Community Profiles
Community Profiles
![The new ownership group at Shaker Bowl](https://businesswest.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/EastLongmeadow1-768x432.jpg)
Community Spotlight Gordon Smith became superintendent of schools in East Longmeadow in 2010. Not long after, the ‘journey,’ as he called it, to build a replacement for the high school […]
![Shakespeare & Company’s 33-acre campus in Lenox is open to the public for picnics and exploration of its grounds.](https://businesswest.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/CommDay_hill-768x432.jpg)
Community Spotlight Becky Piccolo says the Olde Heritage Tavern is the ‘Cheers’ of Lenox. It’s a place where … well, most everyone knows your name. Indeed, while it’s a popular […]
![Molly Keegan](https://businesswest.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Hadley1a-768x432.jpg)
Community Spotlight There is no official countdown clock on the massive project to widen and reconstruct roughly 2.5 miles of Route 9 in Hadley. But there might as well […]
![Jacob Robinson](https://businesswest.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Amherst1-768x432.webp)
Community Spotlight After relocating to Belchertown a few years ago, Jacob Robinson found himself a frequent visitor to nearby Amherst and admits to falling in love with its downtown — […]
![planned redevelopment of the former Wilson’s department store](https://businesswest.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Greenfield1-768x432.webp)
Community Spotlight Virginia “Ginny” Desorgher is a retired emergency-room nurse, mother of three, and grandmother of nine. She had no real desire to add ‘mayor of Greenfield’ to that personal […]
![Rachel Rosenbloom and her husband, Michael Bedrosian](https://businesswest.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Palmer1option2-768x432.webp)
Community Spotlight Palmer is known to many as the Town of Seven Railroads, a nod to a very rich history as a transit center. Indeed, several passenger and freight […]
![Chris Dunne](https://businesswest.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Deerfield1-768x432.webp)
Community Spotlight ‘Diverse.’ That’s the one word Jessye Deane kept coming back to as she talked about Deerfield and its business community. And with good reason. Indeed, while this […]
![Rafal Dybacki (left) and Neil Scanlon](https://businesswest.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Worthington-Assembly_8996-768x432.webp)
Blueprinting a Unique Culture It’s called “The Pick, Place, Podcast.” It’s co-produced by Worthington Assembly Inc. (WAi) and a collaborator — and tenant within its space in Deerfield’s industrial park […]
![](https://businesswest.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Franklin1Lucy-768x432.webp)
Big Ideas in Small Towns When Lucy Damkoehler returned to Western Mass. after 20 years away, she opened a bakery in a town she knew well — Bernardston, to be […]
![Mayor Joshua Garcia, left, and Aaron Vega](https://businesswest.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Holyoke1-768x432.webp)
Community Spotlight As he talked about Holyoke and its many marketable assets, Mayor Joshua Garcia listed everything from its location — on I-91 and right off a turnpike exit […]
![Northampton Main Street](https://businesswest.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Northampton2-768x432.webp)
Community Spotlight As executive director of the Northampton Chamber of Commerce, Vince Jackson spends a lot of time talking to business owners, and what he hears is generally optimistic — […]
![](https://businesswest.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/IMG_886Chicopee2-768x432.webp)
Community Spotlight Like most other cities and towns, Lee Pouliot says, Chicopee has a housing shortage. It’s evidenced by everything from lengthy waiting lists at apartment complexes and skyrocketing rents […]
![Kathy DeVarennes](https://businesswest.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Lee1-768x432.jpg)
Community Spotlight Chris Brittain says the report wasn’t exactly surprising, but it was still quite eye-opening. Indeed, by the time the Boston Business Journal listed Lee as one of […]
![Chris Johnson](https://businesswest.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Agawam1-768x432.jpg)
Community Spotlight Chris Johnson was elected Agawam’s first mayor back in November 1989. He then served five two-year terms before returning to his real-estate law practice in 2000. In the […]
![Kristine Koistinen](https://businesswest.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Enfield1-768x432.jpg)
Community Spotlight For decades now, a rail stop in Enfield, Conn. on the line from Springfield to Hartford, New Haven, and points south has been a dream. Finally, the […]