Page 47 - BusinessWest August 4, 2021

The following is a compilation of recent lawsuits involving area businesses and organizations. These are strictly allegations that have yet to be proven in a court of law. Readers are advised to contact the par- ties listed, or the court, for more information concern- ing the individual claims.
HAMPDEN SUPERIOR COURT
Cristina Lopez v. City of Springfield
Allegation: Motor-vehicle negligence causing per- sonal injury: $5,978
Filed: 6/23/21
Renee Davis as mother and next of kin to Jayden Crudup v. Six Flags New England
Allegation: Negligence causing personal injury: $3,190.52
Filed: 6/23/21
Roundtable
Continued from page 10
dietary, housekeeping, nurse aides, and other posi- tions, it’s almost better for them financially to stay
at home than it is to work. I’ve also heard anecdot- ally that there’s a group of people that are gathering resilience over the summer, and they plan on coming back after Labor Day.”
BusinessWest: What are the forces — workforce, inflation, inventory, COVID, and more — that will determine where the local economy goes?
Senecal: “I think we’re all going in the right direc- tion, and there’s nothing but good news ahead as long as inflation stays in check. Businesses are open- ing and growing, and with the levels of demand we’re seeing, that’s a good problem to have. And I think things will start to open up from a supply-chain perspective. We talked a little about unemployment benefits ending in September; let’s see if that pushes people back to work and brings the labor situation closer to normal. Overall, as long as COVID stays under control and we don’t go back to shutdowns — such shutdowns are devastating for the economy — I feel very positive about the fourth quarter and going into 2022.”
Dumay: “I second that optimism and emphasize
the ‘as long as’ comment regarding COVID. The only thing that is sobering or bringing caution to my optimism is the slowdown in the rate of vaccination across the country, especially in areas of the coun- try where it’s very low. Also, with the CDC looking at potential mask mandates and people getting alarmed about another surge ... that could slow down what is looking to be an optimistic time and an opportunity to really get back to normal.”
Yee: “We’re very optimistic about the last two quar- ters of the year and going into 2022. We’ve seen a lot of positive results during this summer, which is tradi- tionally our slower time of year. It’s been a very strong summer to date and much higher than 2019 levels. We’re really positive about what’s to come, but there are many challenges that could slow things down moving forward, like labor shortages, inflation, and supply-chain disruptions ... those are all major con-
Commerce Insurance Co. as subrogee of Mary Hebert v. City of Chicopee
Allegation: Negligence causing property damage: $44,611.63
Filed: 6/29/21
Robert Palazzi v. Domaney’s Liquors and Fine Foods Inc. and Dosi, LLC
Allegation: Negligence causing personal injury: $52,336
Filed: 7/6/21
Nelson Gomez v. Ironsides Property Group and Couture Partners, LLC
Allegation: Negligence causing personal injury: $8,448
Filed: 7/6/21
Elizabeth Ibarra v. Roberto’s Sports Bar & Grille Inc. d/b/a the Zone and Paul Ramesh
Allegation: Negligence causing personal injury:
cerns. We’re eager for everyone to get to normal so we can see a higher level of business than we have and, we hope the pent-up demand generates business across the area.”
Bitsoli: “People are looking for optimism, and I think as long as the economy holds out, and if we can get more people vaccinated, things should continue to improve. With the new variants out there are certainly concerns, and there are questions about whether the vaccines are going to continue to keep people healthy even when they’re exposed to the variants and keep them out of the hospitals and from getting severe complications.”
Paquette: “It’s really business as usual for us now. Our biggest concern is trying to hire people who are skilled — which means we’re like everyone else. But we’re seeing a lot of people who are interested in growing their skill set, and that, to me, is a positive; I’ve never had as many people enrolled in school and training programs as we do now. We’re rebuild- ing, we’re in a good space, and we’re growing. It feels much different than a year ago.”
Leary: “I’m optimistic about the rest of 2021 and 2022, at least the first half. It will be interesting when the government programs start to dry up and slow down and we see how people react to that when it comes to their spending habits. But as we heard, deposits are way up, which means people have money to spend; they have disposable income. So I think people will start to spend as they get out and feel more comfortable going to restaurants or getting on an airplane. I see that continuing for the next year or so, but who knows after that what will happen? We need to have supplies free up, and we need to push for everyone to get vaccinated.”
BusinessWest: Finally, what have you learned during this pandemic, and how has this made you a different and perhaps better leader?
Bitsoili: “As a leader, what I’ve learned is the impor- tance of that human connection. We’ve all talked about t the fact that Webex is great from a technol- ogy standpoint, but that relationship building and that ability to look someone in the eye ... I really real- ize that there’s something to that, and it’s quite big.
$31,504.54 Filed: 7/7/21
Jan Sourdiffe v. Mutt Rescue Inc.
Allegation: Negligence causing personal injury: $328,040.87
Filed: 7/8/21
Court Dockets
Constance Brawders v. Town of East Longmeadow Allegation: Breach of employment contract: $80,000+ Filed: 7/9/21
Denise Labelle v. Flodesign Sonics Inc. and EMD Millipore Corp.
Allegation: Employment discrimination: $2,293,109 Filed: 7/12/21
Also, I knew this before, but now I really know it: you really have to lead from the heart because employees want to feel the empathy and the caring from leader- ship. Lastly, it’s visibility and the ability to connect with people on their turf and really be able to listen to issues and immediately follow up with resolution. These are all things I knew, but this pandemic has caused me to reflect and overemphasize the need to do those things.”
Dumay: “I realized the importance of connecting with the people with whom I work, the faculty and staff at Elms College, and be present and pay atten- tion to what people are experiencing and have that be relevant to my decision making. Also, I’ve learned the importance of giving people some answers, even if they don’t have the complete answer. There was a lot of uncertainty during the past year, and people were looking for the leaders of organizations to provide some answers. For someone who likes to completely process things and share them when they’re finalized, I had to learn to provide answers that are sometimes incomplete and need to be finalized. That was impor- tant to me.”
Leary: “One thing that I learned is that each person is very unique with regard to what their circumstanc- es are — they might be a single parent with high- school children, or they may have a newborn ... there are so many factors, and we can’t have a one-size- fits-all policy. We have to be flexible when it comes to work-life balance.”
Paquette: “I had to spend a chunk of my time with a remote first-grader, so I had that stress at home while trying to be at work. So I found that employees func- tion better if we’re able to meet them we’re they’re at. Everything was remote to me outside the shop, but in the shop, it just seemed important that people had someone that they could look to make them feel bet- ter. We definitely improved our transparency with employees to let them know where we were at. It
was probably so scary to see so many people laid off, some by choice, but some by our choice. I held meet- ings with people just so they would know what was going on and that they had as much information as
I had in that moment. And the response was pretty good. Most people stayed, and they kept at it at a time when it was hard to keep at it.” u
George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]
DEPARTMENTS
AUGUST 4, 2021 47
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