (739 donors), and the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts (696 donors). Among medium-sized nonprofits, the winners were New Spirit Inc. (641 donors), Whole Children (632 donors), and Pioneer Valley Symphony (384 donors). Among small nonprofits, the winners were Friends of the Hilltown Cooperative Charter School Inc. (437 donors), Grow Food Northampton (342 donors), and the Jackson Street School PTO Inc. (299 donors). Other awards were given in the category of money raised by first-time participants, with first place going to the Jackson Street School PTO Inc. with $24,356. Also, hourly beginning at 9 a.m., a randomly selected donation to a participating nonprofit had a $1,000 golden ticket added to the total. Throughout the day, there were five bonus power hours (10 a.m., noon, 4 p.m., 6 p.m., and 9 p.m.) when a total of $22,000 golden tickets were added to randomly selected donations. The full list of nonprofits and their totals raised is available at www.valleygivesday.org. 

Leadership Pioneer Valley Launches Leadership 2.0
SPRINGFIELD — Leadership Pioneer Valley (LPV) is offering offering a new series of bite-sized training sessions beginning in January to enhance leadership skills and understanding of the region. The sessions are open to LPV alumni and other emerging and established leaders. LPV recognizes that leadership is a lifelong process, and the Leadership 2.0 series features six two- to three-hour training sessions on a variety of topics with the goal of deepening leadership skills, creating new and diverse connections, and making an impact on the region. The sessions are open to LPV alumni who want to continue their learning or others who are unable to be part of LPV’s 10-month program. The intent is to diversify Leadership Pioneer Valley’s offerings and create new opportunities. Workshop topics include “Effective Communications,” “Becoming a Superhero Board Member,” and a field experience to explore the Agawam area. The series sponsors include Sisters of Providence Health System/Mercy Hospital, Appleton Corp., the Beveridge Family Foundation, and the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts.

Springfield Chamber Opposes Recommended Tax Rates in City
SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield Chamber of Commerce, an affiliate of the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield, announced that it has reviewed the city of Springfield’s proposal for property taxes for fiscal year 2015 and has issued a position paper opposing the rates recommended. “The Springfield Chamber, on behalf of its more than 500 members, has consistently advocated for a reduction in the heavy tax burden that has been shifted from the residential community onto the backs of the business community,” said chamber President Jeffrey Ciuffreda. “While the recommended tax rates being proposed by Mayor [Domenic] Sarno reduces both classes of rates, his proposal actually increases the burden again onto the business community, and that is something the chamber cannot accept.” The chamber has a stated, long-term goal of reducing the heavy burden of taxes that has been shifted onto the business community, especially over the past 10 years, to a level that is more reasonable and one that has been used in past years, it said in its position paper. “In 2004, the business classification of properties paid 12.93% more in property taxes than its percentage of overall value. The chamber refers to this increased business-tax burden as the ‘gap.’ Businesses made up 26.86% of all property values in Springfield, yet paid 39.79% of all the property taxes, and used less municipal services. The gap provides for the business community to pay additional taxes so that the residential tax rate can remain lower. Since 2004, the chamber has consistently advocated for a reduction in the gap. Despite these efforts, that gap has seen a steady increase, to its current level of 15.37%.” Ciuffreda said that, while the chamber firmly believes that reducing this burden will spur economic growth, it recognizes the current economic fragility of the city and, for fiscal year 2015, is simply recommending a freeze in the extra level of taxes borne by the business sector. The chamber recommends that the difference between what the business community pays and the percent of value it comprises overall remain at the current level of 15.37%. Under the chamber’s recommendation, all classes of property taxes would be reduced (to $19.68 for residents and $38.72 for businesses), but, more importantly, the gap between the business tax rate and the residential tax rate would remain level. Under the mayor’s proposal, the tax rates would be reduced, but the business sector would pay an even higher rate of taxes, increasing the gap to 15.57%, again shifting more of an already burdensome tax level onto the business community, the chamber argues.

Red Cross Seeks Nominations for Hometown Heroes
SPRINGFIELD — Each year, the American Red Cross of Western Massachusetts hosts the Hometown Heroes Breakfast to honor local individuals and groups that have shown courage, kindness, and unselfish character when a friend, family member, or stranger faced a life-threatening situation, or who have had an extraordinary impact on his or her community. Next year’s breakfast will take place on Thursday, March 19 from 7:30 to 9 a.m. at the MassMutual Center in Springfield. Members of the community are invited to nominate local heroes for consideration by sharing their story. Honorees will be selected by a committee of individuals from the community, including former Hometown Heroes. Submissions for nominations are welcome from throughout Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties. Nomination forms and criteria are available on the chapter website at www.redcross.org/news/event/ma/springfield. Nominations must be submitted online or postmarked no later than Dec. 31. This year’s event is being sponsored by Columbia Gas of Massachusetts, Channel 22 News, the MassMutual Center, and OMG Inc. Additional sponsorship opportunities are still available for this event. Hometown Heroes is the chapter’s largest annual fund-raising event and supports the ability to provide the resources necessary to serve its communities. The American Red Cross of Western Massachusetts serves Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties, assisting families affected by disaster, helping military families relay emergency communications to their deployed loved ones, and providing life-saving training programs. For further information, contact Gina Czerwinski at (413) 233-1035 or [email protected].

State Issues $12.2M to Reduce Healthcare Costs
LOWELL — Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Rachel Kaprielian awarded more than $12.2 million in the latest round of grants to help train healthcare providers to improve patient service and reduce healthcare costs. The funding goes to 53 organizations across the state as part of the Patrick administration’s effort to encourage economic growth by supporting innovation in the Commonwealth’s healthcare industry. “These grants will help ensure healthcare providers succeed in implementing new models of service delivery and adapt to new payment structures,” said Kaprielian. “By providing resources to develop new and innovative training and education programs, Massachusetts will continue to solidify its place as a leader in healthcare modernization and advances.” In 2012, Gov. Deval Patrick signed a law making Massachusetts the first state in the country to enact healthcare quality-improvement and cost-containment legislation. The act allocated $20 million to prepare the healthcare industry for the new demands and innovations called for in the legislation. Patrick announced the first round of grants in March, allowing businesses to assess their workforce and determine what skills and training they will need to change operations and deliver more efficient healthcare. For many of this week’s grantees, the training activity ahead builds on that planning work. All the grantees have identified a set of operational changes that are driving their need for increased workforce skills. The training activity will support new models for coordinating care across professions, institutions, and settings; focus on patient-centered care, stronger patient engagement, and health education to promote health and wellness; and spur the integration of primary care and behavioral health. In Western Mass., grants were awarded to Berkshire Health System ($249,286), Community Health Programs ($148,349), Baystate Medical Center ($249,682), Gandara Center ($250,000); Springfield Technical Community College ($156,338); and Carson Center for Human Services ($249,996).

Park with Ease Program Continues in Springfield
SPRINGFIELD — As the temperatures continue to drop, the Springfield Business Improvement District (SBID) plans to continue its Park with Ease valet program through the winter. “We are thrilled the community has responded so positively to our valet program,” said Chris Russell, executive director of SBID. “After many conversations with stakeholders downtown, including building owners, business owners, and community members, we kept hearing the same comment about parking issues, so we have addressed the concern.” Two valet stations are set up each Thursday, Friday, and Saturday along Main Street; simply look for the signs and valet kiosk. The first is at Court Square across from the MassMutual Center, and the other at the corner of Worthington and Main streets. Car acceptance runs from 5 to 9 p.m., with retrieval continuing until midnight. The SBID is underwriting the service, lowering the customer’s cost to just $5. For more information, visit www.springfielddowntown.com/parkwithease.

Company Notebook

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Company Notebook Departments

Easthampton Savings Bank to Acquire Citizens National Bank
EASTHAMPTON — Easthampton Savings Bank, the wholly-owned subsidiary of ESB Bancorp Inc., announced that ESB Bancorp has signed a definitive merger agreement with Citizens National Bancorp Inc., under which ESB Bancorp will acquire Citizens National Bancorp in a transaction valued at approximately $51.3 million. Citizens National Bancorp is the holding company for the Citizens National Bank, a $333 million bank located in Putnam, Conn. Following completion of the merger of ESB Bancorp and Citizens National Bancorp, the Citizens National Bank will merge with and into Easthampton Savings Bank. The transaction will expand Easthampton Savings Bank’s market presence into the Northeast Conn. and Central Mass. markets. Following completion of the transaction, ESB Bancorp will have consolidated assets of more than $1.3 billion and a branch network of 15 full-service offices. The transaction is expected to be accretive to ESB Bancorp’s earnings in the first year of combined operations. Easthampton Savings Bank will continue to be well-capitalized under applicable regulatory requirements following completion of the transaction. Matthew Sosik, president and CEO of Easthampton Savings Bank, stated, “we are very pleased to announce our acquisition of Citizens National Bank and to welcome the Citizens employees and customers into the ESB family. We are very familiar with Citizen’s market area, and we are excited to grow through an expansion into the Northeast Connecticut and Central Massachusetts markets. Given Citizens’ excellent reputation and franchise value in their market area, we expect to operate Citizens’ five branches under the Citizens trade name after the transaction is completed. That structure will allow us to remain acutely attentive to our existing customers and communities in the Pioneer Valley, while allowing us to expand and further develop Citizens’ market share.” Added David Conrad, president and CEO of the Citizens National Bank, “we believe this truly excellent opportunity to join ESB, a top-performing mutual bank, will serve our customers, employees, and communities very well.” The merger is subject to certain conditions, including the approval of the holders of at least a majority of the shares of Citizens National Bancorp and receipt of customary regulatory approvals. The merger is expected to be completed early in the third quarter of 2015.

Elms College Garners $27,000 Grant to Expand Mobile Healthcare
CHICOPEE — The Elms College School of Nursing’s caRe vaN has received a one-year, $27,000 grant from the Raskob Foundation of Wilmington, Del. to expand its mobile healthcare project, which offers free nursing services to the homeless and underserved of Chicopee. The caRe vaN is a mobile clinic run by Br. Michael Duffy, assistant clinical professor, coordinator of the Accelerated Second Degree in Nursing Program, and conventual Franciscan friar. He and nursing students provide free healthcare services, including blood-pressure checks and monitoring, blood-sugar checks, foot care, episodic first aid, minor wound care, and patient education. Since 2013, the van has set up shop on Sundays in the former CVS parking lot of the Exchange Street plaza and on Tuesdays at Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen and Pantry. With this grant, “we’ll be able to expand mobile healthcare to the homeless. It also provides ongoing maintenance of our 1988 vintage van, which has a leaky roof and leaky window seals,” Duffy said. “We could bring on board a psychiatric nurse practitioner a couple hours a week. We also could bring on a driver, which could let us expand to a third day a week on the street.” He also plans to use grant funds for monthly visits from a podiatrist and a barber, and even for monthly laundry vouchers for the van’s clients — all of which are services greatly needed by local homeless people. “Everyone who gets their blood pressure and blood sugar checked would get $5 toward laundry,” he said. Without the grant, expanded services would have had to wait, Duffy said. “We wouldn’t be able to contemplate having a psychiatric RN on board. We’d have to be begging elsewhere for funding to fix our particularly leaky windshield — the rubber is shot.” The caRe vaN helps Elms students prepare for their future nursing careers, he added. “Long-range, healthcare is somewhat headed out of the typical hospital-based model we saw years ago. It’s much more clinic-based and accessible.” Students with experience in this kind of setting will be more marketable upon graduation, too. “It’s real hands-on work,” he said. “They’re working with folks in the community where they are. And it makes them think on their feet. The homeless are with us for a short period; it’s a transient culture, so they’re there for five to 10 minutes. How much can we get done? Can we encourage them to stay longer than just blood pressure and blood sugar?” Working in the van also helps students live the Elms College mission of empowering students to effect positive changes in the community and in the world, Duffy said, adding it “teaches them creative ways to respond to the demands of their chosen profession — nursing — and allows them advocate for people in need. They go hand in hand, no doubt about it.”

Berkshire Bank Earns Community Impact Award
ALBANY, N.Y. — Berkshire Bank was recently honored by the Stakeholders Foundation in Albany, N.Y. with the 2014 Capital Region Community Impact Award. The foundation’s annual awards honor exemplary companies for their philanthropic and volunteer work in the Capital Region. Berkshire Bank received the Corporate Volunteer of the Year award recognizing its X-TEAM employee-volunteer program. The awards were presented in a ceremony at Proctors Theatre in Schenectady, N.Y. on Nov. 12. The Corporate Volunteer of the Year award was presented to Berkshire for its exemplary volunteer strategy that effectively integrated volunteerism into the company’s business culture, had a sizeable impact on the community, and served as an inspiration to others. Nearly 100% of bank employees in the Capital Region have participated in one of Berkshire’s company-supported projects over the last two years. With projects including fund-raising efforts for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Light the Night Walk, building homes with Habitat for Humanity, and work with the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York, Capital Region employees completed more than two dozen volunteer service projects in 2014, impacting thousands of lives and dozens of communities. Berkshire Bank’s X-TEAM provides all employees with paid time off to volunteer at company-supported projects. Bank employees help identify, select, plan, and execute all of the company’s volunteer work. This approach allows the bank to engage staff and choose volunteer opportunities that are important to local stakeholders. The program is also another way for Berkshire to give back to the community in addition to financial contributions of more than $2 million annually through its charitable foundations and corporate support.

WSU Names Presidential Search Committee
WESTFIELD — The Westfield State University board of trustees formally approved a motion at its Dec. 15 meeting naming campus and community leaders to serve as members of WSU’s presidential search advisory committee. The committee will be led by trustees Steven Marcus and Terrell Hill, who were appointed to serve as the chair and vice-chair, respectively, at the April board meeting. “The professionals selected for the presidential search committee offer a diversity of backgrounds, opinions, and experiences that will be essential when developing criteria, evaluating credentials, and identifying candidates for the university’s next president,” Marcus said. Committee members include Katheryn Bradford, director, Alumni Relations (APA); Junior Delgado, director, Career Services (APA); Evelyn Dina, SGA member, student representative; Joshua Frank, student trustee; Margot Hennessy, chair, Ethnic and Gender Studies, MSCA chapter president; Terrell Hill, trustee; Robin Jensen, chair, Foundation Board; Ron’na Lytle, administrative assistant, Ethnic and Gender Studies (AFSCME); Steven Marcus, trustee; Luis Perez, trustee; Carlton Pickron, vice president, Student Affairs (NUP); Henry Thomas, BHE representative; and Edward Welsh, associate professor, Mathematics (MSCA). The Presidential Search Committee members are responsible for selecting the university’s 20th president. The committee’s first task will be the selection of an executive search firm to assist in the process. A request for proposals (RFP) was posted nationally this fall, and four firms have responded. Marcus plans to convene the search committee in early January to review the four proposals and to select a finalist for presentation to the board at its next meeting on Feb. 5. As the search gets underway, a website will be established to to serve as the official resource for information and updates on the process.

G.M. Morisi Insurance Relocates to Longmeadow
LONGMEADOW — The G.W. Morisi Insurance Agency has moved to a new address after being in Springfield for 65 years. The current address is 175 Dwight Road, Suite 309, in Longmeadow. G.W. Morisi Insurance Agency is a full-service insurance agency that has been family-run for more than 65 years. It is a third-generation family business with extensive experience in a full range of personal lines and business insurance.
 
Q Smokin’ Good Food Opens in Springfield
SPRINGFIELD — It’s been said there’s no place like home for the holidays, which was a challenge for Craig and Chris Spagnoli, co-owners of the new Q Smokin’ Good Food in Springfield. Craig and his son, Chris, recently opened the restaurant, with a menu influenced by Chris’ wife, Sarah Anne, who is originally from South Carolina. Together, they saw an opportunity to fuse southern-style barbecue with local flavor in their restaurant on State Street. “Mason Square and the surrounding community is a really vibrant, diverse area,” said Chris Spagnoli. “There are college students and professors, businesses, public schools, and a well-established community, so we want to see the local flavor start to reflect that diversity.” The menu includes authentic, southern-style barbecue made daily from old family recipes that are complimented by local, artisan craft beers, not to mention fan favorites for the kids, including the ‘little piggy’ pulled-pork sandwich and macaroni and cheese. “The holiday season is a great time to get together and enjoy a family meal,” said Sarah Anne Spagnoli. “At Q Smokin’ Good Food, we have great gifts ready just in time for the holidays. From gift certificates to catering for your holiday events, we can do it all.” Gift cards are 20% off during the holidays. Q Smokin’ Good Food is available as take-out and delivery as well as dine-in. The restaurant regularly features vintage Indian Motorcycles, as it is located directly across the street from the Indian Motorcycle Apartments that were previously the old Indian Motorcycle factory.

Dakin Humane Society to Present PAWSCARS Fund-raiser Feb. 28

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Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — Dakin Humane Society will present a fund-raising event on Wednesday, Feb. 28 at the MassMutual Center in Springfield that will affectionately spoof Hollywood, the Oscars, and red-carpet fashion. Dubbed “The PAWSCARS & Red Carpet Fashion Parade,” the show will be emceed by Ashley Kohl and Seth Stutman, hosts of Mass Appeal on WWLP-22News.

Beginning with a VIP Reception at 6 p.m. and a plated dinner at 7 p.m., the evening will also include a red-carpet fashion parade featuring local people of prominence, accompanied by rescue dogs (among them former Dakin dogs, now adopted). Short videos of animals recreating iconic moments in cinematic history, created by members of the public, will also be screened during the evening.

“We’re looking forward to presenting a one-of-a-kind event with the PAWSCARS,” said Dakin Executive Director Leslie Harris. “We’re blending fashion, fun, and film with a healthy dose of humor for an unforgettable night. Plus, as our major fund-raising event of the year, it will be a terrific opportunity for our supporters to come together and enjoy themselves while providing much-needed aid for the many animals in our care.”

With a targeted audience of 500, The PAWSCARS is Dakin’s most ambitious fund-raising event in its 45-year history. Tickets for the event are available at www.dakinhumane.org for $125 per person (dinner and show) or $50 (show only).

Dakin is currently seeking video submissions from the public for viewing at the event, and the deadline is Saturday, Jan. 31. All videos will be reviewed, and a committee will select nine finalist videos to be screened at the PAWSCARS. Each of the nine people submitting a video will be awarded a free ticket to the PAWSCARS event (including dinner and entertainment).

Corporate sponsors for the PAWSCARS include Baystate Health, Piepul’s Camera Center, Clinical & Support Options, United Personnel, C.A.R. Data Management and Program Evaluation Services, Hampden Bank, and Robinson Donovan. The Republican, Reminder Publications, WMAS, the Daily Hampshire Gazette, and the Recorder are among the media sponsors for the event. Visit www.dakinhumane.org for complete contest and video-submission information, as well as additional information about the event.

Dakin Humane Society provides shelter, education, advocacy, and assistance for animals and people in need from its two locations in Springfield and Leverett. The organization shelters nearly 6,000 animals every year and provides low-cost spay/neuter surgery and vaccinations to 12,000 more. Dakin is a local, private, nonprofit organization that relies solely on contributions from individuals and businesses that care about animals to bring its services to the community.

Cathedral Campaign Continues to Gain Momentum

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Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — The Cathedral High School (CHS) campaign for tuition assistance has passed another milestone. Recently, the campaign exceeded 2,000 pledges, triggering the second $500,000 challenge gift from Michele Gaudette D’Amour (’69) and her husband, Donald D’Amour.

As of Dec. 19, in the 10 months since the campaign actively began, a total of $3,653,646 has been pledged or donated. Of that amount, $2,653,646 has been designated for the Cathedral Endowment Fund for Tuition Assistance. In addition, the MassMutual Insurance Co., in recognition of the important role that Cathedral plays in the local economy, awarded the school $500,000 for tuition assistance, payable over five years.

MassMutual was joined by BusinessWest Publisher John Gormally (’78), who also has made a donation of $500,000, half of which is earmarked for tuition assistance, with the other half designated for faculty support.

The Cathedral Endowment Fund for Tuition Assistance has been established as a long-term endowment, seeking a stable investment return to provide annual tuition assistance. In addition to the $2.6 million in endowment pledged and donated to date through the campaign, pre-existing endowment funds total $679,980. This means that the potential total of endowment funds would now exceed $3.3 million. Kickstarting the campaign were the D’Amours, who made a leadership gift of $500,000 along with two challenge gifts of $500,000 each. This brings their total campaign contribution to $1.5 million.

“Clearly all constituents in the Greater Springfield community have demonstrated how important Cathedral High School is to the community at large,” said Michele D’Amour. “As we continue this momentum, I am confident we can easily meet the $10 million endowment challenge. I feel confident that God’s loving hand will guide us in our work toward providing our children the opportunity for a faith-filled, top-notch education in a new, state-of-the-art facility in the near future.”

Cathedral High School President Ann Southworth also expressed gratitude for the response to date. “We are extremely grateful to all who have supported Cathedral’s need for tuition assistance in the past, as well as those who will donate in the future,” she said. “Already this campaign has led to almost doubling the amount of tuition assistance that we are able to provide. We went from $262,595 last year to $418,420 this year. The increased amount means the difference between serving 65 students last year and 107 students this year. By donating, you can help us keep Cathedral’s wonderful education open to all who wish to come.”

Berkshire Medical Center Named Leader in LGBT Healthcare Equality

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Daily News

PITTSFIELD — Berkshire Medical Center has been recognized as a “Leader in LGBT Healthcare Equality” by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation, the educational arm of the country’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil-rights organization. This is the second year in a row that BMC has achieved this designation.

The findings were part of HRC Foundation’s Healthcare Equality Index 2014, a unique annual survey that encourages equal care for LGBT Americans and recognizes healthcare institutions doing the best work. BMC earned top marks in meeting non-discrimination and training criteria that demonstrate its commitment to equitable, inclusive care for LGBT patients and their families, who can face significant challenges in securing the quality healthcare and respect they deserve.

“We live and work in an area known for both its beauty and its diversity, and the staff at Berkshire Medical Center is committed to providing the highest level of quality care for all in our community,” said Diane Kelly, chief operating officer. “This is a remarkable distinction, and I am proud of our entire staff. It is the dedication they show each and every day in the care of each and every patient that has led to this and our many other national recognitions.”

BMC was one of 426 healthcare facilities nationwide to be named Leaders in LGBT Healthcare Equality. Facilities awarded this title meet key criteria, including patient and employee non-discrimination policies that specifically mention sexual orientation and gender identity, a guarantee of equal visitation for same-sex partners and parents, and LGBT health education for key staff members.

“Leaders in LGBT Healthcare Equality change the lives of LGBT patients and their families for the better each and every day,” said Chad Griffin, HRC president. “LGBT people should be treated equally in all aspects of our lives, and HRC celebrates Berkshire Medical Center’s staff for its tireless work to create an inclusive and welcoming environment for all patients.”

The Healthcare Equality Index offers healthcare facilities unique and powerful resources designed to help provide equal care to a long-overlooked group of patients, as well as assistance in complying with new regulatory requirements and access to high-quality staff training. For more information about the index or to download a free copy of the report, visit www.hrc.org/hei.

Salon Herdis Welcomes Tara Abramowicz to Staff

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Daily News

NORTHAMPTON — Salon Herdis announced that Tara Abramowicz, a Redken creative colorist and image consultant, has joined the staff. She holds several certifications, including Redken certified hair colorist and Redken certified design and finish specialist, and sharpens her skills regularly with continuing education. She also travels and educates other hairstylists on color.

“I’ve always been inspired by fashion, since I was a little girl,” Abramowicz said. “It’s great to be a part of something bigger than myself, in making people look and feel their absolute best.”

Salon Herdis is an 11-year old downtown Northampton institution, providing a full range of hair and spa services to clients looking for a big-city experience in the Pioneer Valley.

“Tara is the perfect addition to the team,” said owner Linda Hannum. “The beauty industry is one of the few industries where women take the lead, and Tara is truly a leader among her peers.” To book an appointment with Abramowicz, call Salon Herdis at (413) 586-0088.

Elms College Upgrades Library to Meet Students’ Evolving Needs

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Daily News

CHICOPEE — To help today’s digitally advanced students get the best possible use out of their library system, Elms College is giving the Alumnae Library a facelift this month in the form of a new ‘learning commons’ that will encourage learning through collaboration, discussion, research, and inquiry.

Learning-commons spaces are an exciting trend at higher-education institutions, driven by the increasing availability and use of digital modes of information retrieval and sharing. Students now get their information not only from texts, but also online and from each other, and academic libraries are evolving into dynamic, integrated spaces that do far more than house books. Such spaces combine the library, computer lab, research center, support services, and meeting places to give students every possible resource for learning.

Education has grown more collaborative over the years, and these common landing spots allow groups to innovate and collaborate much more freely than they could in the past, establishing connections and improving participation to promote learning and academic development.

“Students need space to work together on learning projects, access technology, utilize academic support, and explore library resources,” said Joyce Hampton, dean of Student Success and Strategic Initiatives at Elms.

The college has invested approximately $50,000 for the technology and the collaboration-friendly furniture, and also invested in a new transformer. The investment gives all Elms students — undergraduates, graduate students, and non-traditional students — a common space that is devoted to them and their scholarship, with resources designed to enhance academic success, facilitate degree completion, develop interpersonal skills, and ultimately make students more marketable.

“I am hopeful that students will view the investment in their library as an investment in themselves, and will begin to treat the library as if it were their second home,” said Anthony Fonseca, Alumnae Library director.

It’s also an investment in Western Massachusetts, as the library and its resources are open to the public. The new area will include computer workstations; lounge chairs with tablet tabletops that can be powered up; Backbone media platforms with 50-inch, wall-mounted flatscreens that allow for media sharing and collaboration; mobile whiteboards; café-height worktable areas with power and data access; mobile worktables with power access; laptops available for library use; new printer technology; and upgraded wireless capacity.

“Students will now have a comfortable and attractive space to collaborate in an area that provides the tools needed for them to do their best,” Hampton said. The learning commons (LC) will officially launch in January, she added, and after that, the space will continue to grow as needed. “We hope to learn what our students use most, as well as to understand from our faculty what components would best support students. LCs must adapt and evolve to fit ever-changing needs, so the mobile, adaptable furniture and infrastructure improvements were chosen with this concept in mind.”

$5 Million Allocated to UMass Amherst for R&D Center at Westover

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Daily News

CHICOPEE — Gov. Deval Patrick recently released a business plan on growth opportunities at Westover Airport, outlining numerous steps the Commonwealth and Greater Chicopee region can undertake to grow the economy in Western Mass. and to support the mission of Westover Air Reserve Base (ARB), the joint user of the military and civilian airfield.

As a result of the plan’s findings, Patrick announced four initiatives to benefit the Westover region, including the proposed creation of a UMass Amherst Research, Development, and Training Center in Chicopee.

“Westover Airport and Westover Air Reserve Base are two stellar assets with so much potential for smart growth,” said Patrick. “To support the region’s economy and potential for more private and commercial air service, I commissioned this report to look at a wide variety of options. I’m pleased with the team’s effort and with UMass Amherst’s plan to open a research, development, and training center in Chicopee to tap into the innovative minds in the city and region.”

Patrick has allocated up to $5 million to UMass Amherst to support the creation of a research and development partnership program at Westover ARB. This funding would be used to lease and renovate a vacant Westover ARB building to establish a National Aeronautics, Research, Development, and Training Center with UMass Amherst as the lead institution.

UMass Amherst is in the process of partnering with NASA on several innovative research projects leveraging promising new technologies to promote efficiencies, safety, and economic growth in aviation. This research would be performed at the proposed center by UMass Amherst and its industry partner M2C Aerospace, a Massachusetts-based, woman-owned small business.

The Commonwealth’s funding leverages $15 million in private investment and sponsored research to be conducted by UMass Amherst and benefiting federal agencies. This site would also host a school to train air-traffic controllers and pilots and provide aviation-related courses for the next generation of researchers and engineers to develop future technologies. The proposed aeronautics center will also serve as a nexus for government and industry to collaborate on future aviation initiatives. The Westover site will house state-of-the-art laboratories, including a high-fidelity, 3-D, simulation-based training capability that meets the FAA’s requirements for certifying air-traffic controllers at U.S. aviation facilities.

A significant number of air controllers in the New England region are expected to retire in the next 10 years, which will increase the demand for a modern educational facility. This approach could be adapted for new civilian controllers, which — in combination with the transitioning military controllers — would help alleviate the FAA’s shortage of certifiable controllers and allow for joint military training with Westover’s staff.

It is estimated that this partnership could generate millions of dollars annually in research, education, and training from a combination of government agencies, such as the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, NASA, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Federal Aviation Administration, as well as the aviation industry. This fall, Patrick celebrated the grand opening of the UMass Center in Springfield, and the Chicopee site will add to its already-strong educational assets in Western Mass.

“This partnership involving UMass Amherst, NASA, and industry will address vital national needs in the aviation sector and help revitalize the Western Massachusetts economy,” said UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, who also serves as a member of the Military Task Force. “This is a perfect match for our role as one on the country’s top research universities, applying our expertise to enhance the safety of air travel and foster economic opportunity.”

Elms College Garners $27,000 Grant to Expand Mobile Healthcare

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Daily News

CHICOPEE — The Elms College School of Nursing’s caRe vaN has received a one-year, $27,000 grant from the Raskob Foundation of Wilmington, Del. to expand its mobile healthcare project, which offers free nursing services to the homeless and underserved of Chicopee.

The caRe vaN is a mobile clinic run by Br. Michael Duffy, assistant clinical professor, coordinator of the Accelerated Second Degree in Nursing Program, and conventual Franciscan friar. He and nursing students provide free healthcare services, including blood-pressure checks and monitoring, blood-sugar checks, foot care, episodic first aid, minor wound care, and patient education. Since 2013, the van has set up shop on Sundays in the former CVS parking lot of the Exchange Street plaza and on Tuesdays at Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen and Pantry.

With this grant, “we’ll be able to expand mobile healthcare to the homeless. It also provides ongoing maintenance of our 1988 vintage van, which has a leaky roof and leaky window seals,” Duffy said. “We could bring on board a psychiatric nurse practitioner a couple hours a week. We also could bring on a driver, which could let us expand to a third day a week on the street.”

He also plans to use grant funds for monthly visits from a podiatrist and a barber, and even for monthly laundry vouchers for the van’s clients — all of which are services greatly needed by local homeless people. “Everyone who gets their blood pressure and blood sugar checked would get $5 toward laundry,” he said.

Without the grant, expanded services would have had to wait, Duffy said. “We wouldn’t be able to contemplate having a psychiatric RN on board. We’d have to be begging elsewhere for funding to fix our particularly leaky windshield — the rubber is shot.”

The caRe vaN helps Elms students prepare for their future nursing careers, he added. “Long-range, healthcare is somewhat headed out of the typical hospital-based model we saw years ago. It’s much more clinic-based and accessible.”

Students with experience in this kind of setting will be more marketable upon graduation, too. “It’s real hands-on work,” he said. “They’re working with folks in the community where they are. And it makes them think on their feet. The homeless are with us for a short period; it’s a transient culture, so they’re there for five to 10 minutes. How much can we get done? Can we encourage them to stay longer than just blood pressure and blood sugar?”

Working in the van also helps students live the Elms College mission of empowering students to effect positive changes in the community and in the world, Duffy said, adding it “teaches them creative ways to respond to the demands of their chosen profession — nursing — and allows them advocate for people in need. They go hand in hand, no doubt about it.”

Company Notebook

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Company Notebook Departments

Paragus Recognized as Model Employer
HADLEY — Paragus Strategic IT was recently honored with an Employer of Choice award by the Employers Assoc. of the NorthEast at the organization’s Employment Law and HR Practices Conference in Sturbridge. Paragus CEO Delcie Bean was also a featured speaker at the 21st Century Talent event focused on how top employers are changing today’s workforce. Winners of the Employer of Choice award are recognized for developing a culture of transforming and rewarding employee performance. Entrants are judged in categories including company culture, training and development, communication, recognition and reward, and work-life balance. Past winners include Maybury Material Handling, PeoplesBank, and Health New England. The 21st Century Talent conference was organized by Bank of America, Commonwealth Corp., and Grads of Life. Along with representatives from Harvard and Udacity, Bean was invited to speak about Paragus Strategic IT’s commitment to the next generation of workforce. With a 546% growth rate over six years, Paragus is the second-fastest-growing outsourced IT firm in New England. Most recently, Bean started Tech Foundry, a nonprofit education program designed to provide area high-school students with strong education and career training in technology.

Nuclea Biotechnologies Secures Design Patent
PITTSFIELD — Nuclea Biotechnologies Inc. announced that it has secured a new U.S. design patent for the design of its beam-dump assembly, a mechanical component that will be utilized in multiple diagnostic applications. The beam-dump assembly is used for the detection of low-abundance proteins within microfluidic-based environments. It identifies a change in biological samples by reading laser light. This detection instrument will be used for protein detection in Nuclea’s fatty-acid synthase (FAS), HER-2/neu, and CAIX diagnostic tests, with future potential use in additional diagnostic tests. The design patent is an important step for Nuclea as the company continues to expand its intellectual property surrounding its proprietary tests and methods. “This is another milestone for Nuclea in developing new diagnostic-based technology as it relates to the analysis of fluids in a variety of diseases,” said Patrick Muraca, the company’s president and CEO. Based in Pittsfield, Nuclea, with additional operations in Worcester and Cambridge, has developed and is commercializing unique diagnostic tests for colon, breast, leukemia, lung, and prostate cancer, as well as for diabetes and other metabolic syndromes. Nuclea also performs research leading to novel molecular oncology companion diagnostics for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

Dowd Agencies Merges Indian Orchard Offices
HOLYOKE — The Dowd Agencies, a leading insurance provider serving New England for more than 115 years, announced a merger of the firm’s two Indian Orchard-based offices. Moskal-Dowd, previously located at 20 Parker St., and Orchard-Dowd, previously located at 144 Main St., have officially merged and will now operate as the Indian Orchard-based location of the Dowd Agencies located at 485 Main St. The new, 2,500-square-foot office is officially open for business. Customers and the general public are invited to visit, and an open house is planned for the spring of 2015. “One centralized location for our Indian Orchard office will increase accessibility for our customers,” said John Dowd Jr., president and CEO of the Dowd Agencies. “The benefits of the new office include ample parking, a large conference room for meetings, and, most importantly, a larger staff to provide our customers a broader service offering from one location.” The Dowd Agencies will continue to be headquartered in Holyoke, which houses the firm’s human resources department and administrative staff.

Comcast Lends Support to New Agawam YMCA
SPRINGFIELD — In response to the recent opening of the Agawam YMCA Wellness & Program Family Center, the YMCA of Greater Springfield is announcing the donation of $10,000 from Comcast. The Agawam YMCA is the latest addition to the YMCA of Greater Springfield’s many locations, providing membership and program opportunities to the Agawam region. With support from Comcast in the way of public-service announcements and direct financial contributions, the Agawam YMCA is slated to impact more than 3,000 youth, teens, families, and seniors in Agawam and its surrounding communities. The YMCA of Greater Springfield serves 115,000 members and program participants in 14 cities and towns throughout the region. The Agawam YMCA includes a health and wellness center, sauna, group exercise space, café, technology center, and community meeting space. Naming opportunities for donors are still available. To learn more about the YMCA of Greater Springfield, contact Nikki Durham at [email protected] or visit www.springfieldy.org.

People on the Move

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Departments People on the Move

Robert Ziomek

Robert Ziomek

The Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield (ACCGS) have elected Robert Ziomek, director of major and planned gifts at Western New England University, to lead the organization’s Legislative Steering Committee. Ziomek was elected for a two-year term as chairman of the panel. “I am humbled to be chosen the chair of a group that is so committed to the success of the Greater Springfield business community,” said Ziomek. “The city of Springfield is going through an insurgence of new business development right now, and I’m confident this committee will continue to play a significant role in keeping our federal, state, and local officials focused on the issues that affect the Western Massachusetts business community.” The legislative steering committee identifies and researches issues of major concern to the business community, then recommends positions on them. The committee is also charged with educating members on these issues, soliciting member support, and encouraging elected officials to adopt the ACCGS’ positions. The committee has four subcommittees that perform in-depth research on specific issues: budget, workplace issues, healthcare, and education/workforce development. Ziomek is in his 10th year of service to the committee and previously served as the chairman of the subcommittee that studies workplace issues.
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Darlene Libiszewski

Darlene Libiszewski

Junior Achievement of Western Mass. recently elected new officers and welcomed new members to its board of directors. JA’s 2014-15 officers include chair Darlene Libiszewski of Chicopee Savings Bank; co-vice chairs John Boudreau of Contractor’s Edge LLC and Michael Ginsberg of Insurance Industry Consulting Services; treasurer Nicole Denette of Savage Arms; and clerk Margaret LaMotte of Paragus Strategic IT. Rounding out the executive committee are former chairmen Al Kasper of Savage Arms and Phil Goncalves of Country Bank. Junior Achievement also announced the addition of William Sepaniak of Baystate Medical, Brendan Greeley of RJ Greeley, Tracey Alves-Lear of TD Bank, Christine Quiterio of Comcast, and Jon Feeney of Smith & Wesson.
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Barry Waite

Barry Waite

Holyoke Medical Center announced that Barry Waite has been named corporate director of Human Resources. Waite, a native of Holyoke, served five years as corporate director of Human Resources for the Loomis Communities in South Hadley and seven years as regional director of Human Resources with HealthBridge Management in Concord. Previously, he served as director of Public Affairs and Strategic Communications for Baystate Health in Springfield, and as director of Communications and Marketing for Qualidigm in Middletown, Conn. “This is an exciting time for Holyoke Medical Center, as we bring a new vision and strategic plan into action. The people who work here every day, providing the excellent care that our community hospital is recognized for, are the reason I’m here,” said Waite. “In HR, we have a real impact on how that care is provided, whether the focus is on the morale of the workplace, employee benefits, or creating a healthier workplace environment for our employees — creating an environment where they can thrive and serve our patients to the best of their ability.” Waite attended Boston College and earned his master’s degree in health communications at Emerson College/Tufts University School of Medicine. Among Waite’s plans for HMC are to introduce a new employee-wellness program including an initiative for achieving a healthy work-life balance.
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Catherine Turowsky

Catherine Turowsky

Farmington Bank announced the appointment of Catherine Turowsky as vice president of Cash Management Sales and Services Representative. Turowsky operates out of Farmington Bank’s Western Mass. Commercial Services Office, located at 138 Memorial Ave. in West Springfield. Turowsky, with more than 28 years of banking experience in Massachusetts, comes to Farmington Bank from People’s United Bank, where she served as senior vice president/market manager of cash management services. She is a member of the Treasury Management Assoc. of New England and the Assoc. for Financial Professionals. In September, Connecticut-based Farmington Bank announced its plans to enter Massachusetts with the establishment of the commercial services office now open in West Springfield and two de novo hub branches planned to open, subject to regulatory approval, in West Springfield and East Longmeadow in 2015.
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Dawn Henry has been elected president of the 1,700-member Realtor Assoc. of Pioneer Valley. The election took place at the association’s annual membership meeting held last month at the Yankee Pedlar in Holyoke. Henry is a real-estate sales agent with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Longmeadow. As president, she will oversee the association’s activities and operations, including meetings of the board of directors, and act as a liaison to the association’s various committees. She is the official spokesperson of the association on issues related to the real-estate industry and the local housing market. The other 2015 officers and directors include Louis Mayo, president-elect; Richard Sawicki Jr., treasurer; Janise Fitzpatrick, secretary; and Patrick Nolan, immediate past president. Directors include Elias Acuna, Edward Alford, Kelly Bowman, Shawn Bowman, Suzi Buzzee, Susan Drumm, Susan Rheaume, and Russell Sabadosa. Organized in 1915, the Realtor Assoc. of Pioneer Valley is a professional trade organization serving Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire counties.

Springfield College Honored for Community-service Efforts

By
Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — Springfield College was named a finalist for the President’s Award for Community Service by the Corp. for National and Community Service (CNCS). The college was one of four finalists in the education category and also was awarded Honor Roll with Distinction status in the category of general community service.

This nationwide designation is part of the 2014 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, and recognizes institutions and their students across the country for their commitment to volunteer service. The award was based on data from the 2012-13 academic year, during which more than 3,500 Springfield College students completed more than 480,000 hours of service to the Springfield community through volunteer work, service learning, internships, practica, fieldwork, and other activities.

“Students come to Springfield College with a desire to serve and to immerse themselves in academic and co-curricular programs that will allow them to make a difference in their community,” said President Mary-Beth Cooper. “The college offers a wealth of meaningful service opportunities allowing students to develop as scholars and engaged citizens. Our students work extremely hard throughout the academic year to be part of our community. This recognition is a reflection of their continued dedication to service.”

The Springfield College AmeriCorps Program and the Partners Program remain two of the college’s constant and long-standing community outreach programs, which, combined, are responsible for the contribution of more than 50,000 hours of service. Springfield College AmeriCorps members provided more than 44,000 hours of service to 479 at-risk students from pre-kindergarten through grade 12 at Square One, Head Start, and Springfield Public Schools during the 2012-13 academic year. As part of the Student Success Corps, now known as the School Turnaround Initiative, AmeriCorps academic coaches and school counselors provided interventions and support for students struggling with low attendance, course failure in English and math, and behavioral, social, and emotional issues.

AmeriCorps literacy tutors implemented the nationally recognized Minnesota Reading Corps pre-K model in an effort to ensure that all children enter kindergarten ready to learn how to read. This pilot of the Minnesota Reading Corps evolved into the Massachusetts Reading Corps, which is currently providing early-literacy support to more than 400 pre-kindergarten students in Springfield.

“The goal of the AmeriCorps programs at Springfield College is to give students the support they need to remain on the path to high-school graduation,” said Springfield College AmeriCorps Program Director Shannon Langone. “Our programs are based on research-driven models and interventions that have been shown to effectively target risk factors for dropping out. By using what we know works in a very intentional way, we can have a measurable impact on the academic achievement of youth in Springfield.”

The AmeriCorps programs at Springfield College are funded in part by the Corp. for National and Community Service, the Massachusetts Service Alliance, the Funder Collaborative for Reading Success, and the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation.

For more than 20 years, the Springfield College Partners Program has paired college mentors with Springfield Public School students from both the Brookings and DeBerry elementary schools. Since the program’s inception, more than 600 elementary-school students have been mentored. Previous research indicates that youth who participate in the program report better grades, improved attendance, increased confidence about themselves and the future, and fewer behavioral issues in and out of school.

In total, more than 760 higher-education institutions were named to this year’s honor roll. From that group, four schools were selected to receive the President’s Award in one of four categories — general community service, economic opportunity, education, or interfaith community service. An additional 16 schools are named as finalists for the President’s Award, the highest federal honor a higher-education institution can receive for its commitment to community service. A complete list of this year’s winners can be found at www.nationalservice.gov/honorroll.

State Funding to Strengthen Advanced-manufacturing Industry

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Daily News

AMHERST — Building on the Patrick administration’s historic commitment to strengthening the advanced-manufacturing industry in Massachusetts, Housing and Economic Development Secretary Greg Bialecki on Monday joined Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Rachel Kaprielian and State Senate Majority Leader Stan Rosenberg to announce nearly $2 million in funding to support manufacturing workforce training across the Commonwealth. The announcement was made at the Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative (AMC) Pioneer Valley Summit, held at UMass Amherst.

“I am proud of the work the AMC has accomplished over the years, creating opportunities for workers with a range of skill levels that will strengthen our economy for years to come,” said Bialecki. “Collaborative efforts like this are a critical reason why Massachusetts is leading the nation in growing a 21st-century advanced-manufacturing sector.”

Nearly $1.5 million of the total funding was awarded through the Advanced Manufacturing Pipeline Training Grants Program to support five regional workforce-investment boards throughout Massachusetts. This funding will help recruit and train approximately 280 unemployed or underemployed participants for careers in advanced manufacturing. The grants program is a cross-secretariat initiative between the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development and the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. Two Western Mass. organizations are among those receiving funding:

• The Hampden Regional Employment Board received $219,960 to conduct the Advanced Manufacturing Training Program, in partnership with the Western Mass. Chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Assoc. The Hampden Regional Employment Board will contract with local community colleges, part-time instructors from two vocational technical high schools, and an advanced-manufacturing company to train unemployed or underemployed adults of Hampden County.

• The Franklin/Hampshire Regional Employment Board received $276,705 to continue collaboration with employers from across the region, as well as community partners such as Greenfield Community College (GCC), the two area vocational-technical schools, and two adult-education sites, to enable the Regional Employment Board and GCC to offer three additional cycles of entry-level precision-machine training over the next two years in Franklin County. This will expand it from 220 hours to 300 hours and add skill building in the areas of blueprint reading, metrology, grinding, and lean manufacturing.

“The quick turnaround in awarding these grants reflects the urgency the Patrick Administration has adopted in scaling up these pipelines to help fill current job openings in advanced manufacturing all over the state,” said Kaprielian. “These awards will allow the grantees to build upon their proven successes and their capacity to work collaboratively through industry partnerships to increase the number of seats in their existing pipelines.”

Through a separate grant program, the Industry Training Capital Equipment grant program, also aimed at supporting the manufacturing industry in Massachusetts, Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School in Northampton was awarded $400,000 to rebuild its precision-manufacturing training program. With the support of more than 25 regional manufacturing and workforce leaders in Hampshire County, the rebuilt training program will be a site for daytime students and evening adult learners, in partnership with the Franklin-Hampshire Regional Employment Board.

Off to a Roaring Start

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Features
White Lion Brewing Is Making a Name for Itself

Ray Berry Jr.,

Ray Berry Jr., seen here at a display of White Lion at Table & Vine, says his company’s mission is to build a great brand and help revitalize a great city.

Not long after graduating from American International College with a degree in finance, Ray Berry Jr. went to work for a nonprofit agency called Mason Square Development Corp., which, as the name suggests, was dedicated to helping small-business ventures off the ground in that low-income Springfield neighborhood.

Summing up the now-defunct agency’s mission, Berry said it was created to help entrepreneurs understand the risks of a business venture and overcome their fear of accepting those risks, assist them with forging business plans, and guide them with the task of developing the connections and relationships needed to succeed.

“I think it’s important for any entrepreneur to map and frame out their ideas, utilize the networks that are in the community, and not be afraid to take advice along the way,” said Berry, who served the MSDC as deputy director. “There are individuals out there who have a tremendous amount of proven experience in establishing companies and moving them forward. If you have a vision or dream, and once you get through that fear of risk and get over that hurdle, you utilize the resources available and push your dream forward.”

Today, Berry is definitely practicing what he preached 15 years ago as he pushes his own dream forward.

It’s called White Lion Brewing Co., a venture he launched just a few months ago — after nearly four years of planning — with some working capital, an imaginative brand, an intriguing mission statement, and that aforementioned willingness to accept risk.

And in that short time, he has enjoyed what could only be called a roaring start while making White Lion “Springfield’s beer,” even though it’s not brewed here — yet.

As it states on the bottom of the six-pack container that features many of the city’s landmarks, “Springfield is our home. We share the city’s pride in its legacy of innovation and ingenuity. We intend to serve as a catalyst for Springfield’s renaissance. One that celebrates diversity and urban vibrancy. We have a dual mission: Build a great brand. Revitalize a GREAT CITY.”

The first component of that mission is still a work in progress, but Berry believes important strides have been made. The second? Well, he intends to be a big part of the renaissance he sees coming for Springfield by bringing the brewing operation to the city, and with it, jobs and a renewed sense of pride that in some ways is already evident.

“The city of Springfield does not have a product that folks can rally around, and it was important to me to create one,” said Berry, who by day is vice president of Administration and Finance for United Way of Pioneer Valley. “We want to be a game changer, a difference maker, part of the community fabric, part of the legacy that moves the city of Springfield forward.”

As for the brand … the white lion, a color mutation of the African lion, found in South Africa and zoos around the world but mostly in Europe, has nothing to do with Springfield. Or everything to do with it, if you listen to Berry.

“Folklore will state that it’s an extension beyond race, color, creed, or gender,” he explained, noting Springfield’s diverse population. “It doesn’t matter who you are, what economic status you come from, a white lion is a symbol of good in all mankind. It goes on to say that, if you’re in the presence of a white lion, you will be sanctified with infinite prosperity.”

Already, a strong connection is being forged between the city and the brand.

Indeed, when Gov.-elect Charlie Baker paid a visit to Springfield the day after the Nov. 4 election, Mayor Domenic Sarno had a six-pack of White Lion pale ale waiting for him as a gift.

That highly visible bit of marketing and public relations is only one way in which White Lion’s fast start has manifested itself. The company’s two products — there’s also a cream ale, with more on the way in 2015 — are now in more than 120 locations (liquor stores, bars, and restaurants) in Western Mass. and just beyond, and Berry has ambitious plans to grow those numbers and make his brand a household name.

For this issue, BusinessWest looks at his multi-phase strategy for making White Lion both a player in the craft-beer universe and a major player in Springfield’s future.

Mane Attraction

As he talked with BusinessWest after posing for some photos beside a rack of his products at Table & Vine in West Springfield, Berry used the opportunity to provide an education in the craft-beer industry and quantify and qualify its explosive growth.

“There are nearly two full aisles of craft beers here now, and new ones arrive regularly — there are more than 2,000 craft-beer establishments across the country,” he said while walking through one of them, pointing out a seemingly endless array of imaginative names — Smuttynose, Dogfish Head, Otter Creek, and Magic Hat, among others — and colorful packages. Some of these brands are local in origin, such as Berkshire Brewing in South Deerfield, Paper City in Holyoke, Fort Hill in Easthampton, and Iron Duke in Ludlow, while others are regional powerhouses like Samuel Adams and Harpoon.

WhiteLionBoxArtEntering such a crowded field would seem like a risk not worth accepting, but Berry thinks otherwise, and he started coloring in his entrepreneurial canvas roughly four years ago.

He did so after analyzing the market and noting one important point — there was no craft-beer product attached to Springfield, a city with a history of brewing operations, most of which didn’t outlast Prohibition; those that survived didn’t live long after it was repealed.

“The concept goes back at least four years; that’s how long I’ve been having general conversations with friends in the Valley around craft beer, their growing popularity, and the fact that there wasn’t a local product here in Springfield,” he explained. “But, like any entrepreneur with an idea, sometimes they come and go, so this idea came and went, I would sit on it, time would pass, and I would revisit it. I did that off and on for a three-year period.”

What eventually enabled him to break that cycle was research into the various options of getting a craft beer off the ground, including a contract-brewing business model, but also a growing sense that one of the ways he could have an impact in the region, and especially Springfield, was through entrepreneurship.

“I would sit with friends, especially after college, over the past 15 to 20 years and brainstorm about what we could do to make a difference, beyond what we were already doing with our volunteer work and our 9-to-5 jobs,” he told BusinessWest. “And it always gravitated back toward an entrepreneurial spirit.

“What I tell folks now is that we always had great ideas, but there was hesitation because we knew there was always risk associated with taking that step from idea to reality,” he went on. “And I think that probably held us back for some time, but it got to the point where we felt that now was the time to make a difference and be part of that ongoing change in the region.”

He used that collective ‘we’ to refer to those friends he conversed with and various team members he’s recruited since moving White Lion off the drawing board. These include brewmaster Mike Yates, who oversees the brewing of White Lion at Mercury Brewing in Ipswich; distributors Williams Distributing (Hampden and Hampshire counties), Quality Beverage (Central Mass.), and Girardi Distributors (Franklin and Berkshire counties); and warehousing partner R.M. Sullivan Co. in Westfield.

Berry told BusinessWest that success in the highly competitive craft-beer industry comes with being creative, not only with what goes inside the bottle (although that’s obviously important), but also with the name on the bottle, the packaging, the marketing and public-relations work, even the tap the bartender pulls to fill a glass with your product.

And he believes he’s effectively expressing his creativity, especially with the brand White Lion.

“We wanted to think outside the box,” he said, “and cause the consumer to, at a minimum, pause and ask the questions, ‘why that name? Where’d the name come from?”

People are now asking those questions across Western and Central Mass., said Berry, adding that the next pushes will be into the eastern part of the Bay State and Northern Conn.

Coming to a Head

Creating a brand, hiring a brewmaster, outsourcing brewing operations, and forging relationships with a warehouse operator and distributors are just some of the many components of what Berry called phase 1 of his entrepreneurial venture.

Others include launching a website, use of various social-media vehicles to gain visibility, and creation of imagery and packaging that can compete with all those offerings seen in the aisles at Table & Vine, assignments being handled by the Springfield-based companies DIF Design and TSM Design, respectively. There’s also the tasks of building a portfolio of locations that will offer White Lion products and getting the word out about those products.

With the former, Berry has forged relationships with a number of liquor stores and bars, and also with several restaurants in and around the city, including the recently reopened Fort, Max’s and Max Burger, Nadim’s, Plan B Burger, and others. And there have ben discussions with MGM about making the products available in the $800 million casino to be built in the South End.

Meanwhile, the products have gained exposure through a number of events and public-relations efforts, including Baker’s visit to the mayor’s office, but especially a launch event on Oct. 21 at the Lyman & Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History that drew more than 300 people. Berry has also been telling the story to area Rotary clubs, chambers of commerce, and other groups.
But there is other work to be done as well, he said, and much of it echoes the advice and services provided to entrepreneurs by Mason Square Development Corp., he said, adding that many of these assignments fall into the categories of relationship building and tapping into resources that can help a venture grow.

Ray Berry Jr. says he has a product — and a name — that will stand out in the crowded craft-beer market.

Ray Berry Jr. says he has a product — and a name — that will stand out in the crowded craft-beer market.

As one example, he cited White Lion’s success in becoming one of the 30 ventures chosen to comprise the first cohort of the accelerator program created by Valley Venture Mentors and funded through a grant from MassMutual.

There are substantial cash awards for ventures that fare well in what amounts to a four-month learning experience, mentoring exercise, and competition, noted Berry, but the bigger reward is the ability to tap into the knowledge and resourcefulness of those leading the accelerator program.

“Teams such as White Lion are going to be in front of a multitude of individuals who are there to provide advice for startups,” he said. “It’s going to be a great opportunity for all these companies.”

As another example, he cited a relationship forged with AIC to bring two or three interns each year into the White Lion operation, giving the company access to young talent and potential future employees, while providing those students with real-world experience with a growing enterprise.

“This partnership will enable three seniors majoring in marketing to get hands-on experience and be part of this new startup,” Berry explained, “all while having the principles they learned in school applied to real-life scenarios.”

As for phase 2 of this operation, that entails bringing the brewing operation, as well as other components of the company, under one roof in Springfield, preferably in or near the central business district, and then taking the brand into new markets in the Northeast and eventually beyond.

Berry said he’s engaged in discussions with city officials with the goal of identifying 8,000 to 10,000 square feet of manufacturing space to house brewing equipment, a bottling line, and possibly a canning line. His planned timeline is to have such a facility in operation by late 2016, but there will be challenges to meeting it, especially the need to raise the estimated $1 million to $1.5 million he’ll need to create his operations facility through what he expects will be a mix of debt and equity financing.

Berry is hoping that his ongoing efforts to create exposure, as well as participation in VVM’s accelerator program, will open the eyes of not only beer drinkers, but potential investors as well.

In the meantime, he intends to foster controlled growth and carefully manage the company’s progression.

“We’re a very, very young company, and we have to be very careful not to overextend ourselves,” he explained. “Everything will be well thought out prior to making any major decisions. Every step has been well planned, and our placement has been right on target. The future of White Lion will follow suit.”

Ale’s Well That Ends Well

Looking forward, Berry said there are many directions his venture might take.

He noted, for example, that, as the craft beer industry continues to take market share from industry giants such as Miller and Anheuser Bush, those larger players are responding by acquiring some of those much-smaller rivals in deals that feature large numbers of zeroes.

Such a fate might await White Lion, he said, adding quickly that, for now, he’s simply focused on building exposure for his product, expanding its footprint, verifying its sustainability, and making real progress with phase 2.

The company has indeed enjoyed a roaring start, but Berry knows that this is in all ways a marathon and not a sprint — and he’s in it for the long haul.


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