Page 59 - BusinessWest May 26, 2020
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BETE Fog Nozzle Earns MassHire
Workforce Leader Award
GREENFIELD — The MassHire Franklin Hampshire Workforce Board awarded BETE Fog Nozzle its 2021 Workforce Leader Award, honoring the company’s contributions to workforce well-being, workplace, and public safety during the pandemic. BETE now employs more than 180 people at its Greenfield facil- ity, designing, casting, and machining spray nozzles. The company garnered headlines earlier in the year for developing an innovative machine for quickly disinfecting school buses after each use with a touch- less process employing BETE’s trademark fog nozzles. Working with local bus company F.M. Kuzmeskus Inc., BETE engineers designed a button-sized fog- ger installed in rows along each school-bus ceiling, out of reach of children. The series of spray foggers are linked and connected to a port on the outside of the bus where a mobile compressor machine mixes air and disinfectant that is pumped through a tube
to the spray nozzles on the bus interior, sending an aerosol disinfectant mist throughout each bus before rolling to the next one. When the pandemic lockdown shuttered businesses in March 2020, BETE provided paid furloughs to all its employees, and the company offers regular profit-sharing bonuses. BETE is also
a founding supporter of the seven-year-old Manu- facturing Skills Initiative (MSI) training partnership between Greenfield Community College, the Work- force Board, Career Center, Franklin County Techni- cal School, and area manufacturers. BETE has hired more than a dozen graduates from MSI’s 12-week CNC Operator training program, giving them a solid
start toward building a rewarding, high-skill career in precision machining. Company President Tom Fitch is chairman of the GCC Future Work Advisory Coun- cil, which brings local chambers, business, employ- ment agencies, and the college together to develop curriculum to provide training that brings additional employment and advancement opportunities to area residents.
Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin, P.C.
Announces Acquisition
SPRINGFIELD — Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin, P.C. has added the Northampton law firm Etheredge & Steuer to its regional law practice. Attorneys
Edward Etheredge and Shelley Steuer
Bar Assoc., and the Massachusetts Bar Assoc. She is admitted to practice in Massachusetts, New York, and California, as well as the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Steuer and Etheredge will be joined by members of the Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin team at 64 Gothic St., Northampton. The firm will continue to provide services to clients at 1441 Main St., Springfield.
Eversource ConnectedSolutions Earns Program Pacesetter Award
SPRINGFIELD — In recognition of its efforts to help customers reduce energy use and save money
   People
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and in
bring a wealth of talent, knowledge,
and expertise to Shatz, Schwartz and
Fentin’s business, real estate, land-use
planning, permitting, estate plan-
ning, and estate administration practice areas. Both firms have deep roots in Western Mass. and similar approaches to providing service to clients. Etheredge, whose practice is principally in real estate, land use, planning, and development, began practicing law in Northampton in 1976. He is admitted to the Massa- chusetts Bar and admitted to practice in the U.S. Dis- trict Court for Massachusetts, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Steuer, whose practice focuses on estate planning and estate and trust administration, has practiced in Northamp-
ton since 1990. She is a member of the Pioneer Val- ley Estate Planning Council, the Hampshire County
for nine years. She attended the University of Massa- chusetts and is a figure-skating coach for the Skating Club of Amherst. Camp is a credit analyst at the main headquarters and has been with Florence Bank for three years. She received her bachelor’s degree from Framingham State University. Sanger is a customer records analyst at the main headquarters and has been with Florence Bank for 10 years. She attended the University of Phoenix.
Formel is a customer service representative at the Hadley branch and has been with Florence Bank for three years.
•••••
UMassFive College Federal Credit Union recently
introduced the newest leaders of its Hadley and Northampton branches and contact center: Megan Lagoy, Eurika Boulay, and Katharine Lawton. Lagoy has expanded her role as assistant vice president
of Retail Services. She began her career at UMass- Five nine years ago as a call center representative, eventually taking on other various contact center roles, and most recently held the title of AVP of the contact center and interactive teller machine (ITM) department. In her new position, she will oversee the Hadley branch in addition to the contact center and the ITM department. Boulay has been promoted to Northampton branch manager. She began her career at UMassFive five years ago as a member service spe- cialist in the Northampton branch, eventually moving on to becoming the branch backup supervisor, and most recently the Northampton VA Medical Cen-
ter branch manager. In her new role, she leads the Northampton branch team in creating positive mem- ber experiences, maintaining branch compliance, and working with the Community Outreach manager to develop UMassFive’s presence in Northampton. Lawton has been promoted to contact center man- ager. She began her career at UMassFive in 2016 as a
through demand response programs, Eversource’s ConnectedSolutions demand-management program received the 2021 Program Pacesetter Award from the Peak Load Management Alliance (PLMA). The energy company was recognized for surpassing enrollment goals and setting a high bar for energy-demand- management programs. Eversource’s ConnectedSo- lutions program provides incentives to customers
to reduce their energy use at times of peak demand, which helps reduce strain on the electric grid and
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contact center representative and quickly progressed to lead contact center representative in 2017. In her new role, she will oversee new online membership fulfillment, onboarding, loan applications, phone- system administration, and providing resolutions to ensure positive member experiences.
•••••
Karin Jeffers, president and CEO of nonprofit behav-
ioral-health agency Clinical & Support Options (CSO), has become the newest board member of the National Council for Behavioral Health. Jeffers earned the greatest number of votes during a recent special election to replace outgoing board member Tomas Jankowski. Jeffers will be one of two representatives for the National Council Region 1, which includes Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. She will serve out the remainder of Jankowski’s term (until June 30, 2023) and be eligible to run for two additional three-year terms thereafter. Jeffers has served as CSO’s president and CEO since 2005. During her tenure at the helm, the agency has grown from a $4 million organiza- tion with fewer than 90 employees across just three Greenfield locations to what is now a $44 million agency with more than 750 employees at 20 locations across Western and Central Mass. Joining the Nation- al Council Board is not Jeffers’ first foray into pub-
lic policy. In addition to being a longtime National Council member, she also serves on the board of the Assoc. of Behavioral Health (ABH), which is instru- mental in lobbying for positive change in statewide and national policies governing healthcare. In fact, she served as ABH’s board chair from 2016 to 2018, and as its children’s CEO policy committee chair from 2012 to 2020. She currently chairs the ABH CEO com- mittee on emergency services.
the credit department since 2016. She is a graduate of Hough-
ton College in New York.
• Benjamin Viens has been promoted to credit analyst II. He joined GCB in 2018 as a teller and has been in the credit department since 2019. He is a graduate of Salve Regina University in Newport, R.I.
•••••
Gove Law Office announced that paralegal Miranda Gon- calves has joined the firm as a real-estate paralegal. She has more than five years of experi- ence as a real-estate paralegal and will be focused on residen- tial real-estate transactions with the firm. “Miranda brings sig- nificant experience to our real-
estate practice, having previously worked with a local real-estate attorney for the past five years, and will be ready to help our clients with their transactions from day one,” said Michael Gove, founding partner of Gove Law Office. Miranda received her bachelor’s degree in legal studies, with a secondary concentra- tion in psychology and a certificate of international relations, from UMass Amherst in 2015. She is also fluent in Spanish and conversant in Portuguese.
•••••
Florence Bank announced that Kiara Sonoda, Jes-
sica Camp, Samantha Sanger, and Lynn Formel have been selected as recipients of the 2020 President’s Award. Employees nominate their peers for this pres- tigious honor, which recognizes outstanding perfor- mance, customer service, and overall contribution to Florence Bank. Sonoda is a teller operations manager and customer service representative at the downtown Northampton office and has been with Florence Bank
Company Notebook
   MIRANDA GONCALVES
 DEPARTMENTS
MAY 26, 2021 59
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