IRS Offers Advice on What to Look for in a Tax Preparer

By Contributor
Accounting and Tax Planning

Make the Right Choice

The Internal Revenue Service today reminds taxpayers that carefully choosing a tax professional to prepare a tax return is vital to ensuring that their personal and financial information is safe, secure, and treated with care.

Most tax-return preparers provide honest, high-quality service. But some may cause harm through fraud, identity theft, and other scams. It is important for taxpayers to understand who they’re choosing and what important questions to ask when hiring an individual or firm to prepare their tax return.

Another reason to choose a tax preparer carefully is because taxpayers are ultimately legally responsible for all the information on their income tax return, regardless of who prepares it.

The IRS has put together a directory of federal tax-return preparers with credentials and select qualifications (irs.treasury.gov/rpo/rpo.jsf) to help individuals find a tax pro that meets high standards. There is also a page at irs.gov for choosing a tax professional that can help guide taxpayers in making a good choice, including selecting someone affiliated with a recognized national tax association. There are different kinds of tax professionals, and a taxpayer’s needs will help determine which kind of preparer is best for them.

 

Red Flags to Watch Out For

There are warning signs that can help steer taxpayers away from unscrupulous tax-return preparers. For instance, not signing a tax return is a red flag that a paid preparer is likely not to be trusted. They may be looking to make a quick profit by promising a big refund or charging fees based on the size of the refund.

These unscrupulous ‘ghost’ preparers often print the return and have the taxpayer sign and mail it to the IRS. For electronically filed returns, a ghost preparer will prepare the tax return but refuse to digitally sign it as the paid preparer. Taxpayers should avoid this type of unethical preparer.

In addition, taxpayers should always choose a tax professional with a valid preparer tax identification number (PTIN). By law, anyone who is paid to prepare or assists in preparing federal tax returns must have a valid PTIN. Paid preparers must sign and include their PTIN on any tax return they prepare.

 

Other Tips

Here are a few other tips to consider when choosing a tax return preparer:

• Look for a preparer who’s available year-round. If questions come up about a tax return, taxpayers may need to contact the preparer after the filing season is over.

• Review the preparer’s history. Check the Better Business Bureau website for information about the preparer. Look for disciplinary actions and the license status for credentialed preparers. For CPAs, check the State Board of Accountancy’s website, and for attorneys, check with the State Bar Assoc. For enrolled agents, go to irs.gov and search for ‘verify enrolled agent status’ or check the IRS Directory of Federal Tax Return Preparers.

• Ask about service fees. Taxpayers should avoid tax-return preparers who base their fees on a percentage of the refund or who offer to deposit all or part of the refund into their own financial accounts. Be wary of tax-return preparers who claim they can get larger refunds than their competitors.

• Find an authorized IRS e-file provider. They are qualified to prepare, transmit, and process electronically filed returns. The IRS issues most refunds in fewer than 21 days for taxpayers who file electronically and choose direct deposit.

• Provide records and receipts. Good preparers ask to see these documents. They’ll also ask questions to determine the client’s total income, deductions, tax credits, and other items. Do not hire a preparer who e-files a tax return using a pay stub instead of a Form W-2. This is against IRS e-file rules.

• Understand the preparer’s credentials and qualifications. Attorneys, CPAs, and enrolled agents can represent any client before the IRS in any situation. Annual Filing Season Program participants may represent taxpayers in limited situations if they prepared and signed the tax return.

• Never sign a blank or incomplete return. Taxpayers are responsible for filing a complete and correct tax return.

• Review the tax return before signing it. Be sure to ask questions if something is not clear or appears inaccurate. Any refund should go directly to the taxpayer — not into the preparer’s bank account. Review the routing and bank-account numbers on the completed return and make sure they are accurate.

• Taxpayers can report preparer misconduct to the IRS using Form 14157, Complaint: Tax Return Preparer (www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f14157.pdf). If a taxpayer suspects a tax-return preparer filed or changed their tax return without their consent, they should file Form 14157-A, Tax Return Preparer Fraud or Misconduct Affidavit (www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f14157a.pdf).

 

Extended Hours

In addition to this advice, the IRS also announced nearly 250 IRS Taxpayer Assistance Centers around the country will extend their weekly office hours to give taxpayers additional time to get the help they need during the filing season. The extended office hours will continue through Tuesday, April 16.

The Springfield office, located at 1550 Main St., offers extended hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays. For questions about available services or hours of operation, call (413) 788-0284.

The expanded hours at the assistance centers reflect funding and staffing made possible under the Inflation Reduction Act, which is being used across the IRS to improve taxpayer service, add new technology and tools, as well as help tax-compliance efforts.

“This is another example of how additional IRS resources are helping taxpayers across the country,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said. “Adding extra hours provide more options for hardworking taxpayers to get help with their tax issues. The IRS is continuing to work hard both during the upcoming tax season and throughout the year to find ways to make it easier for people to interact with us.”

Professional Drywall Construction Hires Timothy Craw as Vice President

By
Daily News

Timothy Craw

SPRINGFIELD — Professional Drywall Construction Inc. (PDC), a leading commercial drywall company with offices in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York, announced that Timothy Craw has joined the company as vice president of Business Development and Labor Relations. With 45 years of construction experience in nearly every industry segment, Craw will be responsible for expanding the company’s footprint in all areas of the Atlantic states.

“We could not be more pleased to welcome Tim to the team,” PDC owner Nick Shaink said. “His demonstrated leadership, unique insights, and breadth of capabilities are exactly what we need to help the company reach its current and future growth targets.”

Most recently, Craw was a union business agent and building trades president. In his various positions over the years, he has developed and maintained relationships with union and non-union contracts for business development and market expansion, recruited and represented union journeyman and apprentice carpenters in collective-bargaining negotiations, mediated contract conflicts, and monitored federal and state public construction projects during the planning, design, and bidding processes.

Craw received the Carpenters Union Local 108 Steward of the Year Award in 2001 and the BCBCTC Edward M. Kennedy Award in 2016. He is a member of the International Foundation of Employee Benefits Plans and the Assoc. for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. A graduate of the U.S. Army Engineer School, he served six years as a sergeant in the U.S. Army.

Market Mentors Welcomes Geoff Rice as Senior Content Marketing Specialist

By
Daily News

Geoff Rice

SPRINGFIELD — Market Mentors, LLC, a fully integrated marketing, advertising, and public-relations agency, recently welcomed Geoff Rice to its team as a senior Content Marketing specialist. In this role, he applies his two decades of marketing, communications, and creative experience to every challenge, from brand launches to engaging content for websites, social media, and campaigns of all sizes.

“Geoff is a fantastic addition to our experienced content marketing team,” said Michelle Abdow, president and CEO of Market Mentors. “He brings an abundance of creativity and enthusiasm to the role, offering keen insights for clients across the many industries we serve.”

Prior to joining Market Mentors, Rice focused his talents on the health and beauty industries, and he now extends his expertise to clients from a diverse range of businesses, including manufacturing, energy, insurance, and others. He is a graduate of Colgate University with a degree in English literature.

Governors America Corp. Welcomes Jeff Little as Director of Product Management

By
Daily News

Jeff Little

AGAWAM — Governors America Corp. (GAC), a veteran-owned, Massachusetts-based, global manufacturer of innovative engine control products, recently welcomed Jeff Little as its new director of Product Management.

“We’re thrilled to bring Jeff on board,” said Sean Collins, president and CEO. “He has decades of experience in the field, particularly in the area of instrumentation, display, and control products for the industrial stationary, off-highway, and recreational power sports market. His insight and expertise are exceptionally valuable.”

As director of Product Management, Little’s responsibilities include aligning product strategy with business goals; driving product discovery, market research, and competitor research; driving innovation and new product development initiatives; communicating product vision and strategy to stakeholders; and monitoring and maintaining product health.

Little received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Mississippi State University. He has garnered 27 years of experience in the industry, most recently as director of Product Management at Enovation Controls.

Berkshire Money Management’s Nate Tomkiewicz Becomes CFP Professional

By
Daily News

DALTON — Berkshire Money Management, a financial and retirement planning firm with offices in Dalton and Great Barrington, congratulates Nate Tomkiewicz on becoming a certified financial planner (CFP) professional. He is also a licensed financial advisor and chartered retirement planning counselor.

Tomkiewicz specializes in retirement planning and maximizing employee benefits for people who have worked hard for their money and want to pass it on to children or charity. He is skilled at identifying opportunities within 401(k), 403(b), and 457 plans. With this knowledge, he helps nurses, doctors, and other professionals in the Berkshires find opportunities they didn’t know they had.

With his new CFP certification, Tomkiewicz is looks forward to tackling a broader set of challenges for his clients, including helping them reduce their tax liabilities, secure their estate for the next generation, and plan a fulfilling retirement.

“Nate understands that retirement readiness goes beyond making the best investments,” said Allen Harris, CEO and chief investment officer at Berkshire Money Management. “Clients seek proactive advice, organization, and implementation, and I am proud of Nate for attaining this credential to help him do these things for our clients.”

The Difference Makers of 2024

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Class of 2024 Cover Story

Introducing This Year’s Class

For 16 years now, BusinessWest has been recognizing and celebrating the work of individuals, groups, businesses, and institutions through its Difference Makers program, with one goal in mind: to show the many ways one can, in fact, make a difference within their community.

The stories of the class of 2024, like the 15 cohorts before it, are all different, but the common thread is the passion and commitment exhibited by each honoree to improve quality of life for those in this region and make it a better place to live, work, and conduct business.

The stories are inspiring in many different ways, whether it’s Matt Bannister’s deep commitment to area nonprofits or Shannon Rudder’s lifelong pursuit of equity and access for all; whether it’s the work of Fred and Mary Kay Kadushin and the staff of Rock 102 to fight hunger or the ways Delcie Bean and Scott Keiter use their business success to impact others; whether it’s Linda Dunlavy’s hard work on tough regional issues or the significant impact of Springfield Symphony Orchestra and Springfield Chamber Players on the economic and cultural health of Western Mass.

We invite you to read these stories below. All of the 2024 Difference Makers have made an impact — real, tangible, often life-changing impact — in this region that we call home.

You can also help us celebrate the honorees in person on Thursday, April 10 at the Log Cabin in Holyoke. Tickets cost $95 each, with reserved tables of 10-12 available. For more event details and to reserve tickets, go HERE

Thank you to our sponsors — Burkhart, Pizzanelli, P.C., Keiter, Mercy Medical Center/Trinity Health, the Royal Law Firm, and TommyCar Auto Group — for making this program possible.

See the Digital Edition of the 2024 Difference Makers HERE

Matt Bannister

Matt Bannister

Senior Vice President, Marketing and Corporate Responsibility, PeoplesBank

Delcie Bean

CEO, Paragus Strategic I.T.

Linda Dunlavy

Executive Director,
Franklin Regional Council of Governments

Dr. Fred and Mary Kay Kadushin

Dr. Fred and Mary Kay Kadushin

Co-founders, Feed the Kids

Scott Keiter

Scott Keiter

CEO, Keiter

The Staff of Rock 102

The Staff of Rock 102

Shannon Rudder

President and CEO, Martin Luther King Jr. Family Services

SSO

Springfield Symphony Orchestra and Springfield Chamber Players

Please Join Us for the 2024 Difference Makers Celebration!

Wednesday, April 10 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Tickets are $95 and can be purchased HERE

Thank you to our partner sponsors: Burkhart Pizzanelli, P.C., Keiter, Mercy Medical Center/Trinity Health, the Royal Law Firm, TommyCar Auto Group, and our supporting sponsors: Springfield Thunderbirds and Westfield bank.

Partner Sponsors:

Keiter logo
Mercy Logo
Royal Logo

Supporting Sponsors:

Taking the Ball … and Running with It

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Cesar Ruiz says the planned facility could make Holyoke the “sports capital of New England.”
Features Special Coverage

Holyoke Conceptualizes Olympic-style Sports Complex

Cesar Ruiz says the planned facility could make Holyoke the “sports capital of New England.”

Cesar Ruiz says the planned facility could make Holyoke the “sports capital of New England.”

 

Cesar Ruiz admits that the first time he and Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia discussed the notion of bringing a sports complex to the Paper City, one that could potentially become the new home to the Volleyball Hall of Fame, the talk “pretty much went in one ear and out the other.”

That was roughly two years ago, and Ruiz said his lack of enthusiasm had less to do with the concept, which he has long championed, and far more to do with the many other things he had going on his life, especially the East Longmeadow-based home-care and healthcare staffing agency called Golden Years, the venture he started with a few partners and has led to rapid and dramatic growth, so much that he was named BusinessWest’s Top Entrepreneur for 2020.

“The feasibility study indicates that we can draw from multiple areas and bring people to Holyoke. We’re not approaching this as a regular sports facility, but a venue that can draw regionally and from several different states.”

With that company on firmer ground and, increasingly, being managed by his children, Ruiz was more responsive when the subject of a sports complex came up again at the beginning of 2023.

“Timing is important,” he told BusinessWest. “When I was asked to take a look at it again and see what it might look like … I had a completely different reaction to it.”

In fact, you could say that he took the ball and ran with it, undertaking feasibility studies; engaging Florida-based Sports Facilities Co. (SFC), which has built what Ruiz has in mind for Holyoke in several municipalities around the globe, for an initial concept; and then putting together a team, called the USA International Sports Complex Group, to advance this initiative.

Conceptual renderings of the sports complex planned for Holyoke, one that will include everything from athletic fields and indoor courts to a hotel and a new home for the Volleyball Hall of Fame.

The concept has progressed to the point where Ruiz, Garcia, other city officials, representatives of the Volleyball Hall of Fame, and other officers with USA International Sports Complex Group felt ready to announce the plans to the public.

Which they did, at a well-attended press conference at the Volleyball Hall of Fame on Feb. 6.

They announced plans for what they called “an Olympic-style sports complex,” one featuring a main indoor athletic facility that would boast everything from basketball and volleyball courts to an arcade area, laser tag, ‘boutique bowling,’ batting cages, pickleball, and more, as well as outdoor athletic facilities to include a synthetic turf field and baseball and softball fields.

These facilities come with a total price tag estimated at between $50 million and $90 million, said Ruiz, adding that, while this will be a privately funded facility, MassDevelopment and other state agencies have been approached about potential involvement.

Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia

Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia says talk of a sports complex has been ongoing in Holyoke for many years.

In an interview prior to that news conference, Ruiz told BusinessWest that he wants to make Holyoke the sports capital of New England, and this project will become the vehicle for doing so and, in the process, bring in an estimated $41 million in new economic activity to the city.

‘We want to put Holyoke on the map, starting with volleyball — this will be the new home of the Volleyball Hall of Fame,” he said. “But it will be much more than that; this facility will have several sites and include many different sports venues for people of all ages — young and old — and will also include a hotel.

“It’s a very ambitious initiative,” he went on, adding that it will be built in phases, with the first of them hopefully to be completed by the end of 2026. “The feasibility study indicates that we can draw from multiple areas and bring people to Holyoke. We’re not approaching this as a regular sports facility, but a venue that can draw regionally and from several different states.”

Garcia agreed, adding that that talk of a sports complex has been ongoing in Holyoke for many years, and it became a priority of his administration to turn the talk into action. Doing that will require leadership and partnerships on several levels, he told BusinessWest, noting that Ruiz and his administration are providing the former, while the latter will involve several stakeholders, many of them still to be determined.

“I’m excited about what this sports complex could mean for the trajectory of our city,” the mayor said. “This would be a huge part of the resurgence of Holyoke.”

 

Court of Opinion

In that interview with BusinessWest, Garcia said Holyoke likes to “punch above its weight class.”

That’s a boxing term, obviously, now used in many different contexts, to describe underdogs taking on heavy favorites, for example, or, in this case, a smaller community trying to take on initiatives perhaps more suited to larger municipalities.

Renovation of the historic Victory Theatre, an ongoing, 30-year initiative in this city, might fall into that category. And this sports complex certainly would as well, said Garcia, adding that it’s an ambitious undertaking, but a poignant next step for a community that has, indeed, been surging in recent years, and on many levels.

These include entrepreneurship — especially within the minority population, with dozens of new businesses opening in recent years, many of them in a rebounding downtown — but also housing; education; new clean-energy businesses, such as Clean Crop Technology, which uses electricity to “revolutionize food safety”; and especially a burgeoning cannabis cluster, which has made effective use of the city’s huge inventory of old mill space for dispensaries and growing facilities alike.

The next frontier, if one chooses to call it that, could — and should — be sports, said the mayor, adding that the city has a strong tradition in this realm, which crosses many sports and several decades and includes everything from volleyball to Golden Gloves boxing to the Holyoke Blue Sox baseball team.

“Holyoke is a sports city; it always has been — we have very robust youth programs, baseball, basketball, football, and more, and the pipeline goes into our high schools,” Garcia said. “And that extends to recreational softball — we have people from across this region and into Connecticut that come to Holyoke to play in two softball leagues.

“One of the things we struggle with in Holyoke is adequate space for people to play, recreationally, but also tournaments; we don’t have the kind of capacity to host large-scale tournaments,” he went on, adding that the sports complex now on the drawing board would address this need and, while doing so, bring people to the city, providing a boost to existing businesses and perhaps fueling new ones.

“Couple this need for such a facility with the fact that Holyoke is the birthplace of volleyball and home to the Volleyball Hall of Fame, and we thought that this has to happen here — it has to happen in Holyoke,” he said.

As noted, the project must clear several hurdles, starting with the securing of what is expected to be several different sites, finalization of a design, and, especially, putting the funding in place.

The outdoor component of the complex promises to feature several fields and courts.

The outdoor component of the complex promises to feature several fields and courts.

Garcia said one of the next steps in the process is to assemble a funding strategy, one that will involve bringing more investors, like Ruiz, to the table, and also likely involve public support, from MassDevelopment and other state agencies.

But several significant steps have already been taken, especially the hiring of SFC, which has a deep portfolio of sports-complex projects, including the Rhythm & Rally Sports & Events complex in Macon, Ga., touted as the world’s largest pickleball facility; Allison Sports Town, an indoor/outdoor venue in Springfield, Mo. that spans 82 acres; Emerald Acres Sports Connection in Mattoon, Ill., which features an indoor field house, outdoor fields, and a walkable retail development space; the Fort Bend Epicenter in Rosenberg, Texas, a 230,000-square-foot, multi-purpose area that houses six basketball courts and 12 volleyball courts, with a capacity of 10,000 seats; and many others.

Ruiz called SFC the “best in the industry,” and noted that one of the next steps in the process of adding a Holyoke facility to that portfolio is visiting several projects of similar size and scope and understanding all that it took to make them reality.

“They handle the feasibility part of this, from design and development to operations,” he said of SFC, adding that the company can obviously help guide the initiative from start to finish.

 

Fields of Dreams

The sports complex, its importance to Holyoke and the region, and its potential as an economic driver are neatly summed up in a letter to a committee reviewing submissions to a request for proposals for a parcel on Whiting Farms Road owned by Holyoke Gas & Electric.

“This is not a dream, but a vision already being put in place by our partnership with the SFC team,” it reads. “We will build a sports facility that the city of Holyoke will be proud of … together with SFC, we will develop one of the top sports and event destinations in Massachusetts.”

Those behind those words believe this team has the drive, the confidence, and, eventually, the means to get the project over the finish line, or the goal line — whichever sports term one chooses — and make this vision reality.

 

Five College Consortium Helps Its Member Campuses Accomplish More

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workshop at UMass Amherst
Education Special Coverage

Turning Ideas into Reality

workshop at UMass Amherst

Faculty members from all five campuses meet together in a workshop at UMass Amherst as part of a program called Building Academic Leaders in the Humanities Program.
(Photo by Dan Little)

Ina Clark recalls her experience working for the Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City, which was not a job performed in a vacuum.

“You’re not only working on your own museum, but also collaborating with the development offices of all the Smithsonian museums — and not only juggling all that, but finding positive ways for those relationships to work,” she told BusinessWest. “I love working with people to grow things, producing results they wouldn’t achieve otherwise.”

She brings the same mindset to her new role as director of Development and Sponsored Programs at the Five Colleges Consortium in Amherst, an organization that, for decades, has convened the resources of Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and UMass Amherst to increase the capacity of those institutions to create educational opportunities both on and off campus.

“Not everyone has the same strengths in everything, and there are certain things they wouldn’t have the budget or structure to take on,” Clark said of the five campuses, adding that this dynamic is exciting to her, in that it necessitates the collaborative work Five Colleges specializes in. “It allows some students to get experiences and opportunities they wouldn’t have on their own campus, but can have because this exists.”

Executive Director Sarah Pfatteicher agreed. “I feel like the work we do is particularly valuable and powerful at a moment that feels very divisive,” she said. “Particularly after the pandemic, we’ve all been so focused inwardly. This is all about getting people in a room to think in a bigger-picture way than they do alone, or accomplish collectively what they couldn’t do themselves — just get outside their individual interests and think of the collective good.”

And it’s a good that impacts the broader community outside the campuses, she added. “We have deep connections to our communities. The campuses can’t be healthy without healthy communities. It’s a symbiotic, mutually supportive relationship, and it’s a lovely thing.”

Clark’s nonprofit background is extensive; besides the Smithsonian Design Museum, she has worked in development at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Cooper Hewitt, the Ms. Foundation for Women, and Sesame Workshop. She also recently served as interim director of SPCA International, an animal-protection organization.

“This is all about getting people in a room to think in a bigger-picture way than they do alone, or accomplish collectively what they couldn’t do themselves — just get outside their individual interests and think of the collective good.”

At Five Colleges, “one of the many things I have found terrific in this opportunity is that you have these very brilliant people who are quite different from each other, and these campuses that are close by but have different perspectives on things, different points of view, and we have a way to pull it all together and brainstorm an idea into a stronger idea, to consider what’s possible,” Clark said.

“That’s a truly amazing idea, and hard to find in a world where people have been isolated. We have this opportunity to throw out an idea and see what happens with it because we have this network that exists around us.”

 

Gradual Growth

Historically, Pfatteicher said, the campuses have been collaborating since at least 1914, but Five Colleges officially became a 501(c)(3) in 1965. “For many years after that, it was a very small organization. So it’s been 110 years of growth to get to where we are now, with our staff, budget, and all the things we have in place.

“Our whole reason for existing is to help facilitate collaborative efforts between the campuses,” she went on. “Everything the campuses want to do together, however we can help them collaborate, our job is to figure out how to do that.”

External funding, mainly in the form of grants, makes up about 15% of the budget, paying for a series of sponsored programs, said Kevin Kennedy, director of Strategic Engagement at Five Colleges.

K-12 teachers from the Center for East Asian Studies

K-12 teachers from the Center for East Asian Studies visit the Mo’ili’ili Hongwanji Buddhist Temple in Honolulu.
(Photo by Anne Prescott)

“The vast majority of our work on the campuses is with things other than the sponsored programs — cross-registration, extensive academic program support, student research … a wide variety of areas.”

That includes a lot of academic programming, sharing curricula and faculty, some back-office and administrative operations, risk management, insurance, and shared fiber-optic network contracts, Pfatteicher noted.

“The majority of our annual budget comes directly from the campuses in the form of assessments which basically say, ‘here’s a list of the things you told me what you want to do next year, and this is what it will cost each of you.’ We have a very detailed formula about who pays for which amount, but the budget comes from the campuses.”

“People will be able to research thousands, even tens of thousands of museum objects that aren’t nearly as accessible to them with the current system.”

Clark, on the other hand, will focus mainly on the consortium’s broad portfolio of sponsored programs, which most recently includes grants from the Mellon Foundation for expanding the Native American and Indigenous Studies curricula of its member campuses and for creation of a faculty leadership-development program, as well as a host of other programs:

• Paradigm Shift is a scholarship partnership program supported by a coalition of more than 30 school districts, universities, and community organizations, aimed at helping Black and Latinx para-educators become licensed teachers.

“The focus is on creating a more diverse teaching workforce,” Pfatteicher said. “It takes people who are already in the classroom and progresses them in their career. It isn’t something that one campus can do by itself, and even Five Colleges couldn’t do it alone, but our job is to get the right people in the room — superintendents, identified para-educators, teacher training programs, someone to manage grant funding … it takes a village, if you will.”

“That’s a perfect example of the work being done here in a collaborative way,” Clark added. “It goes beyond the five campuses and has a tremendous regional benefit.”

• The Center for East Asian Studies in Northampton supports K-12 teachers in learning, and then teaching about, East Asia. It draws on the resources of the Five College member campuses to conduct seminars, institutes, conferences, and workshops.

• Learning in Retirement is a group of retirees, mainly from the field of education, who provide peer education to one another. “It started with faculty members moving into retirement who wanted to stay involved and wanted to help each other, but the membership has gone beyond that,” Clark said.

• Five Colleges also received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support an upgrade of six museum collections and cataloging systems — five from the member colleges and also Historic Deerfield.

“This effort will help the museums to better their collections, and allow them to share their collections with the world,” Kennedy said. “People will be able to research thousands, even tens of thousands of museum objects that aren’t nearly as accessible to them with the current system.”

Those are just a few of the ongoing initiatives. While some of these programs exist for the long run, others — like the museum project — will eventually meet a goal and then end. Meanwhile, ideas for new collaborations continue to be generated by the colleges themselves.

Participants in the Paradigm Shift program

Participants in the Paradigm Shift program, which helps para-educators of color in local K-12 schools earn their teacher’s licenses.
(Photo by Ben Barnhart)

“For the most part, the campuses come here with a project they’d like to undertake: ‘can you help us find funding for this one?’” Pfatteicher explained. “Or one campus might come forward and say, ‘we’ve been talking to a funder about a program, and it occurred to us it might be more powerful to do it collectively.’ So they hand over that conversation with the funder to Five Colleges, and we seek funding.”

And new concepts — and discussions — are always emerging, Clark said. “Ideas can come from one campus, and we help bring it to the full group.”

 

Strength in Numbers

Pfatteicher emphasized that many valuable programs, especially of the collaborative nature, couldn’t be accomplished without a central convener like the Five College Consortium.

“Campuses in theory can run these things on their own, but the more complicated, detailed collaborations are harder,” she noted, adding that even helping students on one campus find what courses are offered on another, and helping them access those resources, is a much-improved process when Five Colleges is involved.

“Something as simple as cross-registration has a whole set of things you need to accomplish,” she added. “We happen to specialize in being the glue in the middle that helps pull it all together.”

Kennedy agreed. “The three campuses, individually, are overextended; they simply don’t have the funding to do all these programs. Five Colleges gives them an opportunity to access things they may not be able to access otherwise as a group.”

Examining the Impact of the American Families and Workers Act of 2024

By Contributor
Accounting and Tax Planning Special Coverage

Potential Tax Relief

By Kristina Drzal Houghton, CPA

This article, written on Feb. 2, highlights the U.S. House of Representatives’ Jan. 31 passage of the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024 (H.R. 7024). However, it’s important to note that the details are subject to change pending the Senate’s vote and the ultimate signing into law by the president.

Despite concerted efforts to get the bill to the Senate in time for the current tax-filing season, this deadline has unfortunately lapsed, causing some concern over timing and efficacy. However, lawmakers remain optimistic about swift passage in the subsequent stages, aiming to minimize the impact on the IRS and enable prompt relief for taxpayers.

 

INDIVIDUAL TAX RELIEF

One of the core components of this legislation includes an increase in the child tax credit, a move set to benefit families with children across the nation. This concept is further strengthened by the introduction of a refundable portion determined per child, a clear advantage for growing families.

The proposed bill introduces a single change regarding the child tax credit. Currently, the credit is $2,000 per child for taxpayers who do not exceed certain income thresholds. A portion of this credit can be refunded up to $1,600 in 2023. The refundable portion is limited based on the number of qualifying children and the taxpayer’s earned income.

Under the proposed law, the refundable amount will be calculated per child, resulting in a total refundable amount. This change applies to the 2023-25 tax years. Additionally, the maximum amount of the refundable credit will be increased to $1,800 for 2023, $1,900 for 2024, and $2,000 for 2025. The overall child tax credit will also be adjusted for inflation from 2024 onward.

Kristina Drzal Houghton“One of the core components of this legislation includes an increase in the child tax credit, a move set to benefit families with children across the nation. This concept is further strengthened by the introduction of a refundable portion determined per child, a clear advantage for growing families.”

Notably missing from this legislation was a provision that addresses an aspect of the state and local tax deduction, which was capped at $10,000 by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017. The $10,000 cap applies to taxpayers filing either single or married filing jointly. Advocates were hoping for a provision to increase the married filing joint cap to be twice the single cap and eliminate that marriage penaly.

 

BUSINESS TAX RELIEF

In a bid to support the innovative spirit of America, the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act also includes provisions to delay the requirement to capitalize and amortize research and experimentation expenditures. This is further bolstered by an extension of the 100% bonus depreciation for properties in service prior to Jan. 1, 2026.

For the hardworking business sector, the Act provides an increase in the Code Sec. 179 deduction limitation and expense limitation for property put into service post-2023.

 

Research and Experimental Expenses

Under current law, domestic research and experimental expenditures incurred in tax years starting after Dec. 31, 2021 must be amortized over five years. Previously, these expenses could be immediately deducted in the year they were paid or incurred. Research or experiment costs outside the U.S. are deductible over a 15-year period. The proposed law would postpone the application of this rule for research and experimental costs related to domestic activities until tax years starting after Dec. 31, 2025. There will be no change for activities outside the U.S. The bill includes transitional rules for research credits and accounting changes.

Observation: H.R. 7024 provides that a taxpayer can reflect the retroactive application of Section 174 expensing via a change in method of accounting with either a one-year Section 481(a) adjustment or an elective two-year Section 481(a) adjustment. Alternatively, eligible taxpayers generally would be permitted to amend their first tax year beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2022, to reflect current expensing of eligible Section 174 expenditures. Due to the late passage of this bill, businesses may want to consider applying for an extension of time to file their returns so they can analyze which of the three options is most beneficial for them.

 

Business Interest Limitation

Under current tax law, prior to 2022, the calculation of adjusted taxable income for the business interest expense limitation (Code Sec. 163(j)) excluded deductions for interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, or depletion (IBITDA). However, starting from 2022, only deductions for interest and taxes were considered, excluding depreciation, amortization, and depletion. The new law would reintroduce depreciation, amortization, and depletion for tax years starting after Dec. 31, 2023, and before Jan. 1, 2026. Additionally, taxpayers can choose to include depreciation, amortization, and depletion for tax years beginning after 2021 and before 2024.

Observation: H.R. 7024 provides that a taxpayer can reflect the retroactive application of using IBITDA to calculate the interest limitation. The bill does not provide as much information on how to effect the retroactive elction as it does with Section 174. Taxpayers with large limitation in 2022 may find it advantageous to amend their returns for this retroactive adoption. It is also unclear if you can elect to provide the provision for 2023 without amending 2022.

For the hardworking business sector, the Act provides an increase in the Code Sec. 179 deduction limitation and expense limitation for property put into service post-2023.

 

Bonus Depreciation

The most recent change, under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, allowed for immediate expensing of qualified property placed in service between Sept. 17, 2017 and Jan. 1, 2023 (100% bonus depreciation). Starting in 2023, the first-year depreciation gradually reduces (80% in 2023, 60% in 2024, 40% in 2025, 20% in 2026) until it is eliminated for property placed in service in 2027. The proposed bill extends 100% bonus depreciation for property placed in service before Jan. 1, 2026 (Jan. 1, 2027 for longer production period property and certain aircraft). In 2026 and 2027, the 20% and 0% bonus depreciation rates would continue to apply.

 

Increased 179 Deduction

Under current law, businesses can choose to expense certain qualifying property instead of depreciating it. This includes tangible personal property, off-the-shelf computer software, and qualified real property used in the active conduct of a trade or business. The deduction is limited to an inflation-adjusted amount. In 2024, the deduction is capped at $1.22 million, reduced dollar-for-dollar by expenses exceeding $3.05 million.

 

Employee Retention Credit

The Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) was established in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of the credit was to provide businesses with a credit against certain payroll taxes if they retained employees during lockdowns that may have impacted their income. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 extended the credit and expanded its scope to include Medicare taxes and dropped the precentage threshold for revenue decrease establishing eligibility for the credit. Taxpayers were able to make ERTC claims until April 15, 2025, despite the expiration of the period for which the credit can be claimed.

The IRS has identified fraudulent claims made by taxpayers, often unknowingly, facilitated by third-party processors (COVID-ERTC promoters) who boldly advertised on television and plagued businesses with calls implying that almost any business qualified due to facts and circumstances. To address this issue, the IRS temporarily suspended the acceptance of new claims in late 2023 while investigating potential instances of fraud in its backlog. Additionally, an amnesty program was established for taxpayers to voluntarily withdraw unqualified claims or repay the credit without penalty.

The proposed bill aims to combat fraudulent claims by increasing penalties for COVID-ERTC promoters, extending the limitations period on assessments of ERTC claims to six years, and imposing reporting requirements on COVID-ERTC promoters similar to promoters of listed transactions. Notably, the bill sets Jan. 31, 2024 as the deadline for making ERTC claims.

 

In Addition

In an effort to reduce compliance burdens on businesses, the Act raises the filing threshold for Form 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC from $600 to $1,000 for payments post-Dec. 31, 2023. The $1,000 will be adjusted for inflation.

 

IN SUMMARY

In essence, the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024 is a comprehensive package addressing varied aspects of the American economic landscape with a keen eye on relief and progression. These changes aim to promote economic growth, support independent contractors and businesses, and address housing affordability concerns.

While the House’s passage of the Act marks a significant milestone, it’s important to keep a vigilant eye on the upcoming Senate proceedings, as the Act still requires approval there before becoming law.

 

Kristina Drzal Houghton, CPA is a partner at the Holyoke-based accounting firm Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C.

 

Location, Access, ‘Differentiators’ Help Holyoke Mall Thrive Amid Challenges

By
Commercial Real Estate Special Coverage

Weathering the Storms

Lynn Gray

Lynn Gray, general manager of the Holyoke Mall.

As she talked with BusinessWest, Lynn Gray and her staff were gearing up for February school vacation.

It’s always a busy time at the Holyoke Mall, which Gray serves as general manager, as young people and families look for things to do. But these days, it’s even more so as ever-larger amounts of the mall’s 1.6 million square feet of space become dedicated to entertainment-related ventures rather than pure retail — although there’s still plenty of that as well.

Indeed, over the past several years, former retail spaces have given way to tenants like All In Adventures (billed as the ‘ultimate escape destination’), Altitude Trampoline Park, Round1 Bowling & Arcade; Planet Fitness; and Billy Beez, a massive play area that is home to twisting slides, sports courts, tunnels, trampolines, and more.

This is a national trend, said Gray, noting that, as major retailers — ranging from Sears and JCPenney to Christmas Tree Shops and Best Buy — close stores, their former spaces have found new lives in non-retail-related uses. And malls have become even busier during Christmas break, February vacation, and other times when the weather is less conducive to outdoor fun.

“People are looking for something to do that week indoors,” she said. “During February break, it will be pretty busy, especially if the weather is inclement. Then in April, it will be a little softer just because things are warming up a little, but it’s still a busy week for us; we staff up for it, and retailers and other tenants have a lot of specials.”

This trend is just one of the storylines at the mall, perhaps the largest commercial real-estate property in the region, and one that has become a topic of conversation and speculation in the wake of a changing retail landscape, one that has seen many national chains downsize or even disappear from the landscape (Sears and Toys R Us, for example), ever-larger amounts of shopping conducted online, and some malls, including two locally (Eastfield and Enfield), being repurposed into mixed-use facilities or moving quickly in that direction.

“While we were shut down during the pandemic, we were still concurrently trying to roll with the changes that were about to come over the next couple of years. Some brands went away, and some remained relevant.”

Gray, who first worked at the mall when she was 15 selling gift certificates and has fashioned a career managing such facilities, said the facility has certainly been impacted by these trends, but, while some other malls are suffering, Holyoke continues to thrive, and for several reasons.

She lists everything from its incredible location — at the intersection (literally) of the Mass Pike and I-91 (off which it has its own exit) to its still-healthy mix of retailers, restaurants, and entertainment-based businesses, to some of that downsizing among many retail giants. Indeed, Holyoke now boasts the only locations for Best Buy, Apple Store, and Macy’s for at least 30 miles in any direction, and in some cases, it’s a much larger area.

The Holyoke Mall

The Holyoke Mall encompasses 1.6 million square feet of space and is in an almost constant state of change.
(Photo by Glenn Labay, Aerial Camera Services)

And with those stores and that location … people want to get to Holyoke, and they can get there, rather easily, she said, adding that these ‘differentiators,’ as she called them, not only attract visitors, but new tenants as well.

“We’ve certainly seen the benefits of that market consolidation,” she said, adding that this and other factors contributed to what was a very solid holiday season at the mall. While the final numbers are not in yet, most mall tenants came out of December happy with their results, she noted

And those same retailers are saying that, while overall visitation is down slightly — data shows the mall is drawing 99% of the total visitors it drew in 2021 and 98% of the number in 2022, 9 million overall — those who do find their way there are generally spending more, on average.

“We’re easily accessible off of 90 and 91, and we’re in a position to tap a much larger market than some of the regional properties that were or still are in the market.”

Meanwhile, the ongoing change and evolution experienced by every mall continues at Holyoke, said Gray, adding that there have been several intriguing additions in recent months and renovations planned at several outlets.

For this issue, we talked with Gray about all that and much more as the mall braces first for February school vacation, and then continued response to that changing scene in retail.

 

Setting Sale

As she walked and talked with BusinessWest, Gray stopped at Monsoon Bistro, one of the newer additions to the mall, taking the spot formerly occupied by Ruby Tuesday near the Macy’s entrance.

It’s one of many new restaurants that have opened in the mall over the past year, several of them growing local businesses, she said, adding that these are some examples of how malls, and especially the one in Holyoke, are in a state of nearly constant change. These changes reflect national trends, changes to the economy, and ebb and flow within the world of retail.

one of many recent additions at the Holyoke Mall

Garage, a casual clothing brand for young women, is one of many recent additions at the Holyoke Mall.

Overall, 25 new brands have called the mall home since the pandemic arrived in 2020, she said, adding that COVID certainly contributed to the changing of the landscape.

“While we were shut down during the pandemic, we were still concurrently trying to roll with the changes that were about to come over the next couple of years,” she explained. “Some brands went away, and some remained relevant.”

Elaborating, Gray noted that 24,000 square feet of mall space got converted into new openings over the past year alone, with 12 new businesses setting up shop.

“It was a good mix of retail, which is still our bread and butter,” she said, listing new arrivals such as Garage (which touts itself as a “casual clothing brand for young women who are fun and effortlessly sexy); Snipes, a global streetwear retailer now boasting more than 450 locations; a few new jewelers, including Mandati, King’s, and the Inspiration Co.; a Verizon store; and others.

“Those types of facilities are bringing a more eclectic mix of shoppers — all ages, all groups.”

Meanwhile, as noted, the new arrivals extend to the restaurant side of the ledger and even the food court, with the addition of El Burrito, a growing local venture that took over space formerly occupied by Wendy’s; and Terra Nossa Brazilian Grill, which replaced a former McDonald’s.

In most respects, 2023 was a better-than-average year for signing new leases with smaller, sometimes local retailers, an annual assignment for malls, while also backfilling some of the much larger spaces left by the departure of major retailers, in this case ranging from Sears to Toys R Us to A.C. Moore.

Often, such backfilling takes years, Gray said, noting, for example, that the Sears at the Holyoke Mall has been closed for nearly a decade, and its space has not yet been fully repurposed. Sports Zone, a specialty operator featuring sports memorabilia, is occupying the first level of that large footprint, and in years past, Spirit Halloween has taken some of that space on a seasonal basis, but the second level remains vacant.

But many spaces have been successfully filled, she went on, adding that this was the case with the departure of Christmas Tree Shops (which went to Holyoke Crossing and then eventually closed that location), with that space now occupied by Bob’s Stores, and the former Sports Authority space, now occupied by Dick’s Warehouse Sale.

Still, increasingly, these spaces are going to more entertainment-related uses, said Gray, noting the arrival over the past several years of several such ventures that have taken rather large footprints at the mall.

For example, Planet Fitness and Altitude have each claimed 20,000 square feet in space formerly occupied by Babies R Us, she said, noting that both arrived just prior to the pandemic. Round1, which arrived around that same time, is also a large tenant, with 20 bowling lanes and a number of arcade games, as is Billy Beez.

 

What’s in Store

And these new ventures are thriving in these spaces, she said, adding that the mall’s location makes them easy to get to, and together, they make the mall a more attractive destination for families, who can package a visit to one or a few of those facilities, and then a stop for lunch, into a day at the mall during February vacation or any other time when being indoors in preferable.

El Burrito, a growing local venture

El Burrito, a growing local venture that took over space formerly occupied by Wendy’s, is one of several new restaurant options at the mall.

The Planet Fitness facility is in a different category, she went on, but it is also doing very well in this mall’s location. “It’s easily accessible … people go there before work and after work. Their membership is very comparable to their off-mall locations, and you can walk by there on a Tuesday afternoon and see lots of people there.”

Overall, the mall is in a better place than it has been in terms of square footage currently occupied, she said, adding that policies set by mall owner Pyramid Corp. did not permit more detail on that subject. And, by and large, it is in a good place when it comes to taking on the many challenges facing malls today, for those reasons mentioned earlier.

“We’re easily accessible off of 90 and 91, and we’re in a position to tap a much larger market than some of the regional properties that were or still are in the market,” she said. “And then having differentiators, like the only Macy’s, the only Apple, the only Best Buy in the market, that really sets us apart for retailers, restaurants, and entertainment venues looking for a new home. Having those traffic draws is very attractive to potential new tenants.”

Looking ahead as far as she can, Gray said the mall is positioned as well as any mall can be to absorb the many changes to the retail landscape.

Indeed, data shows that those who come to the mall — and she said it is still a good mix of young and old — are actually coming more often, because of all that now exists under that collection of roofs.

“People are coming more frequently because of the entertainment offerings and lifestyle offerings,” she told BusinessWest. “Twenty years ago, there wasn’t a Planet Fitness at your local shopping mall. Now that there is that option, people are visiting the property more.

“Those types of facilities are bringing a more eclectic mix of shoppers — all ages, all groups,” she went on. “And then, you have places like Altitude and Round1 and Billy Beez, where your families, your teens, they’re coming out for birthday parties, tournaments, or the different types of events they have going on. They’re coming, and they’re staying for a while.”

When asked about what the landscape will look like in five or 10 years, Gray said change will remain a constant — in retail and in entertainment — with up-and-coming chains in the former, and new experiences, such as next-level escape rooms, in the latter.

The goal at the Holyoke Mall is to be at the forefront of all of that, she said, adding that the facility has been there for the first 45 years of its existence, and she intends to keep it there.

 

Author Keeps Memories Alive of Lost Quabbin Towns

By
Elena Palladino wants everyone who visits the Quabbin — or ever drinks its water — to contemplate the loss and sacrifice involved in its creation.
Features Special Coverage

Gone but Not Forgotten

Elena Palladino in the house that inspired her book, Lost Towns of the Swift River Valley.

Elena Palladino in the house that inspired her book, Lost Towns of the Swift River Valley.

 

Elena Palladino recalls that, when she and her husband first walked through their stately white home in Ware, they noted that some of the pieces didn’t really seem to fit.

Indeed, the home is Colonial Revival in style, but many of its fixtures, including the pocket doors with ornate brass pulls, were Victorian. Their presence — which made the home even more attractive, and intriguing, in their minds and helped compel them to buy it — presented somewhat of a mystery.

One that was solved when one of their new neighbors referred to the property as the ‘Quabbin house.’

Palladino would eventually learn that this home was built by Marion Andrews Smith, who had lived in Enfield, one of the four towns flooded and essentially wiped off the map to build the Quabbin Reservoir; Dana, Greenwich, and Prescott were the others.

“It’s a very beautiful place. But I do think it’s important to remember that’s it’s a beauty that comes from the loss of those towns and the loss of community.”

Smith, as Palladino would also learn, was the last surviving member of a prominent mill-owning family that actually had a section of Enfield, known as Smith’s Village, named after them. Smith certainly didn’t want to leave Enfield, a town that she and other family members were very involved with, and she was one of the last residents to depart. She wanted to move the large Victorian home in which she lived to another location, but it wasn’t logistically feasible to do so. So she took what she could with her and made those pieces — everything from doors to molding; floorboards to wainscotting — part of the home she built in Ware.

But Smith’s story did far more than solve a mystery surrounding Palladino’s new home.

It inspired her to want to dig deeper into the lives of those who, like Smith, were told to pack up and leave and then watch as their community was obliterated to bring much-needed water to the fast-growing city of Boston and its suburbs. It inspired her to want to know more about what those final years, months, weeks, days, and even hours were like.

So, Palladino, secretary to the board of trustees at Smith College, started the research that would eventually lead to her first book: Lost Towns of the Swift River Valley: Drowned by the Quabbin.

It tells the stories of three individuals who were forced to leave their lifelong homes to make way for Boston’s reservoir — Smith; Willard ‘Doc’ Segur, the valley’s beloved country doctor and town leader; and Henry Howe, Enfield’s postmaster and general-store proprietor.

The book came out in late 2022, and over the ensuing year, Palladino has crisscrossed the state on a book tour of sorts that took her to libraries and historical societies. She talked about her book and the research that went into it, but also about her home and the connection it provides to Smith, and an intriguing bill now in committee that seeks regional equity and recompense for the Swift River Valley and its people (more on that later).

Through the book and the talks, she said she believes she’s created a greater understanding of all that was lost to build the Quabbin. Most understand fully what was gained, she added, but her stories help convey the price that came with this 20th-century engineering marvel.

Elena Palladino says learning the story of her Ware home

Elena Palladino says learning the story of her Ware home inspired her to dig deeper into the lives of those displaced by the Quabbin.

It is this profound loss that she now feels each time she visits the Quabbin, which is only 10 minutes from her home.

“It’s a very beautiful place,” she said. “But I do think it’s important to remember that’s it’s a beauty that comes from the loss of those towns and the loss of community.”

For this issue, BusinessWest talked with Palladino about her home and her book, but mostly about the Quabbin towns and why, 86 years after Swift River Valley residents gathered for a farewell ball to mark the demise of their communities — “A Last Good Time for All” was how it was billed — it’s important that their stories never be forgotten.

 

Flood of Memories

Palladino has never met Marion Andrews Smith — she was born decades after Smith died.

But she feels a very powerful connection to the woman. Living in the home she built and spent her final years in is a big part of it, obviously, but there’s much more.

“It started as a personal project, and the initial research was mostly on our house. As I learned more about Marion … it seemed like every bit of research led to more.”

Indeed, as she came to know more about Smith through her research and then through meetings with Marian Tryon Waydaka, whose parents were Smith’s groundskeeper and chauffeur — and named their daughter after their employer — she came to fully understand both Smith’s taste in home furnishings and her incredibly strong will in the face of not only losing her home to a public-works project, but so much more.

She learned, for example, that Smith had family members who died in 1928, 1929, and 1932 and were buried in the valley, knowing full well they would have to be eventually moved elsewhere as the reservoir became reality.

“It could have been denial or defiance; it may also have been that she hadn’t decided where else she would like to move,” Palladino said. “But I thought that was a very interesting decision.”

She also learned that Smith was one of the very last residents to leave in the summer of 1938 and never did sell her property to the state; her land and home were taken by eminent domain, although she did eventually settle with the state.

Palladino grew up in Sturbridge, just east of the Quabbin, and her father and brother loved to fish the reservoir. So, like most who grew up in the 413, she knew the basics about how that resource was created and how four towns disappeared in the process.

It wasn’t until she and her husband bought the house on Highland Street after she took the job at Smith College — and they learned more about the home and the woman who built it — that her subtle interest in the Quabbin towns and the people who lived there became a fascination, and the subject of a book.

“The book started as research — I’ve always loved history and old homes — but then, because I was able to find out so much about Marion and her story was even more fascinating because it was integrated with the Quabbin towns, it became a much bigger project than I ever thought it would be.

“It started as a personal project, and the initial research was mostly on our house,” she went on. “As I learned more about Marion … it seemed like every bit of research led to more. Because she was from such an important family, there was lots to find about her; she was very involved, as were her family members, in various town organizations.”

Palladino took full advantage of the many resources available to those who wish to know more about the Quabbin towns and those who lived there, including a large collection at the UMass Amherst Library; the Swift River Valley Historical Society in New Salem; the Visitors Center at Quabbin Park in Belchertown; various scrapbooks; several books on the subject, including Donald Howe’s Quabbin, the Lost Valley; and meeting minutes from various organizations, including the Quabbin Club, a women’s club in the valley that existed from the late 1800s until the towns were disincorporated.

 

The Plot Thickens

Palladino’s book focuses on three of the last residents to leave the valley, and through those stories she conveys those final days through their eyes.

“There are many great books about the Quabbin, but this one is a little more personal in nature,” she said. “I was most intrigued by what it like for Marion, and any of the people who lived there, to have to leave; it’s a more personal side of the story.

“It was a long process,” she went on. “The Ware and Swift River Acts were passed in 1926 and 1927, and even before that, for about 30 years, the idea of an enormous reservoir was out there — it was discussed. From 1895 on, people knew this might come to pass and that a reservoir might be built here. When it finally became real, it was devastating for the people who lived there, but it also didn’t feel quite real because there was such a long period of time during which the towns were destroyed, and the dam and the dike were built — it was about 10 years.”

She said some left quickly after their homes were purchased by the state, while others who sold leased them back and stayed in the valley while deciding where to go next. And then, there were some who stayed until the very end.

“I think that must have been a difficult choice to make,” Palladino told BusinessWest. “By 1938, it was a scene of destruction; by then, many homes had been demolished and burned, all of the trees in the valley had been cut down, all of the brush below the water line had been cut and burned, and the buildings that were still standing in 1938 were quite dilapidated because they weren’t being cared for.

“Their town would have been unrecognizable,” she went on, adding that, despite all this, some did stay to the bitter end.

Palladino has tried to convey the hardships and emotions experienced by all those who lived through the demise of the Quabbin towns during talks about her book, more than 40 of them, over the past year or so.

“It was wonderful to speak locally, to people who know a lot about the Quabbin and live near the Quabbin, but it was also good to speak in Eastern Massachusetts towns where the story is less well-known,” she said. “There are plenty of people who know that their water comes from the Quabbin, but far fewer who really know how the Quabbin came to be.”

Elena Palladino wants everyone who visits the Quabbin — or ever drinks its water — to contemplate the loss and sacrifice involved in its creation.

Elena Palladino wants everyone who visits the Quabbin — or ever drinks its water — to contemplate the loss and sacrifice involved in its creation.

Through her talks, she has also made people aware of legislation, now in joint committee, that would, among other things, establish a Quabbin host-community fund through a 5-cent levy on every 1,000 gallons of water drawn from the reservoir.

“It’s pretty modest — it would only raise about $3.5 million a year,” she said. “But those funds could be used by the towns around the Quabbin for infrastructure and other capital improvements.”

 

The Loss Column

Palladino wasn’t at the farewell ball in 1938, obviously. But in some ways, she feels like she was.

Through her research, she has come to understand, as perhaps few can, what it was like to be at Enfield Town Hall when the clock struck midnight, and this wasn’t actually a town anymore.

It was part of a valley that would, over the next several years, be flooded with more than 400 billion gallons of water.

That ball, and the many extreme forms of loss experienced by those who were there — and all those who lived in the Quabbin towns — is what she thinks about when she visits the reservoir.

And she implores all those who visit or even drink the water to do the same.

 

Springfield Symphony Orchestra and Springfield Chamber Players

By
SSO
Class of 2024

They’re Keeping Music Alive in New Ways for Future Generations

SSO

Springfield Symphony Orchestra President and CEO Paul Lambert and Springfield Chamber Players Chair Beth Welty.

 

Beth Welty said the musicians just wanted to play.

With the Springfield Symphony Orchestra’s leadership and musicians locked in a labor dispute in 2021 and 2022, the players were willing to perform under the old contract until a new one was settled, but the SSO wouldn’t agree.

“At this point, the pandemic had subsided enough that all the other orchestras in the Northeast had come back to work, audiences were showing up, and we decided we needed to do something,” Welty said. “We were very worried if there was no symphonic music in Springfield — out of sight, out of mind — people would forget about us. We had to keep this going.”

So the musicians started staging shows on their own — both at Symphony Hall and at smaller venues around the region — churches, the Westfield Atheneum, anywhere they could draw an audience.

“We were playing at all these little places, constantly expanding to new communities and venues, and bringing live chamber music to as many people as we possibly could in Western Mass.,” said Welty, an SSO violinist who headed up the effort known as MOSSO, or Musicians of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra.

“So many people, including members of my board, have told me, ‘the first time I ever heard a symphony orchestra was in school.”

Well, you might know the story after that — the SSO and the musicians’ union struck a two-year deal last spring to bring full symphony concerts back to downtown Springfield, which proved gratifying to SSO President and CEO Paul Lambert, who never considered the musicians his enemies as they worked out their labor differences.

“I grew up in the Actors’ Equity Association. I’m a union member. And I believe in organized labor, especially in the performing arts. You want to make sure that everyone is well taken care of,” he said. “At the same time, I’ve been a businessman for a long time, so I’m very well aware of the economic realities and challenges that the performing-arts business is going through, especially in these eccentric times we’re still living through.”

The relief on both sides, in fact, was palpable. But the return of concerts to Symphony Hall was only part of the story. The other part was the continued existence of MOSSO under a new name — Springfield Chamber Players — and its continuing mission to bring smaller chamber concerts to venues around the region, including schools.

“We’re interested in promoting the voices that don’t get heard as much but are great composers — music by Black composers, composers of color, women composers,” Welty said. “We’re mixing in composers people have some familiarity with, but also bringing them composers they haven’t heard of, even living composers.”

So as the music reverberates around the region once again, BusinessWest has chosen to honor both the Springfield Symphony Orchestra and Springfield Chamber Players as Difference Makers for 2024 — not because they settled a labor agreement last year, but because of how important the performing arts are to the region, and how important both entities are to filling that role, hopefully for generations to come.

The Springfield Chamber Players

The Springfield Chamber Players string quartet includes Miho Matsuno, Robert Lawrence, Martha McAdams, and Patricia Edens.
(Photo by Gregory Jones)

“When people come to the concerts, and I may open with remarks, I ask people, ‘just for a couple of hours, turn off your cell phones and let it go,’” Lambert said. “It’s like therapy — go listen to some beautiful music. For a few hours, just relax and drink it in. We just need that so badly right now.”

Welty agreed. “Music is a big part of life, and I want that for everyone. It doesn’t have to be classical — we did a combo jazz-classical concert,” she noted, before citing Duke Ellington’s famous line about how genre doesn’t matter, and that “there are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind.”

And good music — good live music — truly makes a difference in a community.

 

Generation Next

Lambert recalled being in the fourth grade and attending a symphony concert; in fact, it’s an especially vivid, formative memory. So he’s grateful for a two-year, $280,000 grant from the city last spring to help the SSO create educational programming for youth.

“We are deeply involved in finding creative solutions, ways to reach out. This is a giant opportunity to reach all kinds of members of our community who might like to learn more about music — classical music, symphonic music, all the various forms of music that we can touch,” he said.

Meanwhile, through a program called Beethoven’s Buddies, people can donate money toward free tickets for those who might not be able to afford one. “Whatever your situation is, we want you to come to these concerts to hear this music and have a wonderful time,” he explained. “We’re excited about that. It’s also another way that we can reach into our community to pull in people as donors and sponsors.”

“You come together, and the concert happens, and it’s magic. It’s that one-time experience of being together in a space where this beautiful thing happens. It’s special.”

A long-time program called the Springfield Symphony Youth Orchestra is going strong as well, Lambert said, and the SSO just hired an education director, Caitlin Meyer, who has been engaging with public schools and colleges on everything from internships to educational programming and performances.

“That’s a critical piece in the equation,” Lambert added. “So many people, including members of my board, have told me, ‘the first time I ever heard a symphony orchestra was in school.’”

Meanwhile, Springfield Chamber Players recently presented educational outreach concerts at the Berkshire School in Sheffield and the Community Music School of Springfield.

Meeting young people where they are is simply a matter of survival for performing-arts organizations, said Mark Auerbach, Marketing and Public Relations director for Springfield Chamber Players.

“A lot of people who go to symphonies and come to our concerts are on the older side. And it’s partly because the music programs in schools are not what they were 30 or 40 years ago,” he noted. “If we can get family concerts going, educational concerts going, and interest kids and young adults to come to concerts, hopefully they will stay and grow with us.”

Welty is glad the SSO is doing grant-funded youth outreach because the budget for Springfield Chamber Players is limited, so it needs to be a group effort.

“I’ve been with the symphony 40 years, and we used to have a really robust school presence. We’d send a trio or a quartet to play for kids, talk to them, and answer questions. And they later came to Symphony Hall to hear the whole orchestra,” she recalled. “I think they want to bring that back. We have to be developing the next generation of audience members.”

Symphony Hall

Leaders of both Springfield Symphony Orchestra and Springfield Chamber Players are gratified to be bringing music back to both Symphony Hall (pictured) and smaller venues around the region.

Part of the growth and outreach is simply broadening the definition of what an SSO concert is, Lambert told BusinessWest.

“A lot of folks think of a certain type of music from Western Europe, from the 18th and 19th century. And I love that music. I love Mozart. I love Brahms. I love Beethoven. I love Schubert. I’m thrilled to hear that music, personally,” he said. “But I’ve become increasingly aware of the streams of music traditions that exist all around the world in different cultures and different backgrounds that might appeal to all kinds of folks. So we are trying to pull those various streams together in our programming opportunities.”

To that end, the SSO has begun assembling some hybrid concerts that offer a mixture of traditions, like the classical-jazz fusion explored at the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration concert in January, and a Havana Nights show earlier this month that featured Latin jazz and Afro-Cuban rythms.

“The MLK concert had a marvelously diverse audience. We are thrilled when we see new people coming in,” Lambert said. “At our Juneteenth concert that we did last year, we had so many people telling us, ‘I’ve never been to one of your concerts before; I’ve never even been to Symphony Hall before.’ It’s thrilling to us to get those folks coming in to hear this beautiful music.

“Our pops concerts do really well, and we’re going to see what we can explore with those, with different genres of music,” he added. “At the same time, we’re never going to lose track of that beautiful, traditional repertoire that people, including me, love so much. That’s the core of who we are.”

 

A Resource of Note

Welty noted that Springfield Chamber Players has brought an eclectic spirit to its offerings as well, such as “Johnny Appleseed,” a composition by local composer Clifton Noble Jr. based on Janet Yolen’s book of the same name. That concert will take place outdoors in Longmeadow — the legendary character’s hometown — on May 12.

Whatever the venue, she is passionate about exposing more people to good music — whatever that means to Duke Ellington or anyone else — and to get them into music at younger ages.

“I wish every kid could take lessons on an instrument for a few years. You really learn so much. Problem-solving, analyzing, listening, observing. Music is very mathematical, too. Music education would boost everybody,” she said.

“I really think of arts organizations — music, a ballet company, whatever it is — as a resource for everyone,” she added. “You can’t just go to work every day and then go home and watch TV. That’s a boring life. You want something more. And kids that see live music get interested. They want to try it themselves.”

A thriving performance culture is also an economic driver, Auerbach noted.

“It’s essential that Springfield Symphony Orchestra survives because it’s the only live, nonprofit performing-arts organization in Springfield,” he said. “Without the arts, we’d have trouble attracting new residents and new businesses. And there’s a lot of economic spinoff — you go out, first you pay to eat, you pay to park, you may go out to drink afterwards. The musicians, if they are local, spend money here. If they’re not local, they have to stay in hotels and eat here.”

Lambert agrees, even though the demographics for this art form are challenging right now — not just in Springfield, but everywhere.

“For a couple of years during the pandemic, folks stayed at home, and they got used to not coming out at night so much. You got used to staying home and being cozy in your armchair and watching Netflix. Coming back from that was always going to be a substantial challenge.”

But the rewards are great, he added.

“I used to think about how people make wine — you grow the grapes, and you tend the vineyards, and you design the bottle, and you do all of this work. And then you get to dinner and someone opens the cork and you drink it, and it’s gone. But it’s a beautiful thing for that moment.

“I often think about our experience the same way,” he went on. “All the work and the rehearsals and the planning and the tickets and this and that. But you come together, and the concert happens, and it’s magic. It’s that one-time experience of being together in a space where this beautiful thing happens. It’s special.”

Shannon Rudder

By
Class of 2024

President and CEO, Martin Luther King Jr. Family Services

She Wants to Galvanize a Community to Effect Positive Change

Shannon Rudder

For her 12th birthday, Shannon Rudder didn’t want a present from her mother; instead, she wanted to redecorate her bedroom.

So she did, and she remembers some of the things she hung on the walls, like the Indigenous Ten Commandments and a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi, along with the quotation, “live, think, and act. Be inspired by humanity evolving toward a world of peace and harmony.”

She remembers that message because she internalized it at a young age, and it has informed every stop along her career journey — and the difference she has been able to make at each one.

“It’s embedded in me,” Rudder said as she sat with BusinessWest in her office at Martin Luther King Jr. Family Services in Springfield. “I feel like I can be a part of creating humanity in my immediate area. I might not be able to change the whole world or the whole city that I’m in, but I’ve always felt compelled to make an impact in a positive way with compassion and love. And I’m responsible for my thoughts because those become actions. Very early on, that idea led me to be a person of integrity, of deep compassion, and of advocacy.”

Perhaps that’s why, after considering a corporate career in college, she eventually embarked on a series of roles at organizations with a social mission, from MotherWoman and Teach Western Mass to Providence Ministries and, now, MLK Family Services, where she stepped a year ago into the very big shoes of the late Ronn Johnson, who steered the ship there for more than a decade (and was also honored by BusinessWest as a Difference Maker in 2020).

Simply put, Rudder said, “I just think I have been called to contribute to important causes, and I go after that.”

Her first nonprofit job was in Buffalo, N.Y., where she grew up, for an organization called Women for Human Rights & Dignity. “It just like cracked me open, like, ‘oh, the skills that I have and the compassion that I have … they can be aligned, and I get paid to do awesome, impactful work?’

“I might not be able to change the whole world or the whole city that I’m in, but I’ve always felt compelled to make an impact in a positive way with compassion and love.”

“That was all about women’s empowerment,” she added. “We did alternatives-to-incarceration programs and domestic-violence support and non-traditional education and housing. I was really young, and I had a little baby, and I was doing this good work, but also learning how to run a business.”

Since then, Rudder has taken care to align with causes that are important to her, moving into work with fair housing and civil rights in the Buffalo region before moving to Western Mass., where her first pathway to organizational leadership was at MotherWoman, a nonprofit focused on maternal health and well-being, where she served as executive director.

Later, she was executive director for Providence Ministries Inc., a nonprofit advocating for and supporting marginalized populations across programs dedicated to food security, addiction recovery, housing, clothing, and workforce development. That role opened her eyes to many types of need and further honed her sharp sense of empathy.

“I remember my grandmother saying, ‘but for God’s grace, there go I’ — meaning, in a blink of an eye, your situation could change, and you could be on the other side of needing services like that,” she said. “We’re all part of the same journey.”

Shannon Rudder

Shannon Rudder with the two youth emcees from last month’s MLK Day celebration.

She also served as deputy director of Teach Western Mass, a nonprofit startup working toward educational equity in partnership with more than 30 schools. Her duties included fiscal and operational oversight, knowledge-management systems, data and impact, communications, equity and belonging, human-resource management, overall team culture, and supervision of cross-functional teams.

“I’ve been really intentional about the causes that make a difference to me, approaching it from the perspective of, ‘OK, this agency’s mission is really clear, the heart and the compassion are here, and I get to make sure it lasts for a long time by building the infrastructure, the operations systems, the fundraising and return on investment, and all the important scaffolding that needs to be in place so that the business aspect of it can thrive.”

The clear thread woven through all these roles has been a focus on equity and making sure everyone has access to the resources they need to live healthy, meaningful lives, she explained. “I picked causes that are doing the important work of amplifying the voices of those that have often been silenced or marginalized.”

By using her own voice, compassion, and business acumen to do so, Rudder has become a true Difference Maker.

 

Lifetime Support

At MLK Family Services, she shares with Johnson, her late predecessor, an approach to the work from a public-health standpoint, considering how the social determinants of health affect all areas of life.

“Sure, we can triage and put Band-Aids on stuff — people are hungry now, so let’s make sure they have food — but let’s dig a little deeper: how do we actually get a grocery store in an area that is in need?” she said.

“I remember my grandmother saying, ‘but for God’s grace, there go I’ — meaning, in a blink of an eye, your situation could change, and you could be on the other side of needing services like that. We’re all part of the same journey.”

“I also want to make sure that MLKFS as a whole, operations and programs, is operating from a trauma-informed place,” she went on, citing a philosophy that takes into account the unique, often traumatic experiences of an individual’s life and how that informs what they need.

“How do we approach our programs and ensure that the people working with our kids are helping to break that, or making sure that those kids have resources like mental-health counseling? How do we make sure we’re helping to embolden and empower them, and then actually building the bridge to get them access to the things that they need?”

The current programs offered by MLK Family Services are many and diverse, and include:

• The Family Stabilization Program, funded through the Department of Child and Family, offers support to families to keep their children safely at home and in the community by advocating for the well-being and rights of all children and ensuring parenting support.

Shannon Rudder’s work at MLK Family Services lifts up children in many ways.

Shannon Rudder’s work at MLK Family Services lifts up children in many ways.

• The MLK Food Pantry provides emergency food services to community members in Hampden County. The program relies on donations from grocery vendors and is a member of the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. The pantry operates at the MLK Community Center weekly and also hosts the Food Bank’s mobile market twice monthly.

• The Clemente Course in Humanities is a transformative educational experience for adults — an opportunity to further their education and careers, advocate for themselves and their families, and engage actively in the cultural and political lives of their communities.

• The Historically Black College and University (HBCU) Tour helps young people explore their academic journey by visiting multiple college campuses in a single trip. These tours equip participants with a solid understanding of the history, culture, and traditions that have shaped the schools’ collective legacy. In addition, students, parents, and counselors are engaged in a year-long series of workshops.

• The King’s Kids afterschool programs serve up to 130 children at two locations. Programming is aimed at helping students become academically successful by nurturing their character building, critical-thinking skills, and creativity. Students are offered homework help, STEAM enrichment, literacy support, cultural experiences, and recreational and holistic well-being.

• Youth between ages 13 and 22 are invited to participate in the weekly Night Spot program, which empowers them to be critical thinkers and community builders while preparing them for life in high school, college, and beyond. Night Spot offers advocacy services for a variety of needs, including handling life’s complications, navigating the court system, and ensuring safety in a safe, drug-free environment.

• Beat the Odds is a Springfield-based youth mental-health coalition led in partnership with the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts. Hosted at MLK Family Services, the program focuses on breaking the cycle of stigma and barriers to youth mental healthcare. In 2023, this program launched a public-awareness campaign called “I Am Not My Mood.”

“How do we make sure we’re helping to embolden and empower them, and then actually building the bridge to get them access to the things that they need?”

• King’s Kids Summer Camp is a full-day camp for children ages 5-12. Meanwhile, a new partnership with Springfield Empowerment Zone schools provides summer enrichment programs to Springfield middle- and high-school students in partnership with agencies across Massachusetts.

• DCR Summer Nights Program is a transformative, statewide initiative that enriches the lives of urban youth ages 13 to 21. MLK Family Services is one of the sites providing safe, inclusive, and fun activities (both recreational and educational) during evening hours. Participants enjoy gaming competitions and tournaments in a variety of sports, enriching arts activities, health and wellness workshops, career explorations through guest speakers, and off-site excursions.

“I can’t wait to jump in with the community and do a strategic plan where they begin to inform us what they need, so we’re not sitting here thinking, ‘oh, I think it would be cool if we created this experience,’” Rudder said. “Does the community need that? We know that the community is ever-shifting and changing. So to really meet the needs of the community, we need to hear from them, and I’m excited about doing that.”

The MLK King’s Kids dance troupe performed at MLK Day this year.

The MLK King’s Kids dance troupe performed at MLK Day this year.

It’s a way to go beyond Johnson’s ‘teach a man to fish’ credo and make sure people are fishing in the right ponds.

“If we say we’re going to listen to the community, then we have to go into the community and say, ‘OK, we heard you. How are we going to work at this together?’” Rudder said. “It’s our job to provide the resources and the tools, but I want them to be a part of that solution, whatever that looks like.”

 

Thinking Ahead

Rudder has plenty of goals for the center, from broading the trauma-informed piece to launching a full capital-needs assessment.

“I want to make sure our center is there for decades to come, so that means a lot of capital improvement. Our food pantry needs a new home; we’re just bursting at the seams.

“I also want to do economic-development training,” she added. “We do a really good job with HBCUs and also college readiness locally, and I want our kids to dream big — but college might not be for them. So how do we equip them to realize their dreams and potential? I want to do some vocational training, some entrepreneurial things, all STEAM-based approaches to things.”

One idea from Providence Ministries she’d like to being to MLK Family Services is ServSafe training. “We can get them certified in management and actually have hands-on teaching of kitchen skills and culinary skills. And then, how do they make money off of that? So, we’ll teach them business acumen and then link them to opportunities for jobs,” she explained. “I’m just excited to hear what our community’s needs are and finding a way — again, through the public-health lens — of making sure that we meet those needs.”

To accomplish all that, Rudder relies not only on the center’s staff, but also about 120 volunteers. And she finds it gratifying that she’s following King’s philosophy of not working solo, but galvanizing an entire community to accomplish positive change.

“One adage I grew up with is, ‘to whom much is given, much is required.’ And I’m really blessed; I’m really fortunate in my life,” Rudder told BusinessWest. “So that’s my responsibility — to leverage those things that I’ve been blessed with into doing good, into impact. This is fun, and it is fulfilling to me.”

The Staff of Rock 102

By
The Staff of Rock 102
Class of 2024

They’ve Made the Mayflower Marathon a Community Tradition

The Staff of Rock 102

 

Mike Baxendale, the on-air personality known to all simply as Bax, says it started as a radio promotion. But it quickly became a community event.

And now, it’s a huge community event, involving individuals, families, businesses, institutions, area schools and colleges, and more.

He was referring, of course, to the Mayflower Marathon, staged each year in the days just before Thanksgiving to benefit Open Pantry. For 30 years now, the event, organized by and staged by the staff at Rock 102, has collected food and monetary donations to help those in need.

It started with one Mayflower trailer — hence the name — and each year, with a few rare exceptions, such as the height of the Great Recession in 2009 and the height of COVID in 2020, it has grown bigger and collected more to combat food insecurity.

And in 2023, the marathon, in its relatively new home at MGM Springfield, shattered all previous records, collecting more than $234,000 in food and monetary donations and filling nearly six trucks.

That number, and the level of support needed to reach it, speak to both the growing amount of need in the region amid higher inflation and growing financial issues facing many in the 413 and the manner in which the staff at Rock 102 have collaborated with others in recent years to take the marathon to new levels, with a comedy night at MGM Springfield and a Mayflower Marathon Night on the Springfield Thunderbirds schedule.

“They’re incredible; they truly have such huge hearts to make sure our neighbors get fed. The Open Pantry would never be able to serve that many people without the Mayflower Marathon.”

“Ultimately, the goal is to raise more and more and more to help those in need,” said David Oldread, vice president and general manager of the Springfield Rocks Radio Group and Northampton Radio Group, which includes Rock 102. He noted that the marathon involves difference makers on many levels, including those who donate everything from the trucks to the portable toilets to the tents; those corporate supporters, many of which have been part of this since the beginning; and the volunteers who help collect the donations and load the trucks.

But it is the staff at Rock 102 that is being honored the Difference Makers award this year, and deservedly so. The station conceived the idea back in 1993, and it has been the driving force in continuing the program and orchestrating its strong growth pattern.

The Mayflower Marathon

The Mayflower Marathon, now staged at MGM Springfield, fills several trucks with donations of food for Open Pantry in Springfield.

And it’s a company-wide initiative, a true team effort, said Oldread, noting that it is “all hands on deck,” especially in the weeks and days leading up to the event, with each staff member making important contributions to the effort, with work starting months before the marathon begins.

Bax and Steve Nagle, morning show hosts, entertain the audience — and inspire it — for 52 hours during the marathon; Erin Buehler, promotions director at Rock 102, plans, organizes, sets up, and executes the event; Alex Byrne, program director, coordinates the entire broadcast; Joshua Smith, engineer, sets up the technical side of the broadcast and keeps the show on the air; Dan Williams and Pat Kelly, on-air hosts, produce the broadcast at the station in East Longmeadow; the sales staff members rally their clients to get donations and volunteer their time at the event … and on it goes.

Overall, the marathon has become a powerful collaboration between Rock 102 staff members and the community to come together for a great cause, said Buehler, adding that this collaboration grows stronger each year.

Nicole Lussier, executive director of Open Pantry, agreed. She’s been with the Springfield-based agency for nearly 30 years, and thus has been involved with the marathon since the beginning. She’s watched it grow and become an increasingly larger force in the agency’s ability to carry out its mission. And she noted that the staff at Rock 102 brings passion to its work of making the marathon happen each year.

“To be able to tell Nicole Lussier what we had just done — and she had been there every minute of the event — to be able to tell her that we had raised at least $217,000, with more on the way … to see her reaction, I can’t speak for anyone else, but I got choked up on the air.”

“They’re incredible; they truly have such huge hearts to make sure our neighbors get fed,” Lussier said. “The Open Pantry would never be able to serve that many people without the Mayflower Marathon; there’s no way we would be able to distribute that much food.”

Such sentiments help explain why the team at Rock 102 is being honored not for putting on the marathon, necessarily, but for rallying a region, a community, around a cause — and, in the process of doing so, becoming a true Difference Maker.

 

Making Waves

He called it the “chicken wing.”

This was the very effective submission hold developed by former pro wrestler Bob Backlund, who administered it to Bax during one of the marathons a few years ago.

“It’s very painful,” he said with a look that conveyed as much, adding that Backlund is one of many colorful guests who have made appearances during the marathon over the years, and his application of the chicken wing is one of the more intriguing ways that the airtime has been filled.

Others in the guest category include mayors, U.S. Rep. Richard Neal (a regular each year), comedians, New England Patriots wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster (who stopped by last year), and many others. As for memorable moments, there have been plenty of those as well, as the marathon has persevered through all kinds of weather, power outages, equipment glitches … you name it.

Rock 102 morning show hosts Bax (right) and Nagle talk with Springfield Thunderbirds President Nate Costa (a Difference Maker himself in 2023) at last year’s Mayflower Marathon.

Rock 102 morning show hosts Bax (right) and Nagle talk with Springfield Thunderbirds President Nate Costa (a Difference Maker himself in 2023) at last year’s Mayflower Marathon.

But what is remembered far more are other moments in time — the ones that reflect the generosity, caring, and spirit of collaboration that have come to define the marathon and explain why it was conceived all those years ago.

Moments like the announcement of how much was raised last November.

“At the end of the broadcast, we give an unofficial total, with this year [2023] far exceeding anyone’s expectations — I don’t think anyone expected anything close to this,” Bax recalled. “To be able to tell Nicole Lussier what we had just done — and she had been there every minute of the event — to be able to tell her that we had raised at least $217,000, with more on the way … to see her reaction, I can’t speak for anyone else, but I got choked up on the air, and so did Steve. When you realize where this is going and how many people it helps…”

He didn’t finish that sentence, but didn’t really have to. And this sentiment speaks to how and why the marathon was launched three decades ago.

The idea, said all those we spoke with, was to raise some money for Open Pantry, which today operates several different programs, including am emergency food pantry, holiday meals, the Loaves & Fishes Kitchen, a teen-parent program, and many others.

It’s unlikely that anyone at the time could have imagined that it would grow, evolve, and become, as Bax noted, a community event, said Byrne, adding that the marathon has continually broken through new barriers — be it with trucks filled or the total dollar amount raised — that were previously thought impossible.

And every employee at the station, roughly 25 at last count, is involved on some level in making it happen, said Oldread, noting there are many moving parts with this production.

“There’s an awful lot that goes into this,” he said, “from making sure you have power and internet access to getting trucks and RVs and security, and feeding volunteers, and signage and traffic plans. You have to start around Labor Day in order to get things where they need to be in the days before Thanksgiving.”

“We’ve developed our own little tradition with this game, and we want to continue it and expand it. It’s a testament to the work they’re doing at Rock 102 — they’re driving a huge amount of food to the Open Pantry, which lasts almost an entire year.”

The staff, and the marathon, has persevered through recessions, a pandemic, rough weather, and, most recently, the need to find a new home when the Basketball Hall of Fame informed those at the station in 2022 that it could no longer host the marathon in its parking lot.

In many ways, that search for a home crystalized just how much the community had embraced the marathon and wanted to help it live on, said Oldread, noting that, as the station’s on-air personalities went public with the need to find a new home, there was an outpouring of support and commitments to help take the program to a new, much higher level.

 

Food for Thought

Indeed, Beth Ward, director of Public Affairs for MGM Springfield, said the station received several offers to host the marathon, so many that there was almost a competition for the right to become its new home.

MGM Springfield prevailed, she said, and it has been a privilege to stage the marathon, an event that has become part of the philanthropic culture at the resort casino.

“When we got the call, it was like Christmas morning; we were so excited that we were chosen,” she recalled. “There are so many of us here at MGM that live in Western Mass. and are familiar with this event and have taken part in it and donated to it. Immediately, there were so many people who were thrilled and excited to be there and support it.”

She said MGM Springfield set a record when it comes to volunteer hours donated by employees, and a big reason is the Mayflower Marathon, with many of the casino’s workers on site early (as in 5 a.m. in some cases) to help collect donations and load them into trucks.

“Our employees want to be part of this; they want to help make it successful,” she said, effectively summing up the sentiments of many others we spoke with.

That includes Nate Costa, president of the Springfield Thunderbirds, a Difference Maker himself last year. He told BusinessWest that the team has long had a solid relationship with Rock 102, knowing that its listenership boasts many hockey fans. That relationship was taken to a new level when the event lost its home and then found one with another of the T-Birds’ partners, MGM Springfield.

The team soon dedicated the Wednesday night game before Thanksgiving to the cause, branding it Rock 102 Mayflower Marathon Night. That Wednesday is traditionally a time for family gatherings and “bar gatherings,” as Costa called them, but the pull of the marathon and Open Pantry has brought more than 5,000 fans to the arena the past two years for “one last push” for donations.

“We’ve developed our own little tradition with this game, and we want to continue it and expand it,” he said. “It’s a testament to the work they’re doing at Rock 102 — they’re driving a huge amount of food to the Open Pantry, which lasts almost an entire year.”

Costa, Ward, Lussier, and others credit the staff at Rock 102 — the on-air personalities especially, but everyone that gets involved (and that is everyone) — with bringing a region together behind a cause as few other events in this region have.

“Over the course of the past 30 years, it’s become a full-blown community event, where it almost has nothing to do with Rock 102 or any of us,” Bax said. “It has everything to do with different segments of the community getting involved in something special — collecting food.”

Well … it has something to do with the team at Rock 102. Indeed, they have made this happen, not just when it comes to logistics, but from the standpoint of shaping an event that not only serves a community, but creates a stronger community, Oldread said.

And that’s why the team can collectively share the title of Difference Maker.

Scott Keiter

By
Scott Keiter
Class of 2024

CEO, Keiter

He’s Building on a Tradition of Giving Back to the Community

Scott Keiter

Scott Keiter has made the construction company that bears his name one of the fastest-growing ventures in this sector regionally.

And to position his company to achieve that kind of growth, Keiter (pronounced ‘Kiter’) knew early on that he would have to focus most of his time and energy on business, making connections, developing talent, putting the right team in place, and fashioning a blueprint (yes, that’s an industry term) for success.

“As we built the business, the most precious resource was time,” he said. “Anyone who creates a business knows what it takes — it’s every waking hour, so there’s not much time left behind. And then you introduce a child or two, and there’s even less time.”

But he also knew that, once he had the foundation of his business down and was building on top of it, he would eventually shift some of that time and energy toward the community and start to get involved on a number of levels.

And he has followed that blueprint as well, devoting time and talent to everything from an advisory role at Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School’s carpentry program to becoming a trustee at Look Park, to involvement with the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce (GNCC) on many levels, including something called the ‘Keiter Card.’

“He said, ‘I’d like to do something, because we have, fortunately, gained business throughout this horrible period. So I’d like to do something to support the community.’”

This is an initiative to match the value of gift cards sold by the chamber and accepted in more than 100 businesses — one that has put thousands of dollars back into the Greater Northampton economy in late summer, during back-to-school sales and tax-free-weekend time.

In the beginning, it was called the ‘Double Your Money Northampton Gift Card Promotion,’ but eventually it took the name of the company and the philanthropist behind it, making this both an economic driver and an effective branding initiative.

The program, started in 2021 and expanded each year, allows consumers to purchase a $25 Northampton gift card and receive $50 in actual spending power, said Vince Jackson, executive director of the Greater Northampton Chamber, adding that it has provided a real boost for that region’s many small businesses and become somewhat of phenomenon in Paradise City.

The Keiter Card

The Keiter Card has been described as a ‘win-win-win,’ benefiting the Keiter company, the local economy, and small businesses that accept the cards.

Indeed, as he talked about the card, Jackson referenced everything from how quickly they sold out each of their first three years, to how mothers would bring in their children collectively (it’s one Keiter Card per customer) so they could spend part of their allowance on a card, and then talk about where they would go and what they would spend it on.

But while heaping praise on the card and its impact, Jackson saved some for the company and the person behind it, especially as he recalled the circumstances of how it came about.

Flashing back to late summer 2021, when the economy was really starting to open up again after the pandemic, Jackson recalled a conversation he had with Keiter.

“He said, ‘I’d like to do something, because we have, fortunately, gained business throughout this horrible period. So I’d like to do something to support the community,’” Jackson recalled. “So he came up with the idea of donating $10,000 to the chamber, and for everyone who bought a $25 gift card, he would match that amount, up to $10,000.”

For year two, Keiter doubled the amount to $20,000, and in year three, he increased it to $25,000, with the chamber donating another $5,000 to make it a $30,000 matching program. For year four … Keiter leaked to BusinessWest that he will again be donating $25,000 to build on the momentum that’s been generated.

Meanwhile, Keiter, working in tandem with his wife, Jill, continue to expand their involvement in the Greater Northampton area while at the same taking their business to the proverbial next level.

Success in both realms helps explain why Keiter will soon have his name on something else: a Difference Makers plaque.

 

What’s in a Name?

Returning to the subject of the Keiter Card, Jackson said it’s an example not only of Scott Keiter’s genrosity and commitment to the community and its small businesses, but also of how he’s developed into a successful business person, refining several talents, including, in this case, branding and marketing.

Indeed, to purchase a Keiter Card, one first has to say that name, said Jackson, adding that, when needed, those at the chamber will help the buyer along.

“Sometimes they need help with the pronounciation — some will say ‘Keeter,’” he explained, adding that, with each transaction and each card, the Keiter business gets some additional exposure.

Scott Keiter with, from left, Evan Latour, Zak Martinez, and Sean Houlihan

Scott Keiter with, from left, Evan Latour, Zak Martinez, and Sean Houlihan, Smith Vocational Agricultural High School graduates now working for the company.

And it has already been making a name for itself in the region as a growing company, now with 85 employees, focused on both residential and commercial construction. With the former, the company tackles new construction, but mostly renovations. And with the latter, it has developed a deep portolio of clients, including many higher-education institutions, including Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, Amherst College, Elms College, and Western New England University. It also counts many businesses and municipalities on its client list.

The business recently spun off Hatfield Construction, which focuses on earth work and site work, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Keiter, and last month, it announced that it had appointed Jim Young, a business consultant and former president of Paragus Strategic IT, as president of Keiter, leaving its founder more time to focus on the proverbial big picture instead of day-to-day operations.

“We’re excited to open a new chapter for the company and focus on growth and development and building on the successes that we’ve already had,” said Keiter, who will assume the title of CEO. “Jim will help me leverage my time so I can remain focused on looking forward, being in the role of a visionary, and guiding the direction of this organization.”

The business plan calls for continued, sustainable growth and further expansion into Hampden and Berkshire counties, he went on, adding that the company has established itself in those markets and wants to build on that presence.

As noted earlier, for the first several years he was in business, Keiter had a singular focus, to get that venture on solid footing and put an aggressive growth plan in place.

As the company’s name, reputation, and portfolio of clients and projects grew, he began to shift some of his time to the community, although the main focus has still been his business.

 

Concrete Examples

Keiter has chosen to get involved in realms where he can lend expertise, and also where he can make a difference.

That includes Smith Vocational, where he has served as an advisor to the carpentry department while also bringing a number of its students into the company through its co-op program, with several of them eventually being hired by the firm.

“We try to get them out to do everything that we do,” he explained. “We try our best to get them out on our projects, where they can work side-by-side with our staff. In fact, we’ve hired a number of them; they’re some of our best employees.”

Keiter’s involvement also extends to Look Park, which he described as a “treasure,” one of the city’s best assets.

But it’s with the Keiter Card that he is making a greater name for himself in the community, literally and figuratively.

And he said it came about through twin desires — to help small businesses in the community and build his brand.

“I had an epiphany one day,” he recalled. “We were comtemplating how to allocate some marketing money, and I wanted to find a way to create a win-win, or what Vince [Jackson] calls a ‘win-win-win.’

“What this card does is give Keiter some good exposure, but it’s also supporting our community, and it’s also supporting the local economy and retailers,” he said, adding that the idea was to build on the chamber’s existing gift-card program, which was “keeping the money local.”

Douglas Gilbert, vice president of Commercial Lending at Florence Bank, another of those who nominated Keiter for the Difference Makers award, put the initiative in perspective, noting that “Scott’s generous support of the Northampton gift-card program has been vital to the program’s success and provides purchasers with a significant financial incentive to support participating area merchants.”

Jackson agreed, adding that the program’s impact has grown each year.

“In 2023, the GNCC experienced year-over year growth of 10% in Northampton gift-card sales, 13% growth in gift-card units, and 22% growth in redemptions — all driven primarily by the excitement and impact of the Keiter Card promotion,” he said, noting that the cards have sold out in a matter of days each year. “That growth in redemptions in significant and signals immediate spending, giving an exceptional boost to small businesses during a traditionally slow sales period.”

Summing up Kieter’s involvement in the community, as well as his success in business, Jackson started by saying the chamber no longer refers to those who join its ranks as members. Instead, it calls them ‘investors.’

And some businesses have earned the designation ‘prestige investors,’ he went on, adding that these are the ones creating jobs, getting involved — in the chamber and in the community — and making an impact.

Keiter — both the company and its owner — have certainly earned that designation, said Jackson, adding that his involvement in the region prompted the chamber’s leadership to present him with a Community Service Award in 2023.

“They’re doing all the right things, practicing good citizenship and promoting economic development along the way,” he noted. “They’re sharing the wealth and rewards that they’ve been blessed to have, and that’s admirable.”

 

Playing His Card

Jackson told BusinessWest that Keiter cycled off the chamber’s board of directors recently, and that it’s a tradition to give departing board menbers a gift, usually something of the ‘gag’ variety.

In this case, those at the chamber wrapped up a Keiter Card and presented it to him, imploring him to spend it wisely and spread the wealth around.

While that card was a gift to him, the Keiter Card program has been a gift to the community —both its residents and its businesses. It is a gift that has become, as Jackson said, a true win-win-win.

Dr. Fred and Mary Kay Kadushin

By
Dr. Fred and Mary Kay Kadushin
Class of 2024

Co-founders, Feed the Kids

They Decided to Do Something … and Not Just Write a Check

Dr. Fred and Mary Kay Kadushin

It all started with a story on National Public Radio in 2017, one with some alarming statistics about how many children in this country go to bed hungry — some 6 million of them, according to estimates at that time.

Dr. Fred and Mary Kay Kadushin were in different places when the NPR story aired, but they both had their radios on. And they were both surprised and alarmed by what they heard — enough to want to try to do something about it.

“Both of us were just so blown away by what we heard,” said Mary Kay, a retired graphic artist. “When you think about childhood nutrition, and the lack thereof … you think of other countries, but it’s right here in the United States; it’s right under your nose.”

Fred, a semi-retired neuropsychologist who specializes in toxic disorders, agreed. “We decided we needed to do something, and that we needed to do more than just a write a check.”

They talked at length about possible courses of action and eventually settled on creating a new nonprofit venture that would be called Feed the Kids, a name that says it all. And they would eventually settle on a golf tournament (something they had some experience with from their years helping to fundraise for the Boy Scouts) and accompanying online auction as the way to carry out a simple yet vitally important mission — to help existing local programs that have undertaken initiatives to combat childhood food insecurity.

Specifically, they now support Square One, the Springfield-based early-education and family-support provider that offers breakfast, lunch, and snacks to its preschoolers; Pioneer Valley Power Packs, an all-volunteer program that provides school-aged children with non-perishable food each weekend in Easthampton and Northampton; the HPS (Holyoke Public Schools) Weekend Backpack program; and No Kid Hungry, a national organization that battles food insecurity.

“Both of us were just so blown away by what we heard. When you think about childhood nutrition, and the lack thereof … you think of other countries, but it’s right here in the United States; it’s right under your nose.”

Since the first players teed it up in 2018, the program has raised more than $350,000 to fight childhood food insecurity, and along the way it has garnered the support of several area businesses, including PeoplesBank, Westfield Bank, the accounting firm Meyers Brothers Kalicka, the law firm Shatz Schwartz and Fentin, Freedom Credit Union, Monson Savings Bank, Elm Electric, and many others.

We talked with the Kadushins about their work, but we also talked with those at the agencies they support. They describe a couple that is modest, caring, generous, and committed to doing what they can to help others in this region. In other words, Difference Makers.

Dr. Fred Kadushin gets to know some of the young students at Square One in Springfield

Dr. Fred Kadushin gets to know some of the young students at Square One in Springfield, one of the nonprofits supported by Feed the Kids.

“Fred and Mary Kay are selfless in their efforts,” said Mary Bianca, a board member with Pioneer Valley Power Packs, who nominated the Kadushins for the Difference Makers award. “They work tirelessly, and their help and dedication have, and continue to make, a huge difference in the lives of thousands of children in our community.”

Kris Allard, vice president of Development and Communication at Square One, who also nominated them, agreed.

“If there’s a poster recipient for the Difference Makers award, it would be Fred and Mary Kay,” she told BusinessWest. “They are the kindest, most generous family … and there’s a pureness to what they do. They’re just individuals doing this work; there’s no expectation for recognition. They’re just good people.”

 

Impact Statements

As she talked about the Kadushins, Allard started not with Feed the Kids and what it does for Square One, but with a different initiative at the agency — one that collects winter coats for children in need.

“They would donate beautiful coats to the program, and I would always get a note from them that said, ‘make sure they check the pockets,’” she said. “There was always a toy zipped into the pocket — a little Matchbox car or any other kind of small toy that would fit in there — and Fred would always say, ‘have the kids check the pockets; there’s a little something extra there.’”

Doing something extra has been the MO for the Kadushins, she went on, adding that, during COVID, when coat drop-offs were not possible, the couple still wanted to donate. Allard, who lives in Wilbraham, arranged to go to the Kadushins’ home on Lake Paradise in Monson and pick up some coats, and while there, Fred initiated a conversation about what else Square One did.

“If there’s a poster recipient for the Difference Makers award, it would be Fred and Mary Kay. They are the kindest, most generous family … and there’s a pureness to what they do. They’re just individuals doing this work; there’s no expectation for recognition. They’re just good people.”

Upon being told the agency provided breakfast and lunch for children, but that this was ‘deficit operation,’ because funds from the state didn’t fully cover the costs, Fred told her about the golf tournament that he and Mary Kay had started a few years earlier.

So began a partnership that embodies the mission of both agencies, and one that certainly helps explain why the Kadushins are being honored as Difference Makers.

For a more in-depth explanation, we need to go back to that report on NPR.

The Kadushins, as noted, came away determined to help, and not by writing a check. They did considerable research on how best to address the larger problem and started a golf tournament to support No Kid Hungry. Soon, though, they wanted to expand their reach and directly support local organizations with programs to feed children.

There are many of them because the need is great, said Mary Kay, adding that they eventually created partnerships with Square One, Pioneer Valley Power Packs (PVPP), and the HPS Weekend Backpack program, which provides 250 to 500 Holyoke children with a backpack of nutritious food to tide them over until they return to school on Monday.

But some of these programs, and especially No Kid Hungry, provide more than food, said Fred, adding that education is also critically important.

“They have programs that educate parents about making smart food choices because sometimes, kids are just getting the wrong foods,” he explained. “It’s not just that they’re not getting enough; they’re getting the wrong kinds.”

And the need is only growing within the region, said both the Kadushins and those operating the nonprofits they support.

The Feed the Kids golf tournament

The Feed the Kids golf tournament has drawn the support of dozens of local businesses and become a summer tradition in Western Mass.

Indeed, Bianca said Pioneer Valley Power Packs saw a 65% increase in need in 2023, a surge she attributes to inflation, rising rents, an overall softening of the economy that saw more people out of work, and an end to some COVID-related relief programs.

There is a waiting list for students to receive the power packs, which consist of two breakfasts, two lunches, and some snacks, she said, adding that, thanks to the donation from the Feed the Kids tournament and auction, the agency was able to take some young people off that waiting list.

“They’re our largest supporter,” she said. “If not for them, we wouldn’t have a program.”

 

Investment Plan

The golf tournament created to support PVPP and other organizations fighting childhood food insecurity, staged annually at Springfield Country Club, has become a labor of love for the Kadushins and a small army of volunteers that lend support and handle assignments from securing items for the auction to working at the course on tournament day.

Planning for next year’s tournament begins almost immediately after the current year’s edition ends, said Fred, adding that the goal is to keep overhead as low as possible (in this case, almost zero) to funnel as much of the money raised to nonprofits as possible.

The event has grown over the years, at least in terms of the auction and the number of supporting corporate sponsors. (As veteran golf-tournament organizers, they understand the importance of limiting the number of golfers on the course, thus helping to ensure that a good time is had and foursomes come back the next year.)

And its importance has grown as well, said the Kadushins, agreeing with Bianca that, regrettably, the need has only increased in the years since that NPR report.

They view their efforts as an investment in young people and an investment in the future of this region, and the country.

“The payoffs are so high,” Fred said. “Proper nutrition affects physical, cognitive, and emotional development. If you think about it, nutrition affects everything. If you improve concentration, you can improve school performance, and when kids eat properly, they’re more likely to graduate, and the downstream implications of that are huge in terms of improving lives and ensuring that people become productive members of society.

“You decrease things like obesity and improve immunity,” he went on. “So downstream, you’re improving kids’ health, so there will be less drag on the healthcare system.”

Mary Kay agreed. “Our passion is with kids because it’s hard to imagine a child going to bed hungry, and that’s generally through no fault of their own,” she said. “Our heart goes out to that.”

While they’re proud of what they do, the Kadushins, as might be expected given the testimonials above, say the real work being done to combat food insecurity among young people is at the nonprofits addressing the problem and by those on the front lines, many of them volunteers.

“These volunteers are amazing; they pack the food, they get it distributed, and they identify who needs the food,” Mary Kay said, adding that she, Fred, and other members of the golf-tournament team will be joining those in Holyoke to stuff backpacks later this month. “It’s pretty amazing, these people who actually do this work.”

Equally amazing is the devotion that Fred and Mary Kay bring to the efforts to help these agencies and volunteers carry out their missions.

Their work is done mostly behind the scenes, organizing the golf outing, signing up sponsors, and attending to the smallest of details. Their stated goal is to press on, grow their venture, hopefully add a title sponsor, and, ultimately, help local agencies help more people in need.

What else would you expect from a couple that puts small surprises in the pockets of winter coats earmarked for children in need? What else would you expect from a couple that didn’t just listen to a news story on childhood hunger, but committed themselves to doing something about those alarming statistics?

What else would you expect from two genuine Difference Makers?

Linda Dunlavy

By
Linda Dunlavy
Class of 2024

Executive Director, Franklin Regional Council of Governments

In Small Towns, She Makes a Big Difference

Linda Dunlavy

When asked what she likes about her work — and she must like it because she’s been doing it for more than 30 years now — Linda Dunlavy paused for a moment before giving an answer that was as succinct as it was powerful.

“If you’re patient … you can create positive change,” she said, putting additional emphasis on that word patient. And for good reason. When you’re dealing in complex issues such as transportation, broadband access, a housing shortage, climate change, and poulation loss, the solutions don’t come quickly or easily, she said.

To get her point across, Dunlavy, executive director of the Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG, or simply the COG, as it’s called), recalled the countless meetings she would attend with Tim Brennan, the former director of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission who passed away in 2020 (and a Difference Makers honoree himself in 2011), as they led efforts to bring north-south rail service back to Greenfield and other communities in Western Mass.

It was a long, hard fight, she recalled, shaking her head as the reflected on the heavy amounts of early skeptism, miles put on the odometer traveling to and from more meetings than she could possibly count, and endless discussions with policymakers and power brokers in an effort to turn back the clock on rail service.

“There were people saying, ‘you’ll never get this,’ and ‘you can never justify this,’” she recalled, flashing back almost a quarter-century and the start of her work on this issue.

“Tim and I would drive to Boston all the time, and I would drive to Springfield all the time; I was meeting with MassDOT, meeting with legislators, meeting with Amtrak, meeting with the Federal Highway Administration, meeting again with MasssDOT, meeting again with legislators. And it was a lot of ‘let’s try this’ … and we’d hit a dead end and then back up, and then we’d say, ‘let’s try this option’ and hit a dead end. That was a lot of the strategic work I did with Tim: ‘what can we try next? What’s the next obstacle that needs to be overcome to prove that this is a good idea?’”

Overall, it took 15 years to get north-south passenger rail returned, Dunlavy noted, adding that passenger volumes post-COVID, high enough to convince the state to take the service from trial status to permanent in nature, validate all that hard work.

This is just one example of how her patience, and a number of other qualities, have yielded that positive change she spoke of. Others include her work to bring reliable broadband to rural communities, a project to realign Route 2 around the Erving Industries paper mill, and even the building the COG is now housed in — the John Olver Transit Center in Greenfield.

“Linda has a preternatural ability to see what needs to be done and, with transparency underpinned by a willingness to accept risk and accountability for choices, forge ahead.”

Dunlavy’s tenacity and ability to get things done were summed up effectively by Jay Dipucchio, president of Turners Falls-based Nutri-Systems Corp. and also a member of the COG advisory board, who nominated her for the Difference Makers award.

“Linda has a preternatural ability to see what needs to be done and, with transparency underpinned by a willingness to accept risk and accountability for choices, forge ahead,” he wrote. “It helps as well that the energies applied and chances taken are informed by hard-earned experience and a great depth of knowledge.

communities in Franklin County, including Greenfield, seen here.

During her lengthy career with the FRCOG, Linda Dunlavy has brought services to, and been a tireless advocate for, communities in Franklin County, including Greenfield, seen here.

“She is an incomprably vigorous advocate and collaboration builder for Greater Franklin County and the Pioneer Valley,” he went on. “By cultivating collaboration and fostering innovative public-sector responses to regional service issues, her leadership of the FRCOG has created arguably one of the most unique and recognized public-service organizations in the Commonwealth, truly making a difference for the people who live here.”

In keeping with that assessment of her talents and value to the region, Dunlavy said she is focused not on what she’s been able to accomplish for the people of Franklin County — and all the state’s 170 rural communities, for that matter — but on the work still to be done.

And there is plenty of it, in realms ranging from housing to climate issues and readiness for disasters like the mirobursts and heavy rains of last July, to what has become the most crucial issue facing this region: population loss.

Dunlavy is addressing these issues and others with the requisite patience, but also large amounts of tenacity and that ability to get things done — attributes that speak to her impact as a Difference Maker.

 

Staying on Track

As she wrapped up her conversation with BusinessWest, Dunlavy gestured out one of the windows of her corner office to the incoming Amtrak train, the Vermonter, stopping at the depot just a few hundred feet away. She took the opportunity to count the number of people getting off and on, something she does often, and for obvious reasons.

“She is an incomprably vigorous advocate and collaboration builder for Greater Franklin County and the Pioneer Valley.”

While only a few were getting on this particular train, heading north on a Tuesday afternoon, the numbers for the trains heading south — to Northampton, Springfield, Hartford, then New York and eventually Washington — have been solid, as has overall volume for the service, she said, adding that the numbers help validate all those meetings and all that time spent convincing officials to bring the trains back to the region.

And while the return of train service may be the crowning achievement of Dunlavy’s career, there have been many others, as noted earlier.

Bringing rail service back to Greenfield and other Western Mass.

Bringing rail service back to Greenfield and other Western Mass. communities is one of many long-term projects in Linda Dunlavy’s record of service to the region.

Beyond the larger projects, there is the day-to-day work of advocating for, and providing services to, the towns of Franklin County, but also all the rural communities of the Bay State — those with fewer than 500 people per square mile.

That’s every community in Franklin County other than Greenfield, she said, adding that these towns are small — or, in the cases of Monroe and Rowe, with populations of 120 and 394, respectively, very small.

Serving these communities is the mission of the COG, created in the wake of the abolition of county government in 1997. Today, it operates 12 programs and boasts more than 50 staff members and an annual budget of more than $5 million, funded in part by assessments to the 26 municipalities in Franklin County, but mostly through state and federal grants.

Dunlavy started with the county commission in 1993 and transitioned to the COG when it was created in 1998, and took at the helm of the organization in 1999.

Summing up its mission, she said it is similar in many ways to the Springfield-based Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. It serves the communities of Franklin County, the most rural county in the state, providing planning services as well as regionalized municipal services to those communities, as well as some outside the county. Those services include building, wiring, and inspection services, as well as the purchasing of municipal products and services for 59 towns, items such as guardrail, asphalt, salt, sand, and fuel.

“Our focus is Franklin County, but we go outside Franklin County with projects and partnerships to serve the county better,” she explained. “So we work with cooperatively with the Pioneer Planning Commission on many projects, such as rail.

“Our towns are very rural, and that’s why we provide so many municipal services,” she went on. “A small town like Buckland would have a hard time finding a qualified accountant, a qualified health agent, a qualified business inspector. So, by combining those services together, we can hire professional staff and provide those services to our rural communities.”

 

The State of Things

Beyond providing these services, the COG, like Dunlavy herself, serves as an advocate for the region, on issues ranging from rail to broadband to housing.

The week she spoke with BusinessWest, she was also in Boston testifiying at an 11-hour hearing on the housing bond bill and advocating for housing solutions that recognize the difficulties and contraints of developing housing in rural areas.

She was testifying in her role as part of the Massachusetts Assoc. of Regional Planning Agencies, but also as chair of the Rural Policy Advisory Commission, she said, adding that, in both capacities, she advocated for recognition that housing development in rural areas comes at a smaller scale than in Hampden County or Eastern Mass., for example, meaning there are fewer economies of scale and far fewer developers interested in building in such areas. Also, most of these rural communities have limited water and sewer infrasructure, so the cost to develop housing is much higher.

With a better understanding of these issues, she said, legislators can craft a bond bill that creates greater equity when it comes to a housing shortage that impacts virtually every community in the Commonwealth.

Meanwhile, she and others at the COG are also working to make the region more prepared for disruptions like COVID and climate-related disasters such as the torrential rains and accompanying flooding last summer, which ruined crops and damaged infrastructure.

“We need to focus on what we can learn from the devastation of the July storms, on how we make our region more resilient, and how we can get our communities to work together to set climate-resiliency priorities and choose projects togther,” she said. “If you look at all of that as emergency response … that’s a big part of what we’re doing right now.”

But the biggest challenge, though, is population loss, and it’s an issue that now commands a large amount of Dunlavy’s time and energy.

“It’s a huge issue for us; we always have it in the back of our minds in all of the work that we do — what can we do to stem population loss and attract young families to our region. Because an aging and declining population is not great for our economy.”

Elaborating, she said population growth has been stagnant since 2000, but there are projections, contained in a report prepared by the UMass Donahue Institute, for a precipitious decline, perhaps 20%, in the years to come.

That model does not take into account a resolution to the broadband issue in many Franklin County communties, she went on, nor does it factor in the rising popularity in remote work and the boost it has provided for many rural areas. So, while the projections are stark, there is reason for optimism.

“There are a lot of factors we can use to make sure those population projections don’t come true,” she told BusinessWest. “That’s a big focus of our work.”

 

Progress Report

As she offered a quick tour of the transit center, Dunlavy recalled the time a gentleman visited not long after it opened.

“He said, ‘I’d like something like this; how long did this take?’” she recalled, adding that the answer — more than 20 years — startled him somewhat.

That’s about the average for most of the major projects she has undertaken, she went on, stressing, again, that none of her landmark projects — be it broadband, rail, or the Route 2 realignment — came quickly or easily. Such projects require patience, and a whole lot more.

Dunlavy has those attributes, just as her friend, colleague, and mentor Tim Brennan did. And now she shares something else in common with him.

She’s a Difference Maker.

Delcie Bean

By
Class of 2024

CEO, Paragus Strategic I.T.

His Big Goals Promise a Big Impact for Employees, the Region, and Beyond

Delcie Bean

 

Delcie Bean had been repairing computers as a side gig from schoolwork from his early teens, and he was a high-school junior when he started taking his enterprise seriously, with business cards and a company name: Vertical Horizons.

The name would change twice over the next two decades, first to Valley Computer Works, then to Paragus Strategic I.T. The technology would change quite a bit, too, as would his business model (more on that later).

What hasn’t changed is Bean’s initial goal: to know more than his clients.

“When I started, it was residential computer support. A lot of it was just helping senior citizens,” he recalled. “I was just helping people who were less sophisticated than I was set up a computer and learn how to use it.

“I didn’t actually know all that much. I just had to know more than the person I was helping,” he continued. “I didn’t have a car; I didn’t have a license. So people had to come pick me up, bring me to their home, and I’d help them fix their computer. I got paid $10 an hour and fed very, very well; it was a lot of grandmas, so I got a lot of cookies and cakes and got invited to a lot of dinners.”

The company grew steadily over the next few years, first in a storefront in Amherst, then in a converted house on Route 9 in Hadley. By 2008 — still only 21 — Bean had accomplished enough to be named to BusinessWest’s 40 Under Forty, one of the youngest-ever honorees. He also earned the publication’s Top Entrepreneur award for 2014 and its first-ever Alumni Achievement Award, given to high-performing 40 Under Forty alumni, in 2015 — both of those recognizing the impressive growth of what was now called Paragus Strategic I.T. and located in a larger building a half-mile east on Russell Street.

“How can we be the sherpas, the guides, for those small businesses and tell them what’s coming around the corner, what they should be thinking about, and what they should be preparing for?”

And now, Bean is a Difference Maker — not necessarily for the company’s still-upward trajectory when it comes to growth and expansion. No, it’s for the impact he’s had on IT workforce development in the region, and also for implementing an ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) model that may create dozens of employee-owner millionaires over time.

“We think we can be a $250 million company in 15 years,” he told BusinessWest. “But in order to do that, we’re going to need to grow a lot, and we’re going to need capital. A lot of businesses in our position bring in a private equity group and leverage their dollars, but that means you work for them, and they make a lot of the big decisions, and it isn’t the same company anymore. And we decidedly did not want to do that.”

He also had no interest in selling the company, feeling he has more to give. “So the third option was to do what we did the first time we wanted to grow, and double down on the ESOP. In this case, we’re becoming 100% employee-owned.”

 

Keys to Success

Looking back, one of the biggest decisions in Bean’s career took place after he and a partner (whom he eventually bought out) settled on the name Valley Computer Works and bought the house in Hadley.

By 2011, the client base was about 60% residential (with about 4,000 customers) and 40% commercial.

“We got it running like a well-oiled machine. There was a touchscreen kiosk when you dropped it off — you checked off what services you wanted to get. We had it running like a car wash: ‘do you want this package or this package?’ And the whole thing was really efficient, but we weren’t enjoying it. It wasn’t giving me a lot of excitement,” he recalled. “But I loved the commercial stuff. I loved helping companies and working with businesses.”

Besides its Hadley headquarters (pictured), Paragus has a location in Worcester

Besides its Hadley headquarters (pictured), Paragus has a location in Worcester and ambitions to expand its footprint steadily from there.

So, one day, he woke up and decided his future would be in commercial support — and he made the bold decision to shut down 60% of his revenue at the time and build on the 40%.

These days, Paragus exclusively provides IT support to small businesses in an ongoing contract model, he explained. “We are their outsourced IT department, and we become an extension of their company, managing and taking care of whatever they need.”

Bean describes Paragus’ traditional services in terms of three pillars. The first is the help desk. “Your employees have a problem — they can’t turn their computer on, they can’t get into their email, their phone’s not working — and we’re the help desk. We’re the people you call to get those issues taken care of.”

The second pillar is the proactive part of IT: the backups, monitoring, and security. “Obviously, that has evolved and changed so much in the past 10 years, but the core principle is that you need somebody looking after your network and being proactive and taking care of it.”

The third pillar is strategy, helping businesses figure out what technology they should be using, and how to use it more efficiently.

But about four years ago, a fourth pillar emerged at Paragus, which is AI and automation. “That’s all about using technology to make the business more efficient, more intelligent. How do we access more information to run a better business?”

As technology continues to evolve, especially on that fourth front, it’s critical that businesses have a strategic partner well-versed in IT and current trends, he added.

“AI and automation are changing everything. They’re going to have a huge disruption in the labor force in terms of who’s doing what jobs and how those jobs get done. And we’re going to be able to do things that, right now, we can’t do, either because we’re too busy doing the mundane, repetitive work, or because we just didn’t have the tools to be able to work on those things.

“So, how do we stay one or two steps ahead of our customer base,” Bean asked, “but in a way that we can figure out not only how this is impacting our industry, but how it’s impacting small business in general? Then, how can we be the sherpas, the guides, for those small businesses and tell them what’s coming around the corner, what they should be thinking about, and what they should be preparing for?”

Sensing a need for a stronger pipeline of talent into the IT field, in 2014, Bean created Tech Foundry, an educational nonprofit that provides in-depth training for promising individuals, particularly from marginalized or underrepresented backgrounds.

“We wanted to create a program that would take people who are having a hard time finding work, give them a career path, and then we can employ them,” he explained. “It helps us, it helps them, it helps everybody. It seemed very sustainable.”

“About 500 students have graduated from Tech Foundry. And many of them are earning significant salaries, way more than they ever could have imagined.”

Employer partners agreed, and a fundraising campaign brought in $400,000 to launch the program, which continues today — and recently expanded into Tech Hub, a facility in Holyoke where people can learn technology skills to help them advance in an increasingly digital job market.

“About 500 students have graduated from Tech Foundry. And many of them are earning significant salaries, way more than they ever could have imagined,” Bean said. “So it not only impacts that person, it impacts their entire family, because now you’ve just changed this person’s entire trajectory.”

 

Wealth of Information

In the early years of Vertical Horizon and Valley Computer Works, Bean said, it didn’t matter who owned the company because it wasn’t making any money.

“But there came a time when that changed, and the company was suddenly worth more. And that was the moment where it started to feel a little bit inequitable. We had the same culture; we were all working just as hard. Everybody was the first one in and last one out, and there was no hierarchy; we were all just doing what we could to make this company successful and serve our customers.

“But at the end of the day, as the company actually started to gain value, all that value was coming to me,” he said. “So, around 2013, I had this idea that I wanted to spread that value across the employees. We tried a couple of different models and finally settled on ESOP as the way we wanted to do that.”

The plan was to transfer 40% of the stock to the employees, a transaction that was finalized in June 2016.

“That was the first moment where I actually planned on running the business for many years into the future,” Bean said. “Up until that point, it was still kind of a side project; I was still a kid with no responsibilities. But when I made that decision to become an ESOP, I was like, ‘OK, this is actually a business, and I want this business to grow and thrive and succeed.’”

To do that, he needed to attract top talent who would want to stay, and that meant creating a desirable employee culture — with employee ownership as a key part of that. Which is why Paragus is now expanding its ESOP to become 100% employee-owned.

“I will no longer own any more stock than any of the other employees,” he told BusinessWest. “I’ll just be another employee owner. But we will have created the capital that we need to be able to execute on our acquisition strategy.”

That’s the heart of the plan: to continue to acquire companies in new geographic footprints, a strategy that Paragus piloted in Worcester with its acquisition of Comportz Technologies during the summer of 2021.

“The plan is to try to do an acquisition a year for the next five years or so and continue to learn and grow and figure out what works, what doesn’t work, and then continue to execute that strategy for as long as it provides value to the community, to the customers, and to the employees,” he explained. “Each year, we want to look for a new geographic market that we think has the right conditions for us to succeed and thrive.”

Meanwhile, Paragus continues to give back to the community, supporting many local businesses by donating goods and sponsoring nonprofit events and educational initiatives.

“We’re a company that believes companies can be a force for good in the community and in the world,” Bean said. “For us, the world is too big a target, but the community feels really approachable. We serve businesses in the community, and we’re dependent on the community.”

And now it’s serving those businesses as a 100% employee-owned firm, which promises to change a lot of lives.

“I’d encourage businesses that are looking to grow, looking to transition ownership, looking to make a change, to keep that option on the table without just defaulting to selling out to private equity,” he added. “Oftentimes, the impact of that is losing jobs, losing revenue, and dollars leave the area.”

The opposite is happening at Paragus, which continues to benefit clients, employees, aspiring IT talent, and the community in myriad ways.

That’s the story — with many chapters in his young life still unwritten — of a Difference Maker.

Matt Bannister

By
Matt Bannister
Class of 2024

Senior Vice President, Marketing and Corporate Responsibility, PeoplesBank

He Goes Well Beyond the Job of ‘Playing Santa Claus’

Matt Bannister

Matt Bannister likes to say that he has “one of the best jobs at the bank,” although some might consider it the worst.

His title is senior vice president of Marketing and Corporate Responsibility, a position that comes with many responsibilities, including a rather large role in determining and then implementing PeoplesBank’s philanthropic strategy, duties he described this way: “I get to play Santa Claus.”

Indeed, he’s part of the team that essentially determined how the bank apportioned $2.3 million in giving in 2022 and another $1.6 million in 2023, with donations averaging roughly $3,000 presented to more than 500 nonprofits and causes meeting some of the region’s most critical needs, such as food insecurity, housing, economic development, and literacy.

 

 

More on all this later, because this work is not why Bannister has been named a Difference Maker for 2024. OK, it’s a small part of the reason why.

The much bigger reason is the manner in which he has gone well beyond playing Santa Claus and well beyond helping decide to whom the bank will write checks — rather, he’s become closely involved with helping to meet some of those needs listed above.

Since joining the bank in 2015, he has served as a board member for agencies including Link to Libraries, EforAll Pioneer Valley, the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce, the Springfield 9/11 Memorial fundraising committee, the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts, Hilltown Community Health Center; the American Red Cross, and Revitalize Community Development Corp. (CDC), where he is current co-chair.

“You can say that he manages the pocketbook and he helps us disperse funds in the right ways, but when you see that expense report and you see that mileage — that’s not giving out money as much as it is participating and being part of the community.”

Involvement with the health-related agencies on that list continues a pattern to focus his time, energy, and talent on matters related to health and well-being (and he puts Revitalize CDC squarely in that category, as we’ll see).

Before coming to PeoplesBank, Bannister was executive vice president of Corporate Communications and Brand Content for the American Heart Assoc./American Stroke Assoc., and before that, he was vice president and group account director at Arnold Worldwide, working on integrated marketing campaigns with a focus on anti-tobacco efforts for clients including the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the FDA, and the American Legacy Foundation.

PeoplesBank President Tom Senecal, who nominated Bannister as a Difference Maker, says he can quantify and qualify how much of an impact his colleague has made. For both, he turns to statistics the company keeps on just how many hours each employee devotes to volunteer work — with Bannister logging at least twice as many on bank-sponsored activities, in his estimate — and especially the expense reports Bannister turns in.

“I see the expense reports; they’re three pages long with his volunteer mileage — three pages per month,” he said, adding a verbal exclamation mark. “You can say that he manages the pocketbook and he helps us disperse funds in the right ways, but when you see that expense report and you see that mileage — that’s not giving out money as much as it is participating and being part of the community.

Matt Bannister, seen here at the PeoplesBank booth

Matt Bannister, seen here at the PeoplesBank booth at Junior Achievement’s Teen Reality Fair last year in Chicopee, has become actively involved in the community.

“He goes well above and beyond what we ask him to do to represent PeoplesBank,” Senecal went on, adding that this involvement, this commitment to backing up the checks the bank writes with his work on boards and mowing lawns for Revitalize CDC, explains why he’s been chosen as a Difference Maker for 2024.

 

By All Accounts

Bannister loves to tell the story about his participation in career day at his then-9-year-old daughter’s elementary school. It conveys a little about what he was doing at the time — this was when he was with Arnold Worldwide working on ad programs to help curb smoking among young people — and a lot about why he has been chosen as a Difference Maker.

“Kids at that age don’t really have a strong sense for what their father does for a living,” he said, recalling that his daughter introduced him by saying simply, ‘this is my dad … he saves lives for a living.’

“I thought that was really cool,” he told BusinessWest, adding that this description of what he did certainly helped inspire some of his next career steps. “I said, ‘I want more of that,’ and it helped me go from doing the anti-tobacco work at the agency to the American Heart Association.”

“Our philosophy is to give a little to a lot of groups, and not a lot to a few groups. That’s because almost every nonprofit is worthwhile and doing good work.”

Tracing his work history, Bannister said he worked for the ad agency Hill Holiday in Boston and later with Arnold Worldwide, working on accounts ranging from Volkswagen to Puma to Ocean Spray. In the late ‘90s, he was promoted and told he’d be working on the Department of Public Health account.

“I initially said, ‘that doesn’t sound like a promotion,’” he went on, adding that this was at the time when a 25-cent tax was put on every pack of cigarettes sold, with the money going toward smoking-cessation programs and preventing youth uptake.

“Every ad agency had a beer, a car, a fast-food chain … now, a brand-new category was created — a $100 million category because of all the revenue that was being created,” he went on. “And it was untilled, fertile soil.”

In his role, Matt Bannister is often the face of PeoplesBank

In his role, Matt Bannister is often the face of PeoplesBank, such as at this occasion marking the bank’s donation — $250,000 over five years — to the building of a new facility for the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts.

Overall, it was more rewarding work than selling cars or cranberry juice, he said, adding that he changed course, career-wise, and joined the American Heart Assoc., serving eventually as executive vice president of Communications at its national headquarters in Dallas.

“At the ad agency, you’re selling pizza, sneakers, and sugar water — you’re selling a product,” he explained. “In public health, you’re selling behavior change; you’re selling ‘eat right, don’t smoke, exercise more.’ It’s not something you buy, it’s behaviors, and it’s marketing that’s a lot more challenging and rewarding.”

Desiring a return to the Northeast — he was born in Dedham and attended UMass Amherst — Bannister accepted the role of senior vice president of Marketing and Corporate Responsibility at PeoplesBank, a position with a broad job description that includes corporate responsibility but now also includes marketing, media relations, and social-media management.

And when it comes to charitable giving, he said the bank’s goal is to “say yes as often as you can,” he noted.

“Our philosophy is to give a little to a lot of groups, and not a lot to a few groups,” he explained. “That’s because almost every nonprofit is worthwhile and doing good work.”

Elaborating, he said that, while he supports a wide array of nonprofits and causes, within the giving strategy is an emphasis on certain areas, such as economic development, literacy, food insecurity, and public health, which translates into larger donations to some groups, such as the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, Girls Inc. of the Valley, and Revitalize CDC.

 

An Involved Process

These have, in fact, become Bannister’s personal points of emphasis as he chooses the organizations and causes to get personally involved with — and there are many invitations to weigh.

As noted earlier, this involvement is the primary reason why he is part of the Difference Makers class of 2024. He said it’s a part of his job, and also a way to see first-hand the work being done in some of the areas listed above, and be a part of that work.

“The more I can roll up my sleeves, the better I feel about who we’re giving to,” he told BusinessWest, adding that he is certainly selective about the groups and causes he gets involved with.

“In the beginning, it was because they asked me,” he said with a laugh. “Now, it’s more the groups that are working boards that have a vibrant cross-section of the community involved, and that I think we can benefit by being involved.”

Since joining PeoplesBank, Matt Bannister has donated his time

Since joining PeoplesBank, Matt Bannister has donated his time, energy, and talents to several nonprofits and causes, including Revitalize CDC.

That includes Revitalize CDC, which undertakes a number of projects that fall into broad category of public health, including critical repairs on homes of low-income families with children, the elderly, military veterans, and those with special needs, but also initiatives involving interventions for adults and children with asthma, nutrition programs, and making home improvements that allow seniors to remain in their homes.

He is active with all those intiatives, but has carved out his own niche.

“My favorite thing is mowing the lawn — no one thinks to do that. It’s the curb appeal,” he said with a laugh. “I’m not a skilled laborer, and mowing the lawn is hard to screw up.”

Turning serious, he said the organization’s work is critical to improving health and quality of life in the region.

“Their work involves prevention more than treating the symptoms, which is what a good public-health person cares about,” he said. “It’s not as glamorous, and it’s harder to quantify, but it’s much more important work.”

As he talked about what he does for a living and within the community, Bannister made sure to thank the bank for giving him the opportunity to be part of a winning team, and to thank his wife, Sharon, for … well, being understanding and tolerant of a schedule that has him on the road a lot, maybe three or four days a week and sometimes for several events on the same day during the busy season.

It’s a big part of the job, he said, adding quickly that the job, the travel, and the events involve two states and a much larger radius now that the bank has made a push into Connecticut, one that promises to involve more zip codes in the years to come.

What’s not necessarily part of the job — and this becomes clear in Bannister’s expense sheets and Senecal’s reaction to them — is his commitment to getting very involved with several of the organizations that the bank ultimately writes checks to.

He admits to gradually learning how to say ‘no’ to those who ask him to serve on boards, but often, the answer is still ‘yes.’

 

Bottom Line

If Matt Bannister had to introduce himself at a third-grade career day, he might start by saying what he often tells people about his role: “I work at a bank, but I’m not a banker. And I absolutely love my job at the bank.”

Others who really know, people like Senecal and Colleen Loveless, president and CEO of Revitalize CDC, might be tempted to borrow the line used by his daughter and say that he saves lives.

Or … they could keep it very simple, yet powerful — and introduce him as a Difference Maker.

That says it all.

40 Under Forty Nomination Deadline Is This Friday

By
Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — Time is running out to nominate an individual for BusinessWest’s 40 Under Forty class of 2024. The deadline for nominations is Friday, Feb. 16. Launched in 2007, the program recognizes rising stars in the four counties of Western Mass.

Nominations, which should be as detailed and thorough as possible, should list an individual’s accomplishments within their profession as well as their work within the community. Nominations can be completed online at businesswest.com/40-under-forty-nomination-form.

Nominations will be weighed by a panel of judges, and the selected individuals will be announced and profiled in the April 29 issue of BusinessWest and honored at the 18th annual 40 Under Forty Gala in June.

The Federal Restaurant Temporarily Closing

By
Daily News

AGAWAM — The Federal Restaurant announced it will temporarily close, effective Saturday, Feb. 24. The team will be focusing on building improvements and updates, as well as on opening Lola’s, its newest restaurant in Longmeadow.

“The Federal has proven to be a staple of the Western Massachusetts community and beyond, as well as a top fine dining restaurant, for many years,” said Michael Presnal, executive chef and co-owner of the Federal. “We have made small updates to the restaurant since opening 22 years ago, but we are at a point where we’d like to reimagine the physical and operational aspects of the Federal Restaurant.”

The Federal is one of four in a family of restaurants, which also include Posto by the Federal in Longmeadow, Vinted Wine Bar & Kitchen in West Hartford, Conn., and the latest, Lola’s in Longmeadow.

“We would like to thank everyone for the continued support with all of our endeavors and look forward to welcoming you into Posto, Vinted, and, very soon, Lola’s, for the same great food and service that you’re used to,” co-owner Ralph Santaniello said.

Bay Path President’s Gala on March 23 to Focus on Healthcare Education

By
Daily News

LONGMEADOW — Bay Path University announced its fifth President’s Gala, themed “Breaking Through,” will be held on Saturday, March 23 at the MassMutual Center in Springfield.

The evening will begin with a 5:30 p.m. VIP reception, followed by dinner, program presentations, and dancing. Tickets can be purchased by visiting baypath.edu/gala or calling (413) 565-1063.

The gala will focus on supporting learners enrolled in healthcare degree programs, recognizing their resilience and dedication.

Like many regions across the country, Western Mass. faces shortages in many healthcare professions, including primary-care physicians, nurses, and mental-health providers. Through its more than 20 undergraduate and graduate healthcare degrees, Bay Path is educating and training future healthcare workers to be on the front line of helping to keep communities safe and healthy.

“We are thrilled to host the fifth President’s Gala with a theme that encapsulates the essence of our learners’ journey: ‘Breaking Through.’ Through incredibly personal and moving stories, we will be celebrating the accomplishments of our learners and healthcare alumni and the impact they have in our communities,” Bay Path President Sandra Doran said.

Proceeds from the gala will directly contribute to scholarships, resources, and initiatives that benefit learners pursuing healthcare degrees, reinforcing Bay Path University’s commitment to fostering excellence in the healthcare field, she added.

“Support of the gala will provide scholarships and needed financial support for our learners to ensure they will have the opportunities that will make an impact on their lives and the lives of patients.”

Both healthcare policy and advocacy play crucial roles in shaping the healthcare landscape in Western Mass. To that end, U.S. Rep. Richard Neal and Sr. Mary Caritas, SP will be honorary chairs for this event.

“As a learning institution with a long history of uplifting a diverse student body, creating opportunities for first-generation college students, this year’s theme, ‘Breaking Through,’ epitomizes the role Bay Path plays in our community,” Neal said. “Supporting educational initiatives, especially in the healthcare field, is vital for the progress of our region. I am honored to be part of an event that empowers students and champions the future leaders of the healthcare industry.”

Added Sr. Caritas, the former president of Mercy Medical Center, “as someone dedicated to healthcare and education, I am delighted to support Bay Path University’s efforts in empowering learners to make a positive impact in the healthcare sector.”

To view a full list of gala committee members, sponsors, and additional event details, visit baypath.edu/gala.

Grammy-winning Pianist to Be Featured Artist for 25th HCC Jazz Festival

By
Daily News

HOLYOKE — Hot off a win for Best Latin Jazz Album at the 66th annual Grammy Awards, pianist, composer, and band leader Luis Perdomo will be the featured guest artist at the 25th annual Holyoke Community College (HCC) Jazz Festival on March 1-2.

The two-day festival opens on Friday, March 1 with an 8 p.m. concert with Perdomo performing with the Amherst Jazz Orchestra under the direction of David Sporny on the stage of the Leslie Phillips Theater in the HCC Fine & Performing Arts building. The Friday night concert is free for HCC students, faculty, and staff, and $10 for the general public.

“Luis is a great musician, a great teacher, and a great guy,” festival organizer and HCC Music Professor Bob Ferrier said. “I know him from the Jazz in July program at UMass, where we teach together. He just won a Grammy for the number-one Latin jazz album, so that’s special. We’re very happy to have him here at HCC for our 25th-anniversary festival.”

The festival will continue on Saturday, March 2 in the Leslie Phillips Theater with jazz combo performances. Jazz clinics, workshops, and jam sessions will be held throughout the day in the HCC Recital Hall (FPA building, Room 137). Perdomo will conduct two music clinics, one at 11 a.m. and another at 1 p.m. A concluding concert will be held in the theater Saturday afternoon featuring Perdomo with HCC students and festival faculty.

In addition to his work as a performer, Perdomo is a composer, bandleader, and teacher. He began performing in his native Venezuela as a teenager and now makes his home in New York City. He is also an associate professor of Music at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

A prolific sideman, he has appeared on more than 200 records, playing with the likes of artists such as David Sanchez and David Gilmore as well as recording seven albums as a bandleader. He was a member of Ravi Coltrane’s Quartet for 10 years and is a founding member of the Miguel Zenon Quartet.

This year, Perdomo and Zenon, a Puerto Rican saxophone player, received the Grammy award for Best Latin Jazz Album for their 2023 release, El Arte del Bolero Vol. 2.

The Amherst Jazz Orchestra, led by trombonist David Sporny, has been a mainstay of the HCC Jazz Festival since the first one in 1998. The HCC Jazz Festival has been held every year except for 2020 and 2021, when it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Margaret Tantillo Named Executive Director of O’Dell Women’s Center

By
Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — The O’Dell Women’s Center, Springfield’s first nonprofit women’s center, appointed Margaret Tantillo as its executive director. The O’Dell Women’s Center, dedicated to helping low-income women secure educational and career opportunities, is a philanthropic initiative founded in 2023 and located at 45 Lyman St.

In her previous position as executive director of Dress for Success Western Massachusetts, Tantillo directed five distinct programs designed specifically for low-income women that resulted in hundreds of women finding gainful employment. These programs included workforce development, mentorship programming, and trainings in financial literacy, digital literacy, and dressing for the workplace.

Toward the end of her tenure, she relocated Dress for Success Western Massachusetts to 45 Lyman St. as the anchor institution of the O’Dell Women’s Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization that offers low- and no-cost residency spaces to nonprofits that support its mission.

Tantillo started her career working for the Girl Scouts. During her 13-year career with that organization, she rose through the ranks, started the first Girl Scout Advocacy Day at the Capitol in Hartford, Conn., and served in a senior leadership position, transitioning five independent nonprofits into one statewide organization with more than 65,000 members.

“Margaret’s effective and passionate advocacy for low-income Western Massachusetts women aligns perfectly with our mission,” said Keely Krantz, founder of the O’Dell Women’s Center. “With Margaret’s leadership, I am confident the O’Dell Women’s Center will become an integral part of the Springfield community devoted to economic upward mobility for women.”

Tantillo’s volunteer leadership roles in Springfield include serving on the core economic mobility hub of the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts and the coordinating committee of the Alliance for Digital Equity, and as a member of the core partners of Springfield WORKS. She earned her undergraduate degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo and her master’s degree from Springfield College.

Picture This

By
Trees of Hope
Picture This

Email ‘Picture This’ photos with a caption and contact information to [email protected]

 

Trees of Hope

On Feb. 1, Gary Rome Hyundai and Ronald McDonald House of Springfield announced that together they raised $180,333.05 for the Springfield nonprofit at the third annual Trees of Hope event in November. The organizations will partner again in 2024 to host Trees of Hope at the dealership.

Trees of Hope

Pictured, from left: Brittany Zabielski of Gary Rome Hyundai; Emily Brady and Rosemarie Zello of Ronald McDonald House; Gary Rome, president and CEO of Gary Rome Hyundai; Michelle D’Amore, executive director of Ronald McDonald House; and Dara Davignon, Lori Chatel, Cathy Riley, and Brianna Zemrock of Gary Rome Hyundai.

 

 

Helping Students Succeed

On Jan. 31, Holyoke Community College (HCC) opened its new Scholarship Resource Center, the first of its kind among community colleges in Massachusetts. Its purpose is to make it easier for students to apply for scholarships available through the HCC Foundation. Located on the first floor of the Donahue Building, the center is open Mondays through Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Each year, the HCC Foundation awards about $350,000 in scholarships.

Helping Students Succeed

Pictured: Laura Freeman, HCC manager of Stewardship and Donor Relations, and HCC President George Timmons join students in cutting the ribbon for the new center.

 

Fighting Food Insecurity

bankESB announced that its third annual Neighbors Helping Neighbors fundraising drive raised $35,000 for local food pantries, bringing the program’s three-year total to nearly $110,000. Fourteen participating food pantries received $2,500 each. The appeal is part of bankESB’s charitable giving program, the Giving Tree, which reflects the bank’s commitment to making a difference in the neighborhoods it serves.

Fighting Food Insecurity

Pictured: Tenaya Reade, assistant branch manager of bankESB’s Sargeant Street, Holyoke office, presents a $2,500 check to Brenda Lamagdeleine, manager of Margaret’s Pantry in Holyoke.

 

 

Agenda

By
Agenda

Western Mass Runners Hall of Fame Induction

March 8: The Western Mass Runners Hall of Fame (WMRHoF) board of directors announced the inductees of the third class. Since its inception, the WMRHoF has celebrated outstanding contributors to the running community, with its first class inducted in 2020 and the second in 2022. The third class inductees are Ric Bourie, Mary Cobb, Howard Drew, Sue Haryasz, Rich Larsen, Nicole McGilpin, Bob Neil, Bill Romito, Ed Sandifer, and John Stifler. In addition to these distinguished individuals, the charity organization Griffin’s Friends, which has supported children with cancer and their families for decades in the Springfield area by running and raising funds, will be inducted. Also, Neal Lamberton, a runner who has volunteered his time to the running community for years, will receive the Brian Goddu Volunteer of the Year Award, founded in memory of Goddu, a founding board member of the Western Mass Runners Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony will take place at 6 p.m. at the Holyoke Elks Lodge. The guest speaker will be Bob Hodge, third-place finisher in the 1979 Boston Marathon, multiple Mount Washington Road Race champion, 40-year course record holder on the DH Jones/Amherst 10 Mile Course, and author of Tale of the Times. Tickets for the dinner and ceremony are priced at $20 and are available for purchase at www.runreg.com/w-mass-runners-hall-of-fame-induction-banquet. For those unable to attend but wishing to support the WMRHoF mission, donations are welcome via the RunReg website.

 

Second Chance Dinner Auction

March 23: Tickets for the 25th annual Second Chance Dinner Auction are now available for purchase. This significant fundraising event marks the kickoff of Second Chance Animal Services’ year-long 25th-anniversary celebration, promising an evening of philanthropy and joy to benefit homeless shelter pets in need of veterinary care. The event will take place at the La Salle Reception Center in Southbridge. The evening will commence with a cocktail hour at 4 p.m., giving attendees the opportunity to peruse and bid on myriad silent-auction items and try their luck with raffle prizes. The main event unfolds with dinner at 6 p.m., followed by the highlight of the night, the auction. Tickets are $55 per person with the option to reserve a table of nine for $495. The success of the event relies on the generosity of sponsors and item donors. Second Chance encourages businesses and individuals to consider lending their support by becoming a sponsor or contributing items. As noted, the event features both a silent and live auction featuring hundreds of items ranging from gift certificates for local businesses and restaurants to gift baskets and everything in between. To enhance the auction experience, a selection of gift cards and small, easy-to-ship items will be available for advance online bidding March 14-21. For those interested in sponsoring, donating items, or attending the event, complete information and tickets can be found at www.secondchanceanimals.org/dinner-auction.

 

Women’s Leadership Conference

April 4: Bay Path University announced that real-estate legend, investor, best-selling author, entrepreneur, producer, and Shark Tank shark Barbara Corcoran will be the keynote speaker at the 27th Women’s Leadership Conference (WLC), taking place at the MassMutual Center in downtown Springfield. Corcoran has been an investor/shark on ABC’s four-time Emmy award-winning show Shark Tank for 10 seasons, investing in more than 80 businesses to date. She chronicled her rise from waiting tables in a New York diner to heading a $5 billion real-estate company in her bestselling book, Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business! She’ll bring her personal brand of no-nonsense wisdom and supportive advice to the more than 1,600 attendees who are expected to attend this year’s WLC. The WLC will also feature lunchtime speaker Amy Purdy, a three-time Paralympic medalist in snowboarding for Team USA. Throughout her life, Purdy has taken on obstacles and broken through, making her way into the upper echelons of athletics, onto the dance floor of Dancing with the Stars, and onto the New York Times bestseller list as the author of On My Own Two Feet: From Losing My Legs to Learning the Dance of Life. She co-founded Adaptive Action Sports for athletes with disabilities and is the host of the critically acclaimed podcast Bouncing Forward! Her work has led her to be labeled a “hero” by Oprah Winfrey and has made her one of the most in-demand motivational and corporate speakers on the globe. This year’s conference will also feature breakout sessions led by business experts and authors, including Yvonne Camus, the former COO of SPINCO, Canada’s largest indoor cycling brand and the only female to outperform the Navy Seals in the multi-terrain adventure race known as Eco-Challenge. In addition, the WLC will welcome Sylvia Baffour, an author, podcast host, and emotional-intelligence coach recently ranked by HubSpot among the top 15 female motivational speakers. Additional keynote and breakout session speakers will be announced soon. For further information on the 2024 conference, sponsorship information, and ticket sales, visit baypath.edu/wlc.

 

Difference Makers 

April 10: The 16th annual Difference Makers Gala will be held at the Log Cabin in Holyoke. Since 2009, BusinessWest has been recognizing the work of individuals, groups, businesses, and institutions through this recognition program. The 2024 Difference Makers — profiled in this issue of BusinessWest and at businesswest.com — are Matt Bannister, senior vice president, Marketing and Corporate Responsibility, PeoplesBank; Delcie Bean, CEO, Paragus Strategic I.T.; Linda Dunlavy, executive director, Franklin Regional Council of Governments; Dr. Fred and Mary Kay Kadushin, co-founders, Feed the Kids; Scott Keiter, CEO, Keiter; the staff of Rock 102; Shannon Rudder, president and CEO, Martin Luther King Jr. Family Services; and Springfield Symphony Orchestra and Springfield Chamber Players. Tickets cost $95 each, with reserved tables of 10-12 available and available now through March 29. Sponsors for the 2024 Difference Makers include Burkhart, Pizzanelli, P.C., Keiter, Mercy Medical Center/Trinity Health, the Royal Law Firm, and TommyCar Auto Group. For more event details and to reserve tickets, visit businesswest.com/difference-makers/difference-makers-tickets.

 

Hooplandia

June 21-23: Registration is now open for Hooplandia, the second annual 3×3 basketball tournament and festival, at www.hooplandia.com. The three-day event includes levels of play for all ages and divisions. Hooplandia launched in 2023. Taking place in the heart of Greater Springfield, the birthplace of basketball, the event is hosted by Eastern States Exposition (ESE) in West Springfield and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield. Most games will be played on the ESE grounds, with special games held at the Hall of Fame. Seventy-five basketball courts will be set up to accommodate more than 650 games played by approximately 2,100 participants of all ages. Divisions of play have been created to provide an all-inclusive environment for players of all ages and playing abilities. The diverse divisions include young girls, boys, women, men, high-school-level, college-level, OGs, veterans, and more. Players are invited to build teams of four, create their own unique team name and uniforms, and register at www.hooplandia.com. Team fees range according to age, and children in the under-8 category are free of charge. Hooplandia will once again partner with Boys and Girls Clubs throughout the region as its designated philanthropic partner, providing $10 from every paid team registration to support the mission and programs of the clubs. Sponsorship opportunities are available. For inquiries, email [email protected].

People on the Move

By
People on the Move
Claudia Pazmany

Claudia Pazmany

The Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce announced the resignation of Executive Director Claudia Pazmany, effective Feb. 28. Pazmany has led the chamber for the past five and a half years, growing it to over 400 members while leading it through the pandemic. The chamber will launch a search for its next executive director immediately. With Pazmany’s help, the Amherst Area Chamber has built a strong foundation with deeply rooted partnerships year after year and a dedicated staff focused on meeting the needs of its members and the business community. The chamber has hosted valuable events for members and the broader community to network, enjoy locations in the Greater Amherst area, and meet new people. Events such as Margarita Madness, the annual golf tournament, and the A+ Awards have all grown in recent years. Under her leadership, the chamber also established a diversity, equity, and inclusion task force and has advocated with local town governments on items of interest to its members. The chamber has continued its outreach to members in an effort to promote their businesses through workshops and monthly Arrive at 5 networking events. In 2023, Pazmany and Gabriele Gould from the Amherst Business Improvement District were recognized by BusinessWest as Difference Makers for their joint work on pandemic relief for small businesses.

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Liz Larson, currently director of Operations at the Amherst Business Improvement District (BID), has been named interim executive director, effective Feb. 26. Larson has been with the BID for six years and has worked closely with departing Executive Director Gabrielle Gould, creating events for the community, revitalizing downtown, and ensuring the health of the BID’s finances. She is the creative force behind the Makers’ Market at the annual Sip and Shop Stroll and the recently launched “Take a Dino to Dinner” campaign. With a background in arts administration and nonprofit management, Larson moved to Amherst with her family in 2007 and has been active in the community, serving on several boards and committees, including professional growth objectives for the public schools and the city’s Participatory Budgeting Commission. She is currently a trustee and board treasurer for the Amherst Historical Society. Prior to moving to Amherst, she spent 20 years in New York and Tokyo.

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Mary McGovern

The board of trustees of Country Bank announced the appointment of Mary McGovern as president and chief operating officer, effective April 1. She will oversee the bank’s operations and drive its strategic growth initiatives. Paul Scully, who has been the president and chief executive officer, will remain the CEO. McGovern brings more than 30 years of experience in the banking industry, making her a valuable asset to Country Bank. She holds degrees from Emmanuel College and Babson College, and her extensive knowledge and expertise have been instrumental in the bank’s success. Mary joined Country Bank in 2011 as its chief financial officer and has since been an esteemed member of the bank’s Leadership Group. McGovern recently attended the American Bankers Assoc. (ABA) Wharton Leadership Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, earning an ABA Wharton Leadership Certificate. This accomplishment further solidifies her commitment to excellence and continuous professional development.

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Emily Maher

MCLA Physics Professor Emily Maher, one of 65 scientists in the MINERvA collaboration at Fermi National Accelerator Lab (Fermilab), has published work that has been chosen as one of the “Top 10 Physics Breakthroughs of 2023” in Physics World. Over a 10-year span, the MINERvA detector recorded the interactions of neutrinos and antineutrinos, the antimatter partners of the neutrino. The physicists working on the MINERvA experiment used the data to make a groundbreaking new measurement, which was published last February in Nature. The study, led by Tejin Cai at the University of Rochester in the U.S. and Canada’s York University, shows how information about the internal structure of a proton can be gleaned from neutrinos scattering from a plastic target. The team focused on isolating the signal from neutrinos scattered off lone protons within the background of those scattered off protons bound in carbon nuclei. Their innovative approach involved simulating and subtracting the carbon-scattered signal from experimental data. This provides insights into proton structure and enhances the understanding of how neutrinos interact with matter.

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Holyoke Community College (HCC) recently welcomed Elizabeth Ollson as its manager of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving. Ollson is a 2018 graduate of HCC and also holds a bachelor’s degree in women, gender, and sexuality studies from UMass Amherst. She joined HCC’s division of Institutional Advancement in November. She came to HCC from Boston College, where she was the senior associate director of Annual Giving Programs. Prior to that, she worked at Amherst College as the Amherst Fund coordinator.

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Lisa Zarcone

Lisa Zarcone

Lisa Zarcone, an author, speaker, and child mental-health advocate honored in December as one of BusinessWest’s Women of Impact for 2023, has released her second book, titled The Book of Joann: A Novel Based on Her Life Story, and the Lifetime Battle She Endured with Mental Illness and published by Joshua Tree Publishing of Chicago. “The Book of Joann is a powerful story of darkness and light, defeat and victory, hope and faith,” said Zarcone, whose first book, The Unspoken Truth, is a memoir of her experiences with — and overcoming — years of abuse. Zarcone is currently the Massachusetts National Ambassador for the National Assoc. of Adult Survivors of Child Abuse. She is dedicated to spreading awareness of child safety/abuse, as well as mental illness and the stigma that surrounds it. She is committed to educating people and promoting change in a flawed system as too many children continue to fall through the cracks. She is also a public speaker, radio personality, social-media influencer, and blogger on her own website, lisazarcone.net. The Book of Joann can be found at both Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

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Dean’s Beans Organic Coffee Co. announced that its CEO, Beth Spong, has been appointed to serve on the board of the International Women’s Coffee Alliance (IWCA), a global organization dedicated to empowering women in the coffee industry, fostering gender equality, and promoting the inclusion of women at all levels of the coffee supply chain. Now in its 20th year, IWCA is committed to creating an equitable coffee industry by empowering women in chapters serving 33 countries around the world through leadership development, strategic partnership, and amplified market visibility. Spong brings a wealth of experience with nonprofit boards and a passion for promoting equity to her new role. Under her guidance, Dean’s Beans continues to be at the forefront of advocating for fair-trade practices, environmental stewardship, and social responsibility within the specialty coffee industry. As a board member, she will contribute her expertise to further IWCA’s mission and initiatives supporting women coffee farmers, exporters, importers, roasters, and entrepreneurs.

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Amara Barbiero

Amara Barbiero

The law firm of Pellegrini, Seeley, Ryan & Blakesley (PSRB) announced the appointment of Amara Barbiero as an associate attorney. Barbiero graduated from Quinnipiac University with a bachelor’s degree in accounting prior to obtaining her juris doctorate from Western New England University (WNE) School of Law. As a law student, she was awarded the prestigious CALI Award in Workers’ Compensation, given to the highest-scoring student in each law-school class. She also worked as a clinician for the WNE Small Business Clinic in Springfield. Barbiero spent four years working as a legal assistant in Connecticut before joining PSRB as a law clerk in 2021. That immersion into the practice of law has helped her develop an experience-based sensitivity to issues of equity and justice across diverse communities. She is licensed to practice law in Massachusetts and awaits her admission to the bars of Connecticut and New Jersey.

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New England Public Media (NEPM) promoted Elizabeth Román into the role of managing editor – daily and digital news. Although her title did not dramatically change, her responsibilities have evolved, and she will now take the lead on delivering daily news programming on the radio, NEPM’s website, and social-media channels. Román is continuing to focus on expanding the diversity of sources in news coverage and opportunities to create more Spanish-language news content. As the daughter of Puerto Rican parents who migrated to Massachusetts more than 40 years ago, she has intended throughout her career as a journalist to provide accurate representation of communities of color in Western Mass. She has felt empowered to do this at NEPM, and in this new role, with the addition of supervisory responsibilities, she looks forward to sharing her expertise with other journalists. Román is a graduate of Holyoke Community College and UMass Amherst. Prior to working at NEPM, she was a reporter at the Republican for almost two decades, edited El Pueblo Latino, co-founded Colectivo de Medios Latinos, and appeared as a panelist on NEPM’s “The Short List” and “Connecting Point.” She joined NEPM in 2022.

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Friends of Children Inc. (FOC) announced it has appointed new leadership at the organization. Debi Belkin, MSW, LICSW and Sarah Segura, MSW, LCSW are the new co-executive directors of the nonprofit organization that works to support children and young adults whose lives have been affected by the child-welfare system. Belkin and Segura are both current employees of the organization. Belkin has more than 40 years of experience advocating for court-involved children and adolescents in Massachusetts, including more than 30 years as a supervisor at the Department of Children and Families. She has most recently been the director of Programs at FOC. Segura has been with FOC since 2021, sharing her experience in advocacy, case management, and program development, as well as a passion for working with individuals and families of diverse cultural backgrounds. She has most recently been the CASA program manager at FOC. This new co-directorship comes after the organization’s founder, Jane Lyons, retired in July 2023.

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Jack Antkowiak

Jack Antkowiak

Paige Auger

Market Mentors, LLC, a fully integrated marketing, advertising, and public-relations agency, recently added two new specialists to its multi-disciplinary team. Jack Antkowiak joined the agency as a digital marketing specialist, and Paige Auger started her role as a financial administrator. As a digital marketing specialist, Antkowiak manages, reports on, and optimizes paid digital ads and SEO campaigns. This involves taking deep dives into ad performance and website analytics data to uncover actionable insights and trends that can be used to improve both campaign performance and the overall user/customer journey. A graduate of the University of Connecticut, Antkowiak combines tried-and-true best practices with a deep understanding of the target audience to build engaging and impactful campaigns. With a degree in business administration as well as management experience in accounting, Auger joined the Market Mentors finance team to handle accounts payable, accounts receivable, billing, reconciliation, and 1099 reporting. She collaborates across departments to ensure accuracy in data input and is skilled at summarizing large amounts of data and presenting meaningful information for review. A graduate of Western New England University, she received the 2017 Lawrence H. Nath Management Award.

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Following an extensive and thorough search process, Girl Scouts of Central and Western Massachusetts announced the appointment of Theresa Lynn as its new CEO. Lynn brings a wealth of experience in nonprofit leadership, having most recently served as senior vice president of the United Way of Central Massachusetts, where she focused on fundraising, communications, and some large grant-making opportunities. Her dedication to community engagement is evident through her roles as executive director for Back on My Feet, addressing homelessness and job insecurity in Boston, and executive director for ReadBoston for 14 years. She currently serves as a board member for the Worcester Education Collaborative and BioBuilder Education Foundation. Lynn holds a master of public administration degree from the Harvard Kennedy School, an MBA from Boston University, and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the College of Holy Cross. Her contributions in the community have been recognized by the Boston Celtics, who presented her with a Heroes Among Us award, and by the Boston Business Journal, which acknowledged her as a Top 40 Under 40 leader in Boston.

•••••

Bill Mertz has been appointed Tighe & Bond’s next Transportation Business Line leader. Mertz joined the firm in 2023 with the acquisition of WorldTech Engineering. He has nearly 30 years of experience on a wide variety of roadway, bridge, transportation, and utility infrastructure projects. Throughout his career, he has overseen the financial performance, project management, and technical delivery of transportation and infrastructure projects. Additionally, he has worked on notable projects for state agencies, including the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation and MassDOT, as well as local communities throughout New England. Mertz is based out of Tighe & Bond’s Woburn office. Outside of work, he serves as a member of the American Public Works Assoc. and the American Society of Civil Engineers, as well as local boards.

Company Notebook

By
Company Notebook

The Markens Group Certified by Great Place to Work

SPRINGFIELD — The Markens Group Inc. (TMG) has been certfied by Great Place to Work for the ninth consecutive year. The award is based entirely on what current employees say about their experience working at TMG. This year, 95% of employees said it’s a great place to work — 50% higher than the average U.S. company. Great Place to Work is a global authority on workplace culture, employee experience, and leadership behaviors proven to deliver market-leading revenue, employee retention, and increased innovation. According to Great Place to Work research, job seekers are four and a half times more likely to find a great boss at a certified great workplace. Additionally, employees at certified workplaces are 93% more likely to look forward to coming to work and are twice as likely to be paid fairly, earn a fair share of the company’s profits, and have a fair chance at promotion. According to the Trust Index survey taken by the staff, many noted the company ‘fundamentals’ — a set of valued behaviors within TMG — are one of the biggest reasons employees enjoy working at the Markens Group.

 

Bay Path Recognized Among Top Online Women’s Colleges

LONGMEADOW — The American Women’s College (TAWC), Bay Path University’s online college for adult women, has been recognized by the business-media outlet Forbes as one of the top three online women’s colleges in the nation. The ranking cited TAWC’s strong retention rate and called out Bay Path’s WELL (We Empower Learners and Leaders) program, a three-course leadership curriculum unique to the college, designed to equip women with the leadership skills and experience to excel in any career path. Forbes uses 16 data points to evaluate colleges in the categories of credibility, affordability, student outcomes, student experience, and application process. Bay Path, along with Simmons College and Brenau University, made the top three.

 

Rotary Club Supports Revitalize CDC Project

SPRINGFIELD — Revitalize Community Development Corp. (CDC) announced it has received a $2,000 grant from the Springfield Rotary Club to support development of a new warehouse and distribution center at its 240 Cadwell Dr., Springfield location, where it moved in early 2023. Springfield Rotary Club funding will be allocated toward construction supplies for the warehouse and distribution center. The center is essential to supporting Revitalize CDC’s program expansion so it may meet the growing demand for healthier, safer homes and neighborhoods for low-income residents throughout the Greater Springfield area. The 3,200-square-foot center will have two bays for vehicles and provide sufficient space to store program materials and supplies and refrigerated units to store food for Revitalize CDC’s Nutrition Rx program that provides nutrition and diabetes education and helps to address food insecurity. LaPlante Construction of East Longmeadow is the contractor for the project, expected to be completed by Dec. 31. Since 1992, Revitalize CDC has repaired and rehabilitated more than 1,500 homes in Greater Springfield with the help of 10,000 volunteers, investing $54 million into Western Mass. In 2022-23, Revitalize CDC served 826 households (more than 2,300 individuals) consisting of low-income families with children, older adults, military veterans, and individuals living with disabilities.

 

Rotary Club Awards Grant to the Zoo in Forest Park

SPRINGFIELD — The Zoo in Forest Park & Education Center has received a $3,000 community grant from the Springfield Rotary Club to upgrade its website. While the new website will include advanced booking capabilities, more intuitive registration forms, and the addition of an online store, the upgrade is also designed to enhance the guest experience at the zoo. With the money awarded through the community grant, the zoo plans to expand the educational material available on its website through the addition of interactive webpages for each animal. QR codes will be available at each exhibit, linking guests to a corresponding page for the animal they are viewing. Visitors will have access to photos and videos as well as more in-depth information about the species, including its conservation status, threats in the wild, and coexistence efforts.

The Zoo in Forest Park has been a part of the Springfield community for 130 years. With 225 animals in its care, it is dedicated to inspiring the community to respect and value the natural world through education, conservation, and rehabilitation.

 

Eversource Submits Roadmap to Achieve Clean-energy Goals

SPRINGFIELD — With a focus on energy equity, environmental-justice communities, and transparency, Eversource submitted to the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) its final Electric Sector Modernization Plan (ESMP) to modernize the electric distribution system and help meet the Commonwealth’s decarbonization goals after incorporating feedback from the Grid Mod Advisory Council (GMAC) and dozens of stakeholders. The energy company’s ESMP is a comprehensive roadmap to transform the region’s power grid, enhance its resiliency, and strengthen reliability for customers by increasing renewable-energy production and electrifying the heating and transportation sectors. Focused on achieving both equity and clean-energy objectives, the ESMP also establishes a Community Engagement Stakeholder Advisory Group (CESAG) and expands efforts for proposed clean-energy infrastructure projects to engage all potentially impacted stakeholders. Eversource’s 10-year plan helps meet the Commonwealth’s decarbonization milestones through 2040 by achieving a 180% increase in electrification hosting capacity, which will provide additional capacity to enable 2.5 million electric vehicles statewide, 1 million residential heat pumps within the company’s territory, and an incremental 2.2 GW of additional solar hosting capacity, bringing the total distributed energy resource hosting capacity systemwide to 5.8 GW.

 

Berkshire Bank Foundation Reports on 2023 Philanthropy

BOSTON — Berkshire Bank announced that nearly $2.5 million in philanthropic investments were provided from its foundation in 2023 to support more than 500 nonprofit organizations. During the fourth quarter, more than $642,000 in grants and scholarships were awarded to foster upward economic mobility, support overall well-being, and enhance opportunities for individual success in the communities the bank serves. During 2023, more than 500 local nonprofits received grants to assist with a range of critical projects in the areas of health and wellness, housing, food insecurity, and economic enrichment. The Berkshire Bank Foundation is committed to supporting programs that work toward providing equitable opportunities for economic prosperity. In addition, it supports programs that align with Berkshire Bank’s Center for Women, Wellness, and Wealth.

 

MassDevelopment Issues Bond for MHA Headquarters Project

CHICOPEE — MassDevelopment has issued a $6,543,000 tax-exempt bond on behalf of Mental Health Assoc. Inc. (MHA), which will use the proceeds to buy and renovate a 78,378-square-foot building at 350 Memorial Dr. in Chicopee, where it will relocate its headquarters from Springfield and house its mental-health programs and residential and support services. The building originally housed the Charles River West Psychiatric Hospital and most recently served as the MassMutual Learning and Conference Center. The move will allow MHA to keep pace with growth and locate its staff in one office. Renovations to the building will include interior wall reconfiguration, office construction, HVAC and sprinkler-system updates, added reception-area security, and painting, flooring, and information systems improvements. Construction began in November and is expected to be complete by February 2024. MHA expects to create 45 full-time jobs and 20 part-time jobs over the next three years. Florence Bank purchased the tax-exempt bond, which helped MHA achieve a lower cost of capital. Founded in 1960, MHA provides access to therapies for emotional health and wellness; services for substance use recovery, developmental disabilities, and acquired brain injury; services for housing and residential programming; and more. MHA serves more than 3,000 people, from ages 5 to 90, each year.

Incorporations

By
Incorporations

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

BELCHERTOWN

Belchertown Eye Care and Sunglass Shop Inc., 142 North Main St., Belchertown, MA 01007. Eye care and glasses.
Charissa C. Brown, 140 Oakridge Dr., Belchertown, MA 01007. Sales of eye and sun glasses.

CHICOPEE

Pole Position Petroleum Inc., 1869 Memorial Dr., Chicopee, MA 01020. Mohammed Mehdi, 125 Cambridge Park Dr., Suite 301, Cambridge, MA 02140. Marketing and distribution of petroleum products.

EAST OTIS

Knox Trail Bar & Grill Corp., 1898 East Otis Road, East Otis, MA 01029. Brook Tame, 24 Brookman Dr., Blandford, MA 01008. Restaurant.

FLORENCE

Aikido of Northampton Inc., 30 North Maple St., Florence, MA 01062. Ellen Wallin, same. To teach, spread, and perpetuate the fundamental philosophy, principles, and techniques of aikido as established by its founder, Master Morihei Ueshiba.

HAMPDEN

Loomis and Loomis, P.C., 235 Ames Road, Hampden, MA 01036. John Drost, Jr., 46 Center Square, East Longmeadow, MA 01028. Engineering services.

LONGMEADOW

Blackwood Vascular Inc., 103 Woodside Dr., Longmeadow, MA 01106. Stuart Blackwood, same. Staffing agency offering healthcare solutions for hospitals in need of vascular surgeons and other vascular-surgery personnel.

NORTH BROOKFIELD

Mile 61 Tavern Inc., 30 Gilbert St., North Brookfield, MA 01535. Jason Pietrzak, same. Bar and restaurant.

PALMER

Finesse Garage and Fabrication Inc., 1652 North Main St., Palmer, MA 01069. Jason Methe, same. Auto-body shop.

PITTSFIELD

Home Care Advantage Inc., 82 Wendell Ave., Suite 100, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Michael Gehosky, 929 Two Gates Circle, Chesapeake, VA 23322. Temporary staffing services.

Plainid Inc., 82 Wendell Ave., Suite 100, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Oren Harel, same. Information-security solutions.

Verbal Fabrik Inc., 82 Wendell Ave., Suite 100, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Cornelius Poole, same. A nonprofit organization seeking to empower, educate, and preserve the heritage of the hip-hop culture and its forefathers, and dedicated to fostering positive change by providing innovative programs and resources that cultivate artistic excellence, cultural understanding, and community engagement.

SPRINGFIELD

Apkin, Inc., 115 Stevens St., Springfield, MA 01104. Joseph Apkin, 611 North State Road, Cheshire, MA 01225. Scrap-metal recycling.

Learning Friends Inc., 366 White St., Springfield, MA 01108. Jennifer Godin, same. Nonprofit organization formed to provide financial distributions to organizations that qualify as tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organizations and provide a supportive and enriching educational environment for homeschooling families through collaborative teaching, shared resources, and engaging activities.

Omnipoint Technology Digital Equity Inc., 1666 Main St., Springfield, MA 01103. Rev. Timothy Paul-Baymon, same. To pursue broadband and digital economic-development initiatives that will help close the digital divide; increase access to digital education for those who have been traditionally shut out or limited in their access to quality education; create job opportunities for those who have traditionally been unemployable or underemployed; establish ventures that will generate wealth that will be used for the pursuit of the foregoing objectives; support such efforts of others, especially as pursued by nonprofits and faith-based organizations; and engage in other charitable or educational activities.

WESTFIELD

Priority Billing Partners Inc., 64 Pineridge Dr., Westfield, MA 01085. Michelle Dugre, same. Billing services.

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Nazar Corp., 884 Westfield St., West Springfield, MA 01089. Okan Bozbas, same. Gas station and convenience store.

Doing Business as Certificates

By
DBA Certificates

The following business certificates and/or trade names were issued or renewed during the month of January 2024.

AMHERST

Alice Briggs Illustration
18 Birchcroff Lane
Alice Briggs

Alpine Commons
133 Belchertown Road
Mass Alpine Commons LLC

Amherst Chinese Medicine
409 Main St., #111
Xiaoqiang Zhao

Amherst Welding Inc.
330 Harkness Road
Darrin Brown

Canterbury Farms Assoc.
839 Bay Road
Samantha Burns

CoQuest
528 Pine St.
Michael Howard

Joshua Hornick Coaching
94 Summer St.
Joshua Hornick

Mei Jiang
17 Shumway St.
Mei Jiang

My Focused Mind
16 Alpine Dr.
Alicia Kuzia

The Next Street
6 University Dr., Suite 200
Garrett Waldron

Norwottuck Chamber Concerts
366 Station Road
Ernest May Sr.

Oscar’s Odd-jobs
346 North Pleasant St., #1
Oscar Saravia

Pioneer Ed Strategies
11 Amity Place
Gregory Runyan

Rafah Jewelry
29A Montague Road
Riswan Raufdeen

Thrym & Ellen
106 North Whitney St.
Marian Walker

Wagner Wood
305 North East St.
James Wagner, Joseph Wagner

BELCHERTOWN

GDM
80 Oakridge Dr.
William DeSantis

Ginnybrook Farm
226 Turkey Hill Road
Ken Hislop

KDT Assoc.
243 Green Ave.
Kevin Magill

The Prime Food Store
235B Amherst Road
Juan Carlos Vasquez Carmona

Uncommon Cuts
7 Brandywine Dr.
Grete McGinnis

GRANBY

Brier Farm
83 East St.
Brier Farm

Discover You Travel
55 Pleasant St., #12
Discover You Travel

Dollar General Store #20007
180 West State St.
Dollar General Store

Halo K9 Services
174 Batchelor St.
Halo K9 Services

Houle Property Services
20 Trompke Ave.
Houle Property Services

Smith Brothers Carpentry
175 South St.
Smith Brothers Carpentry

Regal Virtual Tours
16 Griswold Circle
Regal Virtual Tours

GREAT BARRINGTON

Anthony’s and Cary’s Barbershop
611 Main St.
Rosa Chica

Aroma Bar and Grill
485 Main St.
Barinder

Berkshire Hearth Realty
50 Dresser Ave.
Marguerite DeSantis

Canary Blomstrom Insurance Agency
333 Main St.
Douglas Goudey

Jamie McDermott Training and Coaching
168 Main St.
Jamie McDermott

Jess Cooney Interiors Inc.
2 State Road
Jessie Cooney

JRC Remodeling
195 Main St.
Joseph Roth

JWS Art Supplies
38 Railroad St.
Tom Levin

Kairos Psychotherapy LLC
291 Main St.
Lisa Solomon

Larkin LTD Enterprises LLC
974 Main St., Suite 1
Ryan Larkin

Larkin Racing
974 Main St., Suite 1
Ryan Larkin

The Lighthouse
10 Beacon Hill
Carol McGlinchey

Maiden Flower Farm
304 North Plain Road
Georgene Poliak, David Long

Naji’s Catering
401 Stockbridge Road, Suite 2
Naji Nejaime

Norbert’s Locksmith Service
138 Bridge St.
Norbert Ruthel

Paul Kleinwald Art & Antiques
578 Main St.
Paul Kleinwald

Rebel Town Productions
North Plain Road
John Segella

Sweet Tree Service LLC
65 Seekonk Road
Christopher Sweet

Tanveer Ahmed, MD, PLLC
168 Main St., Suite 3
Tanveer Ahmed

Tight Lines
214 Highland St.
Christopher Windram

Vault Gallery
322 Main St.
Marilyn Kalish, Alan Kalish

Windy Hill Farm Inc.
686 Stockbridge Road
Judith Mareb

SOUTH HADLEY

Airsoft Outlier
130 Main St., Unit 2
Ryan Dion

Centerfold Anthony’s
500 New Ludlow Road
Anthony’s Dance Club

Evolve Medical Aesthetics
439 Granby Road
Shannon Kurzeski

Howls & Happy Tails
276 Hadley St.
Ashley Miller

Human Agenda Theater
540 Granby Road, Unit 63
Kevin Van Develde

ING Design & Consulting
40 Ashton Lane
William Ingham

Janjua Beer & Wine
19 Bridge St.
K2K Corp.

Liquor Town
506 Granby Road
Amherst Market TK

Olde Towne Entertainment
103 Mountainview St.
Olde Towne Entertainment

Pioneer Valley Lifestyle Management
45 Ludlow Road
Theresa Isenhart

Walz Realty
58 Old Lyman Road
Timothy Walz

Bankruptcies

By
Bankruptcies

The following bankruptcy petitions were recently filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Readers should confirm all information with the court.

Asher, Jeffrey
48 Taylor St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Chapter: 13
Date: 01/05/2024

Barnard, Patricia A.
39 Hopkins Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Date: 12/31/2023

Barrows, Debra K.
45 Willow St., Apt. 434
Springfield, MA 01103
Chapter: 7
Date: 01/03/2024

Brown, Melissa Ann
2 Culdaff St., Apt. D
Easthampton, MA 01027
Chapter: 7
Date: 01/10/2024

Cameron, Lucretia
48 Champlain St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Chapter: 13
Date: 01/12/2024

Collazo, William
58 Gold St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Chapter: 7
Date: 01/02/2024

Deprey, Olivia J.
a/k/a Deprey-Allen, Olivia
22 New Ludlow Road
Granby, MA 01033
Chapter: 7
Date: 01/12/2024

Dubois, Philip J.
55 Walnut St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Date: 01/02/2024

Innis, Gideon
Capital One Building Services
47 Grande St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 13
Date: 01/08/2024

Jordan, Patrick
137 Shawmut St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 13
Date: 01/09/2024

Meriyem’s LLC
Yetts, Caleb J.
Yetts, Rania
a/k/a Rhaddaoui, Rania
43 Cherry Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Chapter: 7
Date: 01/10/2024

Monette, Kelsea J.
127 Wheeler Ave.
Orange, MA 01364
Chapter: 7
Date: 01/05/2024

Snow, Darin Mark
123 Glendale Circle
Ware, MA 01082
Chapter: 13
Date: 01/10/2024

Speenburgh, Robert J.
3118 South Main St.
Bondsville, MA 01009
Chapter: 7
Date: 01/04/2024

Wilcox, Ashley R.
24 Crystal St.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 13
Date: 01/03/2024

Real Estate Transactions

By
Real Estate

The following real estate transactions (latest available) were compiled by Banker & Tradesman and are published as they were received. Only transactions exceeding $115,000 are listed. Buyer and seller fields contain only the first name listed on the deed.

FRANKLIN COUNTY

BUCKLAND

13 Bray Road
Buckland, MA 01370
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Sarah Davenport
Seller: Janice E. Morin
Date: 01/19/24

43 Hog Hollow Road
Buckland, MA 01370
Amount: $798,500
Buyer: Lauren D. Few
Seller: Brian C. Rose
Date: 01/09/24

Hog Hollow Road (off)
Buckland, MA 01338
Amount: $798,500
Buyer: Lauren D. Few
Seller: Brian C. Rose
Date: 01/09/24

14 Upper St.
Buckland, MA 01338
Amount: $500,000
Buyer: Stephen Gang
Seller: Bruce Lessles
Date: 01/17/24

COLRAIN

45 Dwight Cross Road
Colrain, MA 01340
Amount: $123,700
Buyer: Federal National Mortgage Assn.
Seller: Paul G. Grechel
Date: 01/11/24

15 Griswoldville St.
Colrain, MA 01340
Amount: $206,718
Buyer: Mortgage Equity Conversion TR
Seller: Lucille V. Johnson
Date: 01/17/24

DEERFIELD

564 Greenfield Road
Deerfield, MA 01342
Amount: $361,000
Buyer: Michael B. Antonellis
Seller: Ciesluk, Maryanne, (Estate)
Date: 01/19/24

34 Mathews Road
Deerfield, MA 01341
Amount: $413,590
Buyer: John McAvene
Seller: Jaime R. Jackman
Date: 01/08/24

39 Sawmill Plain Road
Deerfield, MA 01373
Amount: $417,000
Buyer: Meagan Murphy
Seller: Danyluk RT
Date: 01/12/24

ERVING

10 Ridge Road
Erving, MA 01344
Amount: $395,000
Buyer: Emily E. Malsch
Seller: Shane M. Linscott
Date: 01/18/24

GREENFIELD

108 James St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Parody Builders LLC
Seller: Sara C. Fishbur
Date: 01/12/24

15 Maple St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $214,000
Buyer: Vladimir Agapov
Seller: Scott A. Landry
Date: 01/17/24

49 Oak Hill Acres
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $335,000
Buyer: Kevin J. O’Neil
Seller: Bridgitte R. Cochran
Date: 01/12/24

51 Orchard St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $370,000
Buyer: Steven Lanciani
Seller: C. S. Maniatty RET
Date: 01/12/24

54 Riddell St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $286,900
Buyer: Cody S. Reynolds
Seller: Chandra Sanchez
Date: 01/17/24

13 Wisdom Place
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Christopher Gordon
Seller: JCT Corp.
Date: 01/19/24

Wisdom Way
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Nstar Electric
Seller: Brenda L. Ament
Date: 01/17/24

LEVERETT

187 Long Plain Road
Leverett, MA 01054
Amount: $450,000
Buyer: Sofia Buford
Seller: Dixon, Wendy Ann, (Estate)
Date: 01/16/24

18 Montague Road
Leverett, MA 01054
Amount: $545,000
Buyer: Sophia Normark
Seller: Sofia I. Buford
Date: 01/16/24

MONTAGUE

51 Swamp Road
Montague, MA 01351
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Christopher T. Goldhill
Seller: Robert L. Boulanger
Date: 01/08/24

NEW SALEM

178 West St.
New Salem, MA 01355
Amount: $285,000
Buyer: Joseph D. West
Seller: Mark Svetaka
Date: 01/11/24

NORTHFIELD

20 Riverview Dr.
Northfield, MA 01360
Amount: $341,000
Buyer: David R. Byron
Seller: John Kalas
Date: 01/12/24

ORANGE

50 Clifton St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Cory Rathier
Seller: Bessie A. Stowell IRT
Date: 01/12/24

3 McCarthy Lane
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $198,000
Buyer: Russell J. Wheeler
Seller: Hurtle, Donald, (Estate)
Date: 01/18/24

Royalston Road, Lot 1
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $148,000
Buyer: Tedesco FT
Seller: Fred L. Heyes
Date: 01/12/24

222 West River St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $273,000
Buyer: Marwa Al-Rebaueei
Seller: Austin Mercier
Date: 01/10/24

WENDELL

55 Plain Road
Wendell, MA 01379
Amount: $375,000
Buyer: John T. Fountain
Seller: Justin Fellows
Date: 01/11/24

HAMPDEN COUNTY

AGAWAM

106-108 Silver St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Chenevert Properties LLC
Seller: Michelle A. Rosa
Date: 01/17/24

283 Meadow St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Diane I. Habekost
Seller: Robert B. Toriani
Date: 01/09/24

63 Tina Lane
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Beatriz S. Rosario
Seller: Juan E. Lopez
Date: 01/19/24

BRIMFIELD

87 Lyman Barnes Road
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $252,000
Buyer: Fredap RT
Seller: Paul L. Dirosario
Date: 01/16/24

CHESTER

309 Route 20
Chester, MA 01011
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Apif-Massachusetts LLC
Seller: Dennis Forgea
Date: 01/10/24

CHICOPEE

49 Beverly St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Hector Y. Ortiz
Seller: Daniel J. Durand
Date: 01/19/24

9 Canal St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Daviau & Robert Properties LLC
Seller: You & Me Investment LLC
Date: 01/08/24

169 Casey Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Michelle A. Rosa
Seller: Martin J. Iwasinski
Date: 01/17/24

106 Clark St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $287,000
Buyer: Francisco J. Rosario
Seller: Rebecca A. Kessler
Date: 01/12/24

55 Columba St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Skyspec Holdings LLC
Seller: Victoria C. Daborowski
Date: 01/18/24

180 Crestwood St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $164,000
Buyer: Malia Homebuyers LLC
Seller: Odette A. Greenberg
Date: 01/12/24

4-6 Dale St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $525,000
Buyer: Ishika LLC
Seller: Helenes Variety Inc.
Date: 01/16/24

325 Dale St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Melanie Gray
Seller: Jeffrey Flowers
Date: 01/09/24

93 Davenport St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Zannie D. Mann
Seller: Pah Properties LLC
Date: 01/17/24

62 Dayton St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Matthew T. Baran
Seller: Roland A. Lavallee
Date: 01/12/24

68 Dunn St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $342,000
Buyer: Leyna Boucher
Seller: Christos Tsandilas
Date: 01/09/24

13 Dwight Ter.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Cheryl Moore
Seller: Joanne M. Cebula
Date: 01/18/24

23 Frontenac St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Cooper Dalton
Seller: Caplette, Donald B., (Estate)
Date: 01/11/24

1360 Granby Road
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Congamond Management LLC
Seller: Daniel R. Laflamme
Date: 01/17/24

64 Hampshire St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Moreau Real Investments Inc.
Seller: Burton B. Burger
Date: 01/17/24

46 Lachine St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $342,000
Buyer: Daniel A. Rodriguez
Seller: Sean M. Livingstone
Date: 01/12/24

21 Leslie St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $366,000
Buyer: Cristal Rodriguez
Seller: Goulding-Huang Properties LP
Date: 01/16/24

51 Meeting House Road
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Angela Cole
Seller: Duval, Rosalie C., (Estate)
Date: 01/09/24

104 Newbury St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $168,750
Buyer: Marcel R. Lapierre
Seller: Marcel Lapierre
Date: 01/10/24

69 Polaski Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Christy A. Davis
Seller: Carolyn Wojcik
Date: 01/09/24

119 Prospect St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $367,500
Buyer: Dhaval Patel
Seller: Macmar LLC
Date: 01/17/24

5 Ridgewood Road
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $228,000
Buyer: Raasean L. Antoine
Seller: Francis M. Disanti
Date: 01/16/24

148 Woodcrest Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Jeffrey Flowers
Seller: Donald L. Robitaille
Date: 01/09/24

EAST LONGMEADOW

13 Holy Cross Circle
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: Linda M. Shea
Seller: Niznik, Ann Marie, (Estate)
Date: 01/17/24

11 Meadow Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Tavernier Investments LLC
Seller: Blomfield, Jean, (Estate)
Date: 01/12/24

519 Parker St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $264,999
Buyer: Phan010314 LLC
Seller: Pozos, Dolores, (Estate)
Date: 01/19/24

HAMPDEN

66 Chapin Road
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $250,100
Buyer: Elaina M. Pos
Seller: Patricia L. Williford
Date: 01/08/24

386 Glendale Road
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $700,000
Buyer: Freddy Roy
Seller: Brian M. Webster
Date: 01/17/24

27 Kibbe Lane
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $625,000
Buyer: Gregory D. Hanson
Seller: Custom Home Development Group LLC
Date: 01/09/24

Wilbraham Road
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Bay Street LLC
Seller: Casey, Edith J., (Estate)
Date: 01/18/24

152 Wilbraham Road
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Bay Street LLC
Seller: Casey, Edith J., (Estate)
Date: 01/18/24

HOLLAND

77 Vinton Road
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $267,000
Buyer: Dan Mason
Seller: Kuzmeski, David C., (Estate)
Date: 01/11/24

HOLYOKE

11 Anderson Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Jack M. Burch
Seller: Rachel M. Davini
Date: 01/19/24

384 High St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $385,000
Buyer: WF Real Estate Holdings LLC
Seller: Msns Limited Co. LLC
Date: 01/17/24

324 Hillside Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $159,000
Buyer: Pah Properties LLC
Seller: Sonia E. Negroni
Date: 01/12/24

346-350 Maple St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Xiaoqian Gong
Seller: John Tansey
Date: 01/10/24

98 Lyman St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $335,000
Buyer: Andrea G. Plazas
Seller: Plata O. Plomo Inc.
Date: 01/19/24

65 Norwood Ter.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Thomas E. Casartello
Seller: John J. Presto
Date: 01/12/24

257 Pleasant St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $357,500
Buyer: Gregorio Y. Chimbo
Seller: Behnam Roohi
Date: 01/10/24

204-206 Sargeant St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $335,000
Buyer: Kelley Properties LLC
Seller: Foxy Properties LLC
Date: 01/17/24

60-62 Shawmut Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $355,000
Buyer: Liam O’Brien
Seller: Plata O. Plomo Inc.
Date: 01/10/24

135 Sheehan Dr.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: James M. Kennedy
Seller: Brittany Wajda
Date: 01/19/24

64 Waldo St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Casey Curtis
Seller: Feng Gao
Date: 01/17/24

187-189 West Franklin St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $335,000
Buyer: Jeremy M. Dejesus
Seller: Frankstone Group LLC
Date: 01/10/24

LONGMEADOW

159 Bliss Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $263,653
Buyer: Mortgage Equity Conversion TR
Seller: Arlene D. Weitz
Date: 01/19/24

362 Converse St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $420,000
Buyer: Andrew J. Wise
Seller: Hang Lui
Date: 01/12/24

28 Hawthorne St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Vanessa Raster
Seller: Marilyn P. Pinto
Date: 01/12/24

110 Hopkins Place
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Chelsea E. Ferguson
Seller: Christen L. Brownlee
Date: 01/19/24

103 Laurel St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: Connor C. Ostrander
Seller: Kelly Freeman
Date: 01/12/24

127 Nevins Ave.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $335,000
Buyer: Joe Hawley
Seller: Linda M. Shea
Date: 01/17/24

16 Roseland Ter.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $248,000
Buyer: 620 Parker Street LLC
Seller: Richard A. Serafino
Date: 01/12/24

LUDLOW

51 Center St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $202,220
Buyer: Cathedral Of Life Inc.
Seller: Union Church Of Christ
Date: 01/16/24

150 Edgewood Road
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $152,000
Buyer: Allison M. Acerra
Seller: Meuse, Richard Michael, (Estate)
Date: 01/17/24

68 Letendre Ave.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $360,000
Buyer: Jennifer Wright
Seller: Donald C. Snyder
Date: 01/11/24

Turning Leaf Road, Lot 96
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $178,000
Buyer: Tomasz Karas
Seller: Whitetail Wreks LLC
Date: 01/18/24

173 West Ave.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Owen M. Burke
Seller: Joseph S. Lyons
Date: 01/16/24

MONSON

30 Cedarhurst Dr.
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Kyle Garron
Seller: Hewinson, Bruce Earle, (Estate)
Date: 01/12/24

14 Hampden Court
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Franklin A. Centeno-Medina
Seller: Larry Desreuisseau
Date: 01/19/24

174 Palmer Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $310,000
Buyer: Patrick Donovan
Seller: Frank Hull
Date: 01/18/24

PALMER

1026 Chestnut St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Hayley M. Lawrence
Seller: Laurie A. Bessette
Date: 01/16/24

174 Chudy St.
Palmer, MA 01080
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Janice M. Skura
Seller: Jessica Walker
Date: 01/16/24

5 Countryside Dr.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Jeremy S. Hill
Seller: Luis A. Maldonado
Date: 01/17/24

1089 Pleasant St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: House Hack Helpers LLC
Seller: Wicked Deals LLC
Date: 01/17/24

410 Springfield St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: Phillip C. Andlauer
Seller: Anthony M. Shea
Date: 01/16/24

SPRINGFIELD

44-46 Algonquin Place
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $309,000
Buyer: Elizabeth G. Hernandez
Seller: Loraine Sopena
Date: 01/12/24

540 Armory St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $167,000
Buyer: Kyara E. Linares
Seller: Amat Victoria Curam LLC
Date: 01/12/24

4 Ashbrook St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $249,900
Buyer: Justine Aljoe
Seller: Mathew A. Hathaway
Date: 01/19/24

1226 Bay St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Lavienjha Grier
Seller: Flebotte, Dorothy G., (Estate)
Date: 01/12/24

174-176 Berkshire Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Presley Williams
Seller: Christopher A. Serra
Date: 01/10/24

60 Braddock St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Stephen Eaton
Seller: Olga Bauman
Date: 01/11/24

43 Brookline Ave.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $360,000
Buyer: Jaidys L. Troncoso
Seller: Michael Simmonds
Date: 01/16/24

25-27 Calhoun St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Dealexcell LLC
Seller: Chenevert Properties LLC
Date: 01/09/24

169 Carver St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: SH Properties LLC
Seller: Rocca, Roger Hugo, (Estate)
Date: 01/19/24

74-76 Clantoy St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $469,000
Buyer: Massiel Rodriguez
Seller: Marcelo P. De Aguiar-Silva
Date: 01/10/24

89 Cliftwood St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $355,000
Buyer: Wicked Deals LLC
Seller: Spring Forth Properties LLC
Date: 01/19/24

91 College St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: Miguel A. Narvaez
Seller: Yellowbrick Property LLC
Date: 01/19/24

265 Cooper St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Marco R. Papallo
Seller: Maria Papallo
Date: 01/18/24

20 Crosby St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $253,000
Buyer: Abdi Kabir
Seller: Jjj17 LLC
Date: 01/11/24

77 Derryfield Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Philip M. Kiefer
Seller: Pah Properties LLC
Date: 01/19/24

127 Eastern Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Pedro A. Espinal Almonte
Seller: Ernesto Santos
Date: 01/18/24

140 Ellendale Circle
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Roberto Rivera-Negron
Seller: Joy C. Crenshaw
Date: 01/17/24

144 Fenway Dr.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Nataliya Sevastyanova
Seller: Katherine Felix
Date: 01/16/24

10 Ferncliff Ave.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Joseph M. Santaniello
Seller: Richard D. Liasse
Date: 01/17/24

130 Fieldston St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $238,000
Buyer: Migdalia F. Rosa
Seller: Pah Properties LLC
Date: 01/08/24

31 Fitzgerald Road
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Walter A. Sanchez
Seller: Joshua Flores
Date: 01/10/24

101-103 Fountain St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $251,000
Buyer: Tac Diep
Seller: Wicked Deals LLC
Date: 01/11/24

89 Fox Hill Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Anthony N. Pellegrino
Seller: Eleanor S. Randall
Date: 01/18/24

89 Gatewood Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Jose A. Laboy
Seller: Diaz Properties LLC
Date: 01/08/24

39-41 Genesee St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Rama Alasmi
Seller: David Maynard
Date: 01/18/24

35 Gladstone St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Patricia A. Davis
Seller: Fu Q. Deng
Date: 01/12/24

17-19 Governor St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Silvia Lopez
Seller: Santana Real Estate Inc.
Date: 01/16/24

121 Hartford Ter.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Daniel Ferguson
Seller: Chelsea E. Ferguson
Date: 01/12/24

58 Kenwood Park
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: Winnie F. Olivo
Seller: Marth-E LLC
Date: 01/12/24

4 Langdon St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Morgan Stanley
Seller: Pablo J. Paulino
Date: 01/12/24

15 Leete St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $405,000
Buyer: Marie-Rose L. Lamour
Seller: Rejuvenate Re LLC
Date: 01/17/24

17-21 Lockwood Ave.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $360,000
Buyer: Luz C. Gonzalez
Seller: Jorge M. Ganhao
Date: 01/18/24

25 Manitoba St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Erica Dachinger
Seller: Campagnari Construction LLC
Date: 01/17/24

11 Mary St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Zuleika M. Figueroa
Seller: Cheryl A. Butler
Date: 01/08/24

14-16 Massachusetts Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $375,000
Buyer: Emmanuel Pinywah
Seller: Bert V. Wright
Date: 01/19/24

99 Milford St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Samantha A. Genao
Seller: Eich Estates Inc.
Date: 01/12/24

101 Miller St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $495,500
Buyer: Bernard Davis
Seller: Frank C. Salas
Date: 01/10/24

841 Newbury St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $375,000
Buyer: Richard J. Brasil
Seller: Mathias T. Anim
Date: 01/12/24

278 Newton Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $310,000
Buyer: Jacqueline Robles
Seller: James Coombs
Date: 01/18/24

344-348 Orange St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $650,000
Buyer: Mirzai 171 LLC
Seller: Vivenzio Brothers RT
Date: 01/19/24

63 Parker St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $239,701
Buyer: RCF 2 Acquisition TR
Seller: Martin K. Rzeznik
Date: 01/19/24

1638 Parker St.
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $308,000
Buyer: Christopher James
Seller: Mayra L. Quinones
Date: 01/19/24

203 Pheland St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: SR Properties LLC
Seller: Clay K. Canning
Date: 01/17/24

278 Pheland St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: James Fiore
Seller: Scavone, Claire M., (Estate)
Date: 01/17/24

35 Pine Hill Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $510,000
Buyer: Adhip Siwa
Seller: Liliya Sadovaya
Date: 01/11/24

945 Roosevelt Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Uvalyn Davis
Seller: Barbara Wright
Date: 01/10/24

114 Shady Brook Lane
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: James P. Murray
Seller: High Ridge Real Estate LLC
Date: 01/16/24

268 Shawmut St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $232,000
Buyer: 268 Shawmut St. RT
Seller: Jamie S. Kulas
Date: 01/11/24

1530-1534 State St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $450,000
Buyer: Sherlock Suban
Seller: Ramani Realty LLC
Date: 01/12/24

154 Sunrise Ter.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Eric A. Ruiz
Seller: Revampit LLC
Date: 01/19/24

145 Temby St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Pearwood LLC
Seller: Courageous Lion LLC
Date: 01/12/24

18-20 Wareham St.
Springfield, MA 02136
Amount: $390,000
Buyer: Emmanuel Massenat
Seller: Uziel G. Da Silva
Date: 01/19/24

12-14 Waterford Circle
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $405,000
Buyer: Veraina Diaz
Seller: TL Bretta Realty LLC
Date: 01/16/24

51 White Oak Road
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Lydia Touchette
Seller: Phuong M. Nguyen
Date: 01/17/24

52 Westbanks Court
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $352,500
Buyer: Jesus R. Hernandez
Seller: Anita S. Ross
Date: 01/10/24

163-171 White St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $650,000
Buyer: Mirzai 171 LLC
Seller: Vivenzio Brothers RT
Date: 01/19/24

523 White St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $390,000
Buyer: Wendy S. Solano
Seller: Frank Vazquez
Date: 01/08/24

76 Wilshire Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $281,900
Buyer: Sean Cavanaugh
Seller: Kayla Levreault
Date: 01/16/24

SOUTHWICK

43 College Hwy.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $338,000
Buyer: Bretta Ryan
Seller: Malia Homebuyers LLC
Date: 01/12/24

42 Depot St.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $1,925,000
Buyer: Shri Hari Holdings LLC
Seller: Right Hand Clyde Real Estate LLC
Date: 01/19/24

TOLLAND

207 Lakeside Dr.
Tolland, MA 01034
Amount: $560,000
Buyer: Eric D. Salk
Seller: Edwin J. Hudson
Date: 01/10/24

WALES

61 Lake George Road
Wales, MA 01081
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: Nathaniel W. Croke
Seller: Thomas J. Marshall
Date: 01/09/24

48 Main St.
Wales, MA 01081
Amount: $308,000
Buyer: Marron W. Smith
Seller: Wicked Deals LLC
Date: 01/10/24

227 Union Road
Wales, MA 01081
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Jacob Palmer
Seller: David A. Heck
Date: 01/19/24

WESTFIELD

4 Bates St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Skyspec LLC
Seller: No Limit Assets LLC
Date: 01/19/24

41 Camelot Lane
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $810,000
Buyer: Aytekin Kuruca
Seller: Ronald I. Sullivan
Date: 01/11/24

1102 Granville Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $460,000
Buyer: James Currie
Seller: Douglas M. Simone
Date: 01/18/24

39 Hillside Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $148,000
Buyer: Brandon Soto
Seller: Dawn M. Girroir
Date: 01/09/24

16 Malone Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $169,000
Buyer: Flipping Best LLC
Seller: Robert J. Eak
Date: 01/09/24

86 Montgomery St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Robin R. Sheldon
Seller: Jacqueline M. Coon
Date: 01/17/24

9 North Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $365,000
Buyer: Nancy Vander Veen
Seller: Brian E. Fanion
Date: 01/08/24

92 Pequot Point Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $580,000
Buyer: Sergey Stakhnyuk
Seller: Eduard Loboda
Date: 01/12/24

18 Pinehurst St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: John Dean
Seller: Vanessa Couture
Date: 01/17/24

12 Ridgeway Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Dawn M. Girroir
Seller: Gayle M. Kolodziej
Date: 01/09/24

Russellville Road, Lot 16
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Zack & Sons LLC
Seller: James O. Perry
Date: 01/11/24

Russellville Road, Lot 17
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Zack & Sons LLC
Seller: James O. Perry
Date: 01/11/24

265 Springdale Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $310,000
Buyer: John F. Tuohey
Seller: David Racicot
Date: 01/12/24

64 Wildflower Circle
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $560,000
Buyer: Joanne Kennedy
Seller: Robert Levesque
Date: 01/18/24

WILBRAHAM

1 Brookside Circle
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $485,000
Buyer: Mikayla Harris
Seller: Kary Ft
Date: 01/10/24

2 Oakland St.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $450,000
Buyer: Portia S. Bonner
Seller: Yaritza L. Robar
Date: 01/19/24

112 Sandalwood Dr., Lot 112
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $489,900
Buyer: Allen Bousquet
Seller: Ac Homebuilding LLC
Date: 11/17/23

7 Stonegate Circle
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $549,900
Buyer: Arnab Saha
Seller: Rosemarie A. Szalai TR
Date: 01/18/24

144 Stony Hill Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $385,000
Buyer: Yrvin Filsaime
Seller: Fyxer Up Properties LLC
Date: 01/09/24

WEST SPRINGFIELD

29 Church St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Vanessa L. Rodriguez
Seller: Alan N. Sharpe
Date: 01/16/24

52 Heritage Lane
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $308,000
Buyer: Alexander J. Weiss
Seller: John P. Weiss
Date: 01/09/24

179 Nelson St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Kathleen R. Ferguson
Seller: Stephanie Galda
Date: 01/16/24

88 Spring St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Mhi Properties LLC
Seller: Sonia E. Steele
Date: 01/09/24

83 Upper Beverly Hills
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $430,000
Buyer: Laurel A. Tewes
Seller: David V. Brennan
Date: 01/09/24

65 Van Horn St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Gladys T. Kazalski
Seller: Michael T. Hahn
Date: 01/16/24

153 Verdugo St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $252,000
Buyer: Matthew C. Hastings
Seller: Judith B. Simpson
Date: 01/16/24

192 Wolcott Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Nicolas J. Carrier
Seller: Rice, Virginia I., (Estate)
Date: 01/12/24

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY

AMHERST

1178 North Pleasant St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $730,000
Buyer: Julie A. Green
Seller: Daniel P. Burbine
Date: 01/16/24

221 Northampton Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $380,000
Buyer: Michael M. Lee
Seller: Good Daves LLC
Date: 01/12/24

BELCHERTOWN

41 Dressel Ave.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $245,905
Buyer: Lakeview Loan Servicing LLC
Seller: Gerard A. Provost
Date: 01/10/24

22 Munsell St., Lot 6
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $482,885
Buyer: Edward J. Cayo
Seller: M&G Land Development LLC
Date: 01/10/24

170 North St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $925,000
Buyer: Linda B. Lastoff
Seller: Jonathan J. Franz
Date: 01/08/24

183 Rhode Island Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $4,600,000
Buyer: Golf Blues LLC
Seller: Assawompsett Golf Company
Date: 01/11/24

11 Sunny Crest Lane
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $550,000
Buyer: Kayla A. Busse
Seller: M&G Property Group LLC
Date: 01/19/24

161 Turkey Hill Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $285,000
Buyer: Laura I. Bourdeau
Seller: Doryn Kelly FT
Date: 01/19/24

EASTHAMPTON

1 Droy Circle
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $381,900
Buyer: Madison C. Picard
Seller: Dominic O’Connell
Date: 01/19/24

6-12 Irving St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $625,000
Buyer: Christopher Thompson
Seller: Daniel S. Whiteley
Date: 01/12/24

10 Lawndale St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $325,000
Buyer: Hasan Comert
Seller: Carolyn W. Benson
Date: 01/19/24

278 Main St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Ctna Construction LLC
Seller: Lawler Jr., William P., (Estate)
Date: 01/19/24

21 Paul St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $404,500
Buyer: Salah E. Khelfaoui
Seller: Robin Lariviere
Date: 01/11/24

17 Wright St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $420,000
Buyer: Emily S. Fuller
Seller: Williston Northampton School
Date: 01/12/24

CUMMINGTON

2 Lilac Ave.
Cummington, MA 01026
Amount: $769,000
Buyer: J. S. Bryant School Inc.
Seller: Jack E. Morse
Date: 01/12/24

GRANBY

147 Carver St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $540,000
Buyer: Thomas P. Silva
Seller: Sabino D. Rebelo
Date: 01/12/24

95 Cold Hill Road
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Andrew T. Normand
Seller: Philip T. Braese
Date: 01/19/24

HADLEY

38 Huntington Road
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $530,000
Buyer: Jodi M. Hoover
Seller: Sharon L. Fetler
Date: 01/08/24

HATFIELD

56 Bridge St.
Hatfield, MA 01038
Amount: $425,000
Buyer: Lizard Ii LLC
Seller: Labbee, Paul A., (Estate)
Date: 01/17/24

NORTHAMPTON

47 High St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $685,000
Buyer: Rachel Mazur
Seller: Healthy Neighborhoods Group LLC
Date: 01/10/24

47 Leonard St.
Northampton, MA 01053
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Shannon L. Ryan
Seller: Joel & Mary Lee Emrick FT
Date: 01/12/24

49 Redford Dr.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $450,000
Buyer: Thomas W. C. MacLachlan TR
Seller: Zoe R. Johnson
Date: 01/17/24

82 Redford Dr.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $390,000
Buyer: Alison Schoen
Seller: Neal B. Vitalis LT
Date: 01/10/24

567 Sylvester Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Background Examine LLC
Seller: Nathan Moczulewski
Date: 01/12/24

PELHAM

179 North Valley Road
Pelham, MA 01002
Amount: $975,000
Buyer: J. & Martin Miller FT
Seller: Graves FT
Date: 01/17/24

PLAINFIELD

19 Broom St.
Plainfield, MA 01070
Amount: $345,000
Buyer: Roberta Wooldridge
Seller: Matthew A. Shippee
Date: 01/16/24

SOUTH HADLEY

299 East St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $365,000
Buyer: Eric Jimmo
Seller: Linda V. Swenson
Date: 01/17/24

Hadley St., Lot 12
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Philip G. Fortin
Seller: Jonathan P. Lizotte
Date: 01/19/24

41 High St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Kevin J. Hernandez
Seller: Marissa Montemagni
Date: 01/12/24

22 Jewett Lane
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $232,400
Buyer: Vivlan Ostrowski
Seller: Anne L. Moore
Date: 01/08/24

65 Woodbridge Ter.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $672,000
Buyer: Linda Ross
Seller: Guy B. Berfield
Date: 01/19/24

SOUTHAMPTON

17 Pequot Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $375,000
Buyer: Tricia Kiefer
Seller: Rochelle D. Benoit
Date: 01/12/24

WARE

45 Greenwich Plains Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $355,800
Buyer: Debbra S. Hite-Forkey
Seller: John C. Soper
Date: 01/16/24

WESTHAMPTON

230 Northwest Road
Westhampton, MA 01027
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Christopher P. Rolin
Seller: Fumi Realty Inc.
Date: 01/19/24

WILLIAMSBURG

22 Village Hill Road
Williamsburg, MA 01096
Amount: $711,300
Buyer: Eric G. Driver
Seller: Mary C. Paige
Date: 01/11/24

WORTHINGTON

5 West St.
Worthington, MA 01098
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Peter N. Donatelli
Seller: Diane J. Bartlett
Date: 01/17/24

Building Permits

By
Building Permits

The following building permits were issued during the month of January 2024.

CHICOPEE

ARC FECPEMA001 LLC
140 Lonczak Dr.
$100,000 — Install new concrete pavement and dock door

Mark Germain
44 Arlington St.
$30,000 — Siding

Charles Sourmaidis
467 Memorial Dr.
$1,300,000 — Build new Golden Nozzle car wash

EASTHAMPTON

Easthampton Chamber of Commerce
33 Union St.
$398,457.70 — Demolish most interior walls, existing kitchen, bathroom and storage room, existing storefront, acoustic tile ceiling, and finishes; install new interior walls, paint, flooring, bathroom, skylights, facade

Wemelco Development LLC
19 Wemelco Way
$42,000 — Construct wood-framed vault in existing cannabis facility, install sprinklers and cooling system

HADLEY

8 Directions LLC
37 Lawrence Plain Road
N/A — Install roof-mounted photovoltaic system

E&A/I&G Campus Plaza LP
458 Russell St.
N/A — Interior alterations to existing retail space to divide space

Gulmohar Realty Corp.
237 Russell St.
N/A — Provide wet and dry sprinkler riser, backflow

Walter Wanczyk Jr.
180 Russell St.
N/A — Siding

LENOX

MRG CRW Holdings LLC
55 Lee Road
$15,000 — Replace tile for women’s and men’s saunas at Wyndhurst Club

NORTHAMPTON

The Brush Works LLC
221 Pine St.
$9,000 — Renovate Suite 140

Florence Casket Co.
16 Bardwell St.
$65,352 — Insulation and weatherization

Harmonic Rock Realty LLC
125 Pleasant St.
$9,700 — Illuminated roof sign for Notch 8 Grille

LHIC Inc.
34 North Maple St.
$260,000 — Sprinkler system

Matt & Nick LLC
199 Pine St.
$15,500 — Add three entry coverings

New England Remodeling General Contractors Inc.
64 North St.
$31,500 — Renovate rear unit

Nu-Way Homes Inc.
43 Summer St.
$59,000 — Demolish garage

Our Lady of the Hills
173 Main St.
$42,750 — Install ramp

Safe Journeys LLC
32 Vernon St.
$24,473 — Install roof-mounted solar system on house and accessory building with trench

Smith College
94 State St.
N/A — Phase-two renoation to bathrooms, elevator, fire alarm, and electrical

Town of Williamsburg
16 Main St.
$2,000 — Add noise silencer to vehicle exhaust-removal system

PITTSFIELD

Centro Bradley Berkshire Crossing LLC
555 Hubbard Ave., #1
$165,000 — Remove and replace floor slab and floor tile

RKE Realty LLC
100 West St.
$2,427 — Relocate five existing fire sprinklers

Daniel Soldato
73 South Church St.
$56,500 — Construct partition walls and doors to divide single tenant space into two spaces

SPRINGFIELD

401 Liberty Street LLC
165 Stafford St.
$74,500 — Modifications to existing office area for new layout on second floor of McCormick Allum building

Caring Health Center Inc.
1235 Boston Road
$85,000 — Commercial tenant fit-out of vacant interior space

Baystate Medical Center Inc.
759 Chestnut St.
$65,187 — Alter interior office space into new patient toilet room on ground floor of Wesson Building

FNBC Realty Corp., Olympia & York
1350 Main St.
$6,880 — Install egress door

New North Citizens Council Inc.
4 Birnie Ave.
$155,500 — Roofing and insulation

New Trinity Church of God in Christ
209 Quincy St.
$25,545 — Add insulation throughout

Raymond Fontaine, Industry Avenue Holdings LLC
66 Industry Ave.
$110,000 — Alter former storage area into four new offices at Greater Springfield Senior Services

 

Ilyasah Shabazz, Daughter of Malcolm X, to Speak at STCC

By
Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — Ilyasah Shabazz, the daughter of the late activists Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz, will speak at Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) on Thursday, Feb. 29 at noon as part of the college’s celebration of Black History Month.

Shabazz, an accomplished educator, author, and activist, will share her insights and experiences rooted in the rich legacy of African-American history and culture. She will speak in the auditorium of Scibelli Hall (Building 2) at STCC. The event is free and open to the public. Attendees are encouraged to pre-register by visiting stcc.io/shabazz.

Shabazz is chairperson of the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center board of trustees. In her work to preserve the legacy of her parents, she has dedicated herself to institution building and intergenerational leadership development with the tenets of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Her books include a memoir, Growing Up X, and a children’s book, Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up to Become Malcolm X.

Shabazz has furthered her community impact with the City University of New York’s Office of Academic Affairs, where she created a curriculum to encourage higher education for underserved, inner-city, and marginalized high-school dropouts.

She has worked with the Office of the Mayor in Mount Vernon as director of Public Affairs & Special Events. She founded and produced a young-adult development program to provide historical context on social justice, encouraging personal empowerment and community service as a way of life.

As president and founder of Ilyasah Shabazz Enterprises, she produces a variety of forums dedicated to power, possibility, and sovereignty.

“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Shabazz to STCC,” said Kiyota Garcia, assistant vice president of Student Affairs and interim chief Equity officer at STCC. “We want our students, staff, and faculty and the community to prepare to be enlightened and empowered by Dr. Shabazz. She will illuminate the significance of Black history and its enduring impact on society.”

MassMutual Welcomes Cindy Ryan as Head of Human Resources

By
Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — MassMutual announced the appointment of Cindy Ryan to head of Human Resources. Ryan, who has more than two decades of HR leadership experience, will oversee and advance MassMutual’s people strategy, aligned with the company’s purpose, priorities, and aspirations.

In this role, Ryan assumes oversight of MassMutual’s HR organization, which includes talent acquisition and management; total rewards; HR operations; employee relations; learning and development; and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). She will be responsible for continuing to evolve the company’s flexible, inclusive culture, supporting the holistic well-being and growth of MassMutual’s employees and attracting and retaining a talented, diverse workforce.

“Cindy’s passion, expertise, and demonstrated track record of successfully leading global people strategies will be invaluable as we continue to build the dynamic organization needed to succeed in today’s ever-changing world,” said Roger Crandall, chairman, president, and CEO of MassMutual. “I look forward to her dedicated focus on developing and evolving our approach to build a highly engaged and effective workforce that will enable us to deliver on our ambitious strategy and fulfill our long-term commitments to our policy owners and customers.”

Ryan joins MassMutual after spending nearly 25 years in various leadership roles of growing responsibility at Cigna, where she most recently served as the company’s chief Human Resources officer (CHRO). In this role, she led Cigna’s worldwide enterprise talent strategy and pandemic response, built its award-winning DEI approach, and enriched its engaged culture. Prior to her CHRO role, she served as senior vice president of HR for Cigna’s U.S. business lines, where she was responsible for talent-management strategies, employee engagement, and leadership effectiveness for the company’s health, life, and disability services lines as well as serving as the company’s chief talent officer, overseeing recruiting, learning, leadership development, and employee relations worldwide.

“I’m excited to join a company with such a rich history that provides incredibly flexible, holistic programs to support and develop its employees,” Ryan said. “I look forward to building on the strong foundation that is in place to help shape MassMutual’s future workforce strategy.”

Ryan holds a bachelor’s degree in management from the State University of New York at Geneseo and a master’s degree in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University.

Phillips Insurance Celebrates 20-year Anniversary of Christopher Rivers

By
Daily News

Christopher Rivers

CHICOPEE — Phillips Insurance Agency Inc. is celebrating the 20th work anniversary of Christopher Rivers, CRIS, senior vice president. Since joining Phillips in 2004, Rivers has been instrumental in growth that has made Phillips Insurance one of the largest writers of insurance and bonds for contractors in the Northeast.

Rivers was recognized in January by Sentry Insurance for his 2023 production and flown to Maui to be an honorary observer at the Sentry Tournament of Champions at the Plantation Course at Kapalua, where he walked ‘inside the ropes’ with Jordan Speith, Scottie Scheffler, and Victor Hovland.

Rivers has coached basketball, soccer, and baseball in Belchertown throughout the years. When he isn’t coaching, he enjoys skiing and golfing. He and his family are strong supporters of St. Jude Hospital.

UMassFive Announces Scholarship Opportunities

By
Daily News

HADLEY — UMassFive College Federal Credit Union announced that the Pioneer Valley chapter of the Massachusetts Cooperative Credit Union Assoc. (CCUA) scholarship program is accepting applicants for eight $2,000 scholarships to be awarded in 2024.

In order to apply, students must be a member of UMassFive or have a parent or guardian who is a member of the credit union. Students must also be high-school seniors who will be enrolled in an undergraduate college degree program during the 2024-25 academic year.

Completed applications must be received or postmarked by March 8. Applications may be dropped off at a UMassFive branch, emailed to [email protected], or mailed to UMassFive College Federal Credit Union, Attn: Cait Murray, P.O. Box 1060, Hadley, MA 01035.

For more details and to access the application instructions and form, visit umassfive.coop/news/2024-scholarships.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Western Massachusetts Welcomes Chris Thompson

By
Daily News

WEST SPRINGFIELD — Big Brothers Big Sisters of Western Mass (BBBSWM) announced that Chris Thompson has been selected as the nonprofit’s chief growth officer. In this role, Thompson will be responsible for strengthening the newly merged agency’s relationship with the communities of Berkshire, Franklin, and Hampden Counties.

“We’re thrilled to have Chris’ expertise at this crucial time for our agency,” said David Beturne, executive director of BBBSWM. “He brings a great deal of experience in sales, promotions, and community engagement. That’s what we looked for during this search, someone who was interested in making new relationships in the three counties.”

A Western Mass. native, Thompson was honored with the BusinessWest 40 Under Forty award in 2009 and is active in the local community. He currently sits on the board of Arrha Credit Union and is a former commissioner for the Western Massachusetts Sports Commission and West Springfield’s Parks and Recreation Commission. As co-founder and owner of the Westfield Starfires of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League, Thompson brings a wealth of experience to his new role in the areas of advocacy, community outreach, business development, and external relations. He will lead BBBSWM’s growth efforts in Berkshire and Franklin counties.

Previously, Thompson served on the BBBS of Hampden County board of directors between 2014 and 2021. He brings with him more than 20 years of experience developing marketing partnerships and generating revenue for iconic Western Mass. brands, such as the Springfield Falcons hockey team, where he developed a comprehensive corporate partnership program, and where he led the launch of the Springfield Thunderbirds hockey club, serving as senior vice president of Sales & Strategy.

“This is truly a unique opportunity for me — a chance to partner with an organization I have been passionate about for many years, a chance to challenge myself in new areas, and the opportunity to use my experience and perspective to help the agency grow during our rebrand,” Thompson said. “I am thrilled to join David Beturne, as well as the highly dedicated staff of BBBS and our board of directors, to serve in this new role.”

Martin Luther King Jr. Family Services Receives $50,000 Grant

By
Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — Martin Luther King Jr. Family Services (MLFKS) received a $50,000 grant from the MassMutual Foundation as part of MassMutual’s inaugural Economic Equity Grant program, a collaboration of the MassMutual Foundation with MassMutual’s employee business resource groups (BRGs), which serve as an integral component of the organization’s DEI strategy. MLKFS is one of eight organizations to receive a grant.

“We currently operate the fourth-largest food pantry in the region with very little financial support while our community’s needs continue to grow,” said Shannon Rudder, president and CEO of MLKFS. “In addition to addressing food insecurity, we are also dedicated to enhancing our youth STEAM-based educational programs. This grant will assist us in both endeavors; we are extremely grateful to the MassMutual Foundation for their steady support.”

MassMutual’s employee BRGs support initiatives that drive organizational results; increase employee engagement; and foster awareness, respect, and inclusion within the workplace. More than one-third of MassMutual’s employees participate in its eight BRGs, representing Black/African-American, Asian, and Hispanic/Latino/Latinx communities; members of the LGBTQ+ community; individuals with disabilities and their caregivers; members of the armed forces, veterans, and military family members; young professionals; and women.

“We are stronger when we come together as a community. This is true internally as well. Working with our MassMutual BRG colleagues, we selected grant recipients that align the individual BRGs’ philanthropic interests with the MassMutual Foundation’s mission of building financial resiliency,” said Dennis Duquette, head of MassMutual Community Responsibility and president of the MassMutual Foundation. “Martin Luther King Jr. Family Services’ food pantry addresses a critical need for families struggling to make ends meet, and we are proud to help them expand their impact.”

UMass Amherst Ranks Among Top 20 Institutions in Nation for Online Programs

By
Daily News

AMHERST — UMass Amherst’s online education programs have been recognized as among the best in the nation in U.S. News and World Report’s 2024 rankings. Placing second among public and private colleges and universities was the Isenberg School of Management’s online undergraduate program in business.

Overall, UMass Amherst’s online bachelor’s degree programs placed 20th out of 339 public and private colleges and universities and is the only New England institution in the top 20. Among UMass Amherst’s online bachelor’s degree programs represented are business administration, nursing, sociology, sustainable food and farming, hospitality and tourism management, and many programs in the University Without Walls’ Department of Interdisciplinary Studies (IDS).

For 2024, U.S. News and World Report assessed more than 1,750 online bachelor’s and master’s degree programs and ranked 1,680 accredited higher-education institutions. The rankings were released on Feb. 7.

“We’re proud to be among today’s leaders in online education. We will continue to champion innovation in learning by offering personalized, interdisciplinary, student-centric programs for all learners in a very dynamic marketplace,” UMass Amherst Chancellor Javier Reyes said. “These latest U.S. News rankings reflect UMass Amherst’s commitment to providing access to our outstanding programs in a flexible manner, meeting students where they are so they can pursue their academic and professional goals.”

The Isenberg School of Management bachelor’s degree in business stepped up one spot from last year to number 2, surpassing Arizona State University, Oregon State University and Pennsylvania State University – World Campus, which all placed in a three-way tie for third.

In master’s business programs, UMass Amherst moved up three spots from last year to number 6, tying with Boston University and Rutgers University, in the survey among non-MBA online business graduate degrees. Isenberg’s MBA program stayed at number 12, a ranking it has held for the past three years.

“It’s wonderful that our groundbreaking online MBA program continues to be a leader in this fast-growing space and provide today’s students with career-building skills and learning experiences,” said Anne Massey, dean of the Isenberg School of Management.

In other U.S. News online graduate program assessments, the Elaine Marieb School of Nursing moved up to number 12 out of 186 ranked programs. Notably, UMass Amherst’s master’s in nursing was also the only Massachusetts program ranked in the top 30.

UMass Amherst’s online programs also ranked in the top 15 for their support of veterans, with the Isenberg master’s in business excluding MBA (fourth), online MBA (11th), and overall bachelor’s degree programs (13th) leading the survey.