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Balise Steps Up — Again — in Springfield’s South End

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Alex Balise, left, and Jeb Balise with Dawn DiStefano, president and CEO of Square One
Cover Story

Driving Force

Alex Balise, left, and Jeb Balise with Dawn DiStefano, president and CEO of Square One

Alex Balise, left, and Jeb Balise with Dawn DiStefano, president and CEO of Square One, at the site of the agency’s new home.

 

Jeb Balise says he’s always called Springfield’s South End home.

He never lived in the neighborhood that straddles the Connecticut River and bumps up against the central business district, but, in many respects, he grew up there.

Indeed, that’s where his father and grandfather operated a Chevy dealership, and where he spent countless hours, starting in the early ’60s, when he was just in grade school, learning every aspect of the car business while also getting to know that neighborhood and the people championing it.

People like Leo Florian, president of the South End Citizens Council, and before him, and then alongside him, his aunt and mother.

“From my earliest days, I learned from them the importance of the South End and the community,” he recalled. “They were always supportive … they didn’t always agree or approve or endorse what we wanted to do, but they worked with me to find solutions.”

Today, Balise Motor Sales has dealerships across Western Mass., and also the Cape and Rhode Island. But in most all respects, the South End is still home. It’s there where the Balise company has made huge investments and built a campus that includes Hyundai and Mazda dealerships, a used-car store, a collision center, a car wash … and a laundromat. And there’s more to come, with the demolition of the Enterprise car-rental building and development of that site.

“From my earliest days, I learned from them the importance of the South End and the community.”

As for the laundromat, which we’ll get back to later, it was prompted largely by Florian, said Balise, who reminded him that, in addition to creating businesses and large parking lots, the Balise company needed to do something for the people of the South End.

Not that he really needed any reminding; Jeb Balise and the Balise company have long sought to step up and be counted in the South End, which explains that campus and that laundromat, and also why the South End Citizens Council currently resides in the former Baer Auto facility on Main Street (acquired by the Balise company) for monthly rent that doesn’t cover the electric bill, let alone the taxes paid on the property.

And it explains two recent decisions that will not only support childcare and family-services provider Square One, but also the South End neighborhood.

The first was a $1 million donation to the capital campaign to build Square One’s new facility near the site of its old home, damaged by the 2011 tornado and eventually razed. The second was the purchase of the property at 935 Main St., in front of the building now under construction, for $2 million, and the gifting of it to Square One, an acquisition that provides much-needed room for Square One while also solving what was becoming a problem.

“It was remarkable; this was a life-altering decision. I don’t think this would have happened, I believe, without that swift, remarkable gift, that gave everyone the feeling, ‘now we’re going to cross the finish line with this,’” Dawn DiStefano, president and CEO of Square One said of the $1 million gift, adding that the acquisition of 935 Main St. is equally life-altering, and, together, the gifts represent big steps forward for the agency, but also the South End community.

Balise agreed. “We decided that this would be good for the South End, tremendous for Square One, and good for South End citizens. We thought, ‘if we’re ever going to do something that’s a positive legacy and would make a difference, this was it.’”

From left, Jeb Balise, Alex Balise, Kris Allard, Dawn DiStefano, Leo Florian, and Police Commissioner Lawrence Akers.

From left, Jeb Balise, Alex Balise, Kris Allard, Dawn DiStefano, Leo Florian, and Police Commissioner Lawrence Akers.

This is an inspiring story with many themes, but mostly, it’s about a company, a nonprofit, and people like Florian, all with very deep roots in the South End (Square One has been there since 1883), who came together to make something groundbreaking happen, while also creating more momentum in an area, referred to by many as the gateway to the city, that has seen more than $1 billion in investments since the tornado tore through it, and is making tremendous strides.

 

Answering the Calls

DiStefano was on vacation when she got the phone call from Alex Balise almost a year ago — or what those at Square One generally refer to as the first phone call.

Balise, director of Marketing for the Balise Auto Group, and a Square One board member, wanted to know if DiStefano and Kris Allard, vice president of Development and Communication at Square One, could meet, and she suggested the following day.

Allard was also out of town, but she and DiStefano started thinking seriously about getting flights back into Springfield because there was some urgency attached to this meeting.

Indeed, while Square One was working to secure financing from PeoplesBank to construct its new home in the South End, a consultant working for the agency strongly suggested an additional $1 million in pledges to a capital campaign for the project would add strength to the loan application, as well as an application for New Markets Tax Credits.

The meeting with Alex Balise and her father, Jeb, eventually scheduled for a few days later, would be to discuss what the company might be able to donate toward that figure.

This aerial photo shows the extent of the Balise campus in Springfield’s South End.

This aerial photo shows the extent of the Balise campus in Springfield’s South End.

As they walked the five blocks to Jeb Balise’s office at 1441 Main St., Allard and DiStefano discussed what might be an appropriate ask. They thought about $100,000 — or perhaps $200,000.

Maybe a day later, Allard got another phone call from Alex detailing a commitment for $1 million.

“Kris made her repeat it because she didn’t believe what she was hearing,” DiStefano said. “And then we both couldn’t speak because we were crying so hard.”

Alex called the gift a “needed boost” to give Square One some important breathing room.

“I thought this was important and that we needed to step up,” she said, adding that this was an easy sell to her father and a gift designed to inspire other groups and individuals to step up as well.

And with that gift, DiStefano said, important pieces to a project, then a dozen years in the making, quickly fell into place.

“This was one of those turning points for the project,” she said. “PeoplesBank quickly signed a $6 million construction loan with a bond from MassDevelopment; by July, we signed all the closing documents for $15.5 million.”

But, as was noted earlier, there was to be still another unforgettable phone call from Alex Balise.

This map shows the location of Square One’s current home and its new home, now under construction.
Google Maps

This one, which came several weeks ago, involved the property adjacent to Square One’s old home, directly in front of where the new one is being built. Square One had been trying to buy it for years, but the price tag was prohibitive.

Vacant since the tornado and approaching eyesore status, if not already there, the property, known to those at Square One simply as the ‘brick building,’ was becoming a problem for those at Square One. Its owners were proposing a mixed-use plan for the future, one involving retail of some kind on the first floor and apartments on the second floor.

Florian, also a member of Springfield’s Planning Board, said the plans presented to that body by the building’s owner were permitted by the zoning of that area, and thus, the board would have a difficult time rejecting them. Still, he and many others were uneasy about this planned mix of retail and residential just a few hundred feet from a childcare facility.

And Florian communicated those concerns to, among others, Jeb Balise, who soon became committed to doing something about this situation.

Fast-forward to that second phone call. Alex and Jeb wanted another meeting with DiStefano and Allard. And as the two again walked together down Main Street, they speculated as to what this was about.

A few hours later, they had a commitment from Balise to buy the brick building for $2 million and gift it to Square One on the condition that they share it with the South End Citizens Council (the Baer Auto site is in poor condition and will soon have to come down). Jeb calls it a win-win-win — for Square One, the council, and the South End.

 

Coming Clean

As he talked about the Balise company’s commitment to the South End, as well as his unique relationship — and friendship — with Jeb Balise, Florian started by telling the story of how the South End Citizens Council secured its current home in the former Baer Auto facility, a large, glass-fronted building on Main Street.

The agency was headquartered in a tiny office across the street from the Baer facility, but it was essentially being evicted to make way for a thrift store, and Florian started poking around for new space.

Jeb showed him space in what was known as the Saw Center, a building eventually torn down to make room for the laundromat, and Florian was intrigued.

“But then he made the mistake of bringing me into Baer Auto — he said, ‘we just bought this,’” Florian noted. “We’re walking through, and I said, ‘now this is nice — with all these windows, you can see everything.’

“So he said, ‘what are you thinking — do you want me to break this up, and you can take a piece?’” Florian went on. “And I said, ‘no, actually, I think we need it all.’ He goes, ‘are you serious? I didn’t know neighborhood councils had that kind of money,’ because he had already offered it to people who wanted to rent it at crazy rent.’

“So Jeb said, ‘what are you thinking?’” he recalled. “I said, ‘I’ll tell you what … across the street, we pay $500 a month, and at the end of the year, we always run out of money and have a fundraiser — so I can comfortably offer you $400 a month, and we’ll take it off your hands.’ He first said, ‘are you crazy?’ and then said he wanted to think about it for a while. I think it was the next day, he was driving down my street; he rolled down his window and said, ‘let’s do the deal.’”

Before doing that, Balise talked at length at how Florian, and his mother and aunt before him, had always fought for the South End and never stopped looking for ways to improve that small, mostly low-income, but very proud neighborhood.

“I said, ‘I’ll tell you what … across the street, we pay $500 a month, and at the end of the year, we always run out of money and have a fundraiser — so I can comfortably offer you $400 a month, and we’ll take it off your hands.’”

And also about how he wanted to recognize those efforts by giving back himself, and as a company. “Leo has been a steadfast champion of the South End,” Balise said. “And if he’s Batman, I’m Robin.”

As things turned out, the laundromat — much-needed in this neighborhood where there is still comparatively little home ownership — and the sentiment that led to it became a motivating force.

“As you get older, you become more focused on the things that really matter,” Balise said. “And I would say that Leo inspired me a little bit to look at things and how we can focus on making them better.”

As it turned out, that deal for space for the South End Citizens Council was a precursor to something certain to be far more impactful.

Indeed, as he talked about what the new Square One, and especially the renovations to the brick building, might mean for the South End, Springfield Police Commissioner Lawrence Akers referred to what is generally known as the ‘broken windows’ theory.

“It goes back to the ’80s and ’90s, when people would look at property like that brick building; they would see it sitting there over a period of time, and they would look to see what would happen because it appeared unkept, so they would break one window,” he said, adding that this one broken window would lead to more “because no one really cared.”

The purchase of the property and the plans to renovate it show that someone cares, Akers said, noting that this is just the latest of many signs of progress in that neighborhood.

“The South End is a pretty good place to live now,” he added, noting that there is a trickle-down effect going on that has changed the look and feel of that area, and recent investments, including those at Square One, and the stability they bring to that part of the neighborhood will likely inspire more.

 

A Neighborhood on the Rise

There has already been a great deal of momentum seen in the South End over the past decade or so, said Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, noting that the linchpin, obviously, has been the $950 million MGM complex, which has made the South End a destination for many.

But there has been much more, he said, listing everything from the new condos on the site of the former Gemini plant, bringing more homeownership and all that comes with it to the area, to a renovated and re-energized Basketball Hall of Fame; from the arrival of national and regional chains like CVS, Wahlburgers, and Panera Bread to a host of small, local businesses.

And there is more on the way, including the much-anticipated reimagining of the Clocktower Building and nearby Colonial Block into mixed-used projects and the redevelopment of property at the corner of State and Main streets once occupied by MGM.

“There’s a lot of good things going on there, from new housing and new businesses to the expansion of existing businesses,” the mayor said. “That’s the entryway to the city, and there are many positive things happening, including what’s happening at Square One.”

Jeb Balise agreed.

“The South End has been on the rise — we’ve been part of a renaissance,” he said. “Getting Panera Bread, the expansion of AC Produce … there have been a lot of good cleanups that have made the South End more attractive and given it a much better feel. I feel like the South End is really on the upswing.”

DiStefano also agreed, noting that the new Square One building and renovation of the brick building will continue and perhaps accelerate this forward progress.

“At every step in this process, everyone has met this project with excitement, because who isn’t excited about a new building?” she asked rhetorically. “But there’s a level of rippling positivity — the noise of children re-entering that space is infectious. And from a public-safety perspective, activity is always better; there’s nothing but negativity when you have an open lot like that.”

Added Florio, “the tornado was the turning point for the South End. A lot of businesses thought that was it for the neighborhood, and some residents were looking to move out. But I met with the mayor, and he said to me, ‘we’re not giving up on the neighborhood; we’ll work together, and we’ll take care of this.

“We actually moved a couple of projects forward just to show people we weren’t going anywhere,” he went on, adding that MGM and several other projects have breathed new life into that historic area. “We’ve had millions of dollars invested in this small neighborhood over the past 10 years … and now we have developers that are listening to us and saying, ‘I’d like this whole block here — let’s tear down and rebuild.’”

Indeed, in the neighborhood Jeb Balise and Square One have always called home, more businesses and residents are now saying the same thing.

 

A New Chapter in the Square One Story

Balise Motor Sales’ purchase of the property in front of Square One’s new home, now under construction, presents both a huge opportunity and stern challenge for the agency.

The opportunity comes in the form of much-needed space; indeed, demand for Square One’s family-support services has grown to the point where the agency will have outgrown its new, 26,000-square-foot home before opening its doors.

The challenge comes with the significant buildout needed to accommodate both Square One’s wraparound services and the South End Citizens Council, which will also be housed in the 23,000-square-foot building at 935 Main St., and the price tag attached to it — roughly $4.7 million.

Kris Allard, vice president of Development and Communication at Square One, said the project has been jumpstarted by a $100,000 pledge from the property’s now-previous owner, Zee Raiz, as well as a $700,000 commitment from the city.

Additional donations are being sought toward the project, she said, noting that this initiative is essentially being rolled into a broader capital campaign for the new Square One, which has succeeded in raising $13 million to date.

The project to build out 935 State St. will come in phases, said Allard, noting that phase 1 will involve the first floor, which will house some Square One facilities, as well as the South End Citizens Council. Phases 2 and 3 will involve the second and third floors, respectively.

Alex Balise, director of Marketing for the Balise Auto Group, said the company’s decision to purchase the property at 935 State St., as well as commit an additional $1 million to the new Square One, were made in part to help inspire other donations to an initiative she believes will benefit not only Square One, but the South End neighborhood as well.

“This is an investment in the South End community, one we believe is a difference maker,” she said. “And we hope that it inspires others to support Square One and the South End.”

For more information on the project and the “Back to Square One” campaign, visit startsatsquareone.org or email Allard at [email protected].

As August 24 Looms, MGM Enters a Frenzied Home Stretch

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Alex Dixon stands just outside the entrance to the hotel at MGM Springfield
The Casino Era

The Final Countdown

Alex Dixon stands just outside the entrance to the hotel at MGM Springfield

Alex Dixon stands just outside the entrance to the hotel at MGM Springfield, which is nearly ready for prime time and the Aug. 24 opening.

The almost decade-long process of opening the state’s first resort casino is entering its final days. There is a beehive of activity in Springfield’s South End, and that represents only what people can actually see. The process of not only opening the facility on schedule, but “making this place special,” as General Manager Alex Dixon described it, is humbling and exhilarating at the same time.

12,704.

That’s how many “discrete tasks” Alex Dixon said he and the ever-growing team at MGM Springfield must complete before the $950 million facility can open its doors to the public at 11 a.m. on Aug. 24.

12,704!

Not ‘more than 12,000.’ Not ‘12,700 or so.’

12,704. And you thought you had a lot of lines on your ‘to-do’ list.

“And those are just the things we thought about as we put together our critical paths,” said Dixon, general manager of MGM Springfield, who managed to find a few moments to speak with BusinessWest late last month (and he had to work hard at it). He couldn’t say how many of those tasks he and his team had drawn a proverbial line through, but he hinted strongly that, while considerable progress has been made, there were still quite a few (thousand) to go.

The giant MGM Springfield sign above the massive parking garage

The giant MGM Springfield sign above the massive parking garage is the latest addition to the Springfield skyline.

But he also spoke with the utmost confidence about getting it all done, primarily because of the team that’s been put in place.

“When you think about the breakdown of those numbers, it’s a lot,” he said, putting heavy emphasis on that last word, not that he really needed to. “But we’ve got a great project-management process, we’ve done this before in other jurisdictions, we have a lot of people who are seasoned and know what they’re doing, and we have a very experienced and highly trained management team.”

As for those discrete tasks, they cover 45 different “work streams,” as Dixon called them, and 431 key milestones, many, if not most of them, already met. And they come in every size and shape, from having permits in place for each of the restaurants to meeting the required numbers for each of dozens of categories within the MGM Springfield workforce; from the thousands of items on the construction checklist to making sure the warehouse in Chicopee is stocked with everything it needs to be stocked with.

Overall, Dixon described the process of opening MGM on time — meaning with those 12,704 tasks completed and all licenses and permits and employees in place — as humbling, but also exciting and exhilarating. But he kept stressing that opening the doors on schedule is just one part of the story — and one part of the challenge.

Indeed, he said he’s not losing sleep worrying about getting everything done by Aug. 24. But what does keep him at night — sort of, but not really — are the other two main categories for all those discreet tasks: ‘the things that will make this a great customer experience’ and ‘how do we make this special?’

“We’ll open our doors at 11 o’clock on August 24 — that was never a question,” he explained. “We’re in ‘how do we make this place special?’ mode. We’re going to open, but we’re also going to have a great customer experience. The things that keep me up at night are making sure that we deliver on the promise of a phenomenal entertainment.

“You want to be unique, you want to stand out; I want to compete, and I want to win,” he went on, referring to the considerable competition MGM Springfield will face. “And our team does, too; that’s what motivates me, and it’s what motivates all of us.”

For this issue, one of the last in the pre-MGM era, BusinessWest talked with Dixon about the daunting process of opening the doors, and also about what will happen in Springfield on Aug. 24 and the days to follow.

He couldn’t — or at least he didn’t want to — make projections on how many people will come through the doors on opening day. But he expected the facility to reach full capacity (10,000 people in the casino) and for Springfield to see a day probably unlike any other in its history.

“There has been a tremendous amount of pent-up demand for some time now,” he said, referring to the almost-decade-long task of getting the state’s first resort casino up and running. “We are preparing to make sure that we can do our best to help satiate that demand on opening day.”

Task Masters

As he talked with BusinessWest about these final few days until opening, but also the long, character-building process of getting to this point, Dixon said MGM Springfield has essentially evolved from a startup company with a handful of employees (granted, one with a billion-dollar construction project unfolding around them) into one of the region’s largest employers.

The metamorphosis has come slowly and greatly accelerated over the past several months, to the point where it’s much harder for him to keep track of additions to the staff and putting names with faces. But the culture that was created when the company was a handful of people working on the ninth floor of Monarch Place, and later MGM’s headquarters on State Street, still prevails today.

“You walk through the hall, you meet a new face, and they may not know who you are,” he noted. “So the small things you did at the very beginning to build a great culture with that small group are important; we’re doing our best to make sure we have the right structures and processes in place to ensure that this culture emanates to the 3,000 we’ll be welcoming over the next few weeks.”

Together, this growing team is drawing lines through items on the ‘discrete tasks’ list, dozens, if not hundreds a day, said Dixon, adding, again, that the process of doing so is as exhilarating as it is daunting.

When asked what a typical day is like, he gave the expected answer — there is no such thing, or words to that effect.

But he said there are some common denominators, such as the starting time — 6 a.m. — with a daily briefing from MGM on news stories that impact the company and individual properties across the country.

MGM has made great progress toward completing the 12,704 (and counting)

Alex Dixon says MGM has made great progress toward completing the 12,704 (and counting) tasks needed to get the casino and the rest of the complex open by Aug. 24.

“And as you can imagine, as of late, we’re driving a lot of news, especially with the properties in Las Vegas,” he told BusinessWest. “That’s always a great wake-up call; you read the news locally, but also read the news that’s impacting the business.”

From there, he’s often off to a meeting with one of the many groups he’s involved with within the community, such as the Greater Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau’s executive committee breakfast session he attended the day he spoke with BusinessWest. He prefers to keep such community work in the morning so as to free up the remaining hours for his day job — or his long-day job, the way things are going.

When he talked with BusinessWest, Dixon referenced hour-long meetings with members of the executive team to address what he called ‘mission-critical items.’ Then, they were meeting three times a week. Soon (if not already), there will be a session a day.

“These are things we need to execute on,” he explained. “And it requires some degree of acceleration or just an intense level of focus to get us over the hump.”

Labor of Love

As an example, he mentioned “fallout” in a particular job category, a situation where the company is struggling to make hires. In such an instance, and there have been some, the team will work closely with the human-resources director and the leader of the department in question to ramp up efforts to address the situation.

Hiring is obviously one huge component of the process of getting things ready for Aug. 24, said Dixon, adding that 3,000 people have to be brought on board across several dozen different positions. But to get to 3,000, MGM actually needs to have a higher number of people in position to be hired, he explained.

“Once you make a job offer, there will be some people who just don’t show up,” he noted, adding that this is a hospitality-industry-wide issue, not something unique to MGM Springfield. “Just because you offer someone a job, they don’t really work until they show up that first day and get into their position.

“That’s the case across the board in many of our front-line positions,” he went on. “So what we’ve done, in some cases, is over-hire to account for some of that attrition, be it in security, beverage servers, or table-games dealers.”

But hiring covers only a portion of those 12,704 discrete tasks, said Dixon, who said they cover three basic “journeys,” as he called them — ‘customer,’ ‘employee,’ and ‘supplier’ — with the ultimate objective of earning an operating certificate from the Mass. Gaming Commission.

To get that certificate, MGM Springfield has a long list of things it has to satisfy in order to show that it is ready to welcome customers safely and appropriately — and also account for the revenue it is expected to generate for the state.

“This is a big business for the Commonwealth,” he explained. “Our regulators are on-site, and we have to satisfy a laundry list of things in order to prove we’re worthy of that operating certificate.”

He offered some examples:

• The casino must make sure the slot machines are “talking” to the central system monitored by the Gaming Commission to ensure the integrity of the games;

• All of the cameras must be approved by the commission to ensure that the operation has the appropriate oversight of the games and other areas within the complex;

• The commission also must approve the internal controls that MGM Springfield operates against so that the operation can be held accountable;

• The commission also makes sure the operation has all the needed licenses from local agencies, for everything from pouring alcohol to serving food; and

• The security plan must be approved to ensure the operation is adequately securing the facility as well as the Commonwealth’s assets.

It’s Getting Real

As opening day draws closer, the team at MGM will take the process of being ready to a different, higher level, said Dixon, referring to what he called ‘play days’ and other types of dress rehearsals for the real thing.

And these auditions will set the stage for what are known as ‘test nights’ (that will be publically announced), during which the operation’s performance will ultimately determine whether the state grants that coveted operating license.

“At those activities, we have to simulate what it is like to operate with real money and be able to perform these functions,” Dixon explained. “The Gaming Commission is assessing our ability to execute those functions in a controlled environment. That’s the big, substantive, last step before we are issued that operating certificate.”

As for what he’s seeing in Springfield now, as opposed to when he arrived 18 months ago, and what he expects to see after the casino opens, Dixon said there has been a metamorphosis there as well, especially when it comes to perceived attitudes about the casino.

“It’s been fascinating to see how things have shifted, from doubt in some cases — ‘is this really going to happen?’ — to ambivalence in other cases, to quietly watching, to trepidation, to what you see now, which is excitement.

“Whether you see people buying their tickets to see Stevie Wonder [who will appear at the MassMutual Center on Sept. 1] to people coaching up a son, daughter, niece, or nephew for an interview, or hearing the excitement of someone getting their first job or getting back into the workforce … it’s fascinating to see the progression.”

Meanwhile, he said that one doesn’t have to wait til Aug. 24 to witness the impact MGM Springfield is already having in Springfield’s downtown.

“If you walk along Main Street around noon, you see the streets teeming with people,” he noted. “They’re well-dressed, new haircuts, looking good, sharp — and friendly. You see the impact of 3,000 people, and we haven’t even onboarded everyone. You see the streets come alive with energy.

“Downtown has been defined by the absence of people after hours,” he went on. “Now, we’ll be defined by the presence of people; and this will be people from Springfield, but also surrounding communities, and people who haven’t been to Springfield in a while. I just can’t wait for people who will walk into our facility and walk into downtown Springfield and have this immense level of pride, not just in MGM, but in the city and the region.”

On Aug. 24, there will be a parade down Main Street an hour or so before the facility officially opens at 11 a.m., he said, adding that it will involve employees, dignitaries, and some entertainers from within the MGM family.

After that? He said National Harbor, the $1.5 billion casino in Maryland that MGM opened roughly 18 months ago, reached full capacity within hours of opening. And MGM is preparing for just such a contingency.

“Knock on wood, we can only hope we’ve got more demand than what we’re able to accommodate in the building,” he said, echoing a belief certainly shared by the city, the region, and the Gaming Commission.

Playing the Numbers

Getting back to his sleeping patterns as Aug. 24 draws closer, Dixon said there are obviously days when he rests better than others.

“The hours are getting shorter,” he said, adding, again, that the ever-growing team working draw lines through those 12,704 discrete tasks are working simultaneously on hundreds on individual assignments, but also the very big picture.

“It’s truly amazing; it takes every individual person on this team to take care of their silo, but also keep their head above water enough to look horizontally and make sure we’re coming together in a cohesive manner.”

It all about the journey, or journeys, Dixon said, adding that the plural is most definitely needed, as they work as a unit toward a common goal — not just opening the doors on time, but making the place special.

And that’s why this process is as exhilarating as it is daunting.

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