Third Annual BerkshireSPEAKS Slated for Sept. 18

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Daily News

GREAT BARRINGTON — The third annual BerkshireSPEAKS will take place Sunday, Sept. 18 at 1:30 p.m. at Hevreh of Southern Berkshire in Great Barrington. This year’s event will feature six Berkshire trailblazers and visionaries sharing their inspirational stories.

BerkshireSPEAKS was established to create an opportunity for the entire community to hear from local residents who have had a significant impact on the Berkshires and beyond.

“BerkshireSPEAKS continues to grow each year, with speakers whose passion reminds us that anything is possible,” said Toby Levine, event co-chair. “We have a fantastic program planned and look forward to an afternoon that brings the community together to share empowering ideas.”

This year’s speakers include John Downing, CEO of Soldier On, a national organization fighting veteran homelessness; Nancy Kalodner, Berkshire Realtor, teacher, and arts supporter; Gwendolyn Hampton-VanSant, CEO and Founder of Multicultural BRIDGE; Mary Pope Osborne, award-winning author of the Magic Tree House series (130 million copies sold worldwide); John Hockenberry, author, journalist, and award-winning public radio host; and state Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli, who represents the 4th Berkshire District. A reception with the speakers will follow the presentations.

Registration costs $15 online and $18 at the door. To register online, visit www.hevreh.org/berkshirespeaks.

Celebrate Holyoke Announces Food Vendors for Festival

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Daily News

HOLYOKE — The Celebrate Holyoke planning committee announced this year’s food vendors set to participate in the three-day festival happening August 26-28. This year’s food vendors include a broad mix of Holyoke restaurants like Sláinte, Fiesta Café, and Capri Pizza, as well as regional favorites like Wheelhouse Farm. A wide variety of mobile food trucks will be set up throughout the weekend as well, including Holyoke Hummus Co., Mothership Gourmet, and Say Cheese grilled-cheese sandwiches.

“We’re pleased to welcome this talented group of local restauranteurs, which all bring something unique and delicious to our festival,” said Jenna Weingarten, executive director for Celebrate Holyoke. “We’re fortunate to have many of our vendors returning from last year, and we’re also really excited for the new food options that are joining us this year that will guarantee there’s something for everyone.”

Guests will be able to purchase food and drinks from the following local establishments: Papa’s Gourmet Hotdogs, Wheelhouse Farm, Nutmeg Concessions, Gateway City Arts, Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House, Sláinte, Say Cheese, Holyoke Hummus Co., Mothership Gourmet, Damn Yankees BBQ, Capri Pizza, Jnd Amusements, Fiesta Café, and Silk Deli and Bistro.

Celebrate Holyoke is a three-day festival that made its return last August after a 10-year hiatus, drawing an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 people downtown over the course of the weekend. This year’s festival will include live musical performances, foods and beverages from local restaurants, and goods from local artists and crafters. Also back by popular demand is Slide the City, which will take place on Saturday, Aug. 27.

Jeffrey Trapani to Chair SRC Legislative Steering Committee

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Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — Robinson Donovan, P.C. announced that attorney Jeffrey Trapani has been appointed chair of the legislative steering committee for the Springfield Regional Chamber of Commerce.

The legislative steering committee identifies issues of major concern to the business community, researches the issues, and recommends positions on them. The committee is also charged with educating members on these issues, soliciting member support, and encouraging elected officials to adopt the chamber’s position. This committee also serves as the legislative arm of the East of the River Five Town Chamber of Commerce.

“Jeff is not only an outstanding litigator, but a genuine leader in the community,” said Nancy Frankel Pelletier, head of Robinson Donovan’s litigation department. “We are very proud that he has taken on a leadership role at the Springfield Regional Chamber. He has an unwavering commitment to our business community, and he will be carrying on a decades-old tradition at Robinson Donovan of community service.”

Trapani, a partner at Robinson Donovan, concentrates his practice in civil litigation, including insurance defense, employment law, municipal liability, business litigation, and professional malpractice. Additionally, he represents landlords in summary-process actions and housing-discrimination claims and insurance companies in unfair-settlement claims and coverage issues. He graduated, cum laude, from New England Law in Boston, where he was editor in chief of the New England Law Review. He has been recognized by Super Lawyers since 2008.

Blue Sox Kick Off Playoffs Thursday, Aug. 4

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Daily News

HOLYOKE — The second-seeded Valley Blue Sox will kick off postseason action against third-seeded North Adams this Thursday, Aug. 4 at 6:35 p.m. at MacKenzie Stadium in Holyoke.

While the Sox’ fate has been decided for a few days now, a tight battle for the fourth seed caused a delay in scheduling. With Winnipesaukee losing Tuesday night and Vermont and Upper Valley splitting their double-header, it sets up a four-way tie for fourth place in the Northern Division, which will be played out in a single-elimination, split double-header tournament on Wednesday. The winner will face top seed Sanford.

As for the Sox, they will begin proceedings on Thursday night in Holyoke. Game 2 will be played in North Adams on Friday, Aug. 5 at 6:35 p.m. If necessary, the Sox will host the final and deciding game 3 on Saturday, Aug. 6 at 6:35 p.m.

Tickets for the series can be purchased at valleybluesox.com, by calling the Blue Sox ticket office at (413) 533-1100, or at the gate on Thursday night.

Mercy Medical Center Names Lisa Casasanta VP of Population Health

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Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — Lisa Casasanta has been named vice president of Population Health for Mercy Medical Center and the Sisters of Providence Health System (SPHS). In this role, she is responsible for overseeing and aligning population-health strategies and the associated performance metrics.

Additionally, she develops business plans that support affiliation with community partners; serves as a key partner with affiliated accountable-care organizations and regional leadership in the development of market growth plans; and provides direction, leadership, and management of all population-health strategies, including transition of care, chronic-disease management, and Bundled Payments for Care Improvement (BPCI) programs.

Most recently, Casasanta served as director of Population Health Marketing and Managed Markets Marketing for Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals in Ridgefield, Conn. She has also served as director of the Customer Marketing Group at Pfizer in New York, and as director of Strategic Initiatives at Pfizer Health Solutions in Santa Monica, Calif. and New York.

Casasanta received her bachelor’s degree in medical technology from the University of Connecticut and her master of public health degree from the UConn School of Medicine. She holds a First Line Management certification and a Franklin Covey Microsoft Project certification.

“A proven leader, Lisa understands the importance of high-quality care delivery and appropriate care management for patients across our continuum,” said Dr. Scott Wolf, president of Mercy Medical Center and SPHS. “This ability, coupled with her broad base of experience and knowledge of disease management, make Lisa a great asset to our team at Mercy Medical Center and the entire health system.”

Wistariahurst to Host Summer Play Day for Local Families Aug. 20

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Daily News

HOLYOKE — On Saturday, Aug. 20 from 1 to 3 p.m., Wistariahurst, Holyoke’s center for history, art, and culture, will host a free community event featuring lawn games, crafts, family-friendly tours, and more.

Wistariahurst, the former estate of the Skinner family, includes three acres of formal gardens and grounds, a Holyoke history exhibit, an archival facility, and a preserved historic mansion. The afternoon’s activities will be inspired by the history and features of the site, including the fossilized dinosaur tracks which pave the entryway, the historically inspired rose garden, and turn-of-the-century garden parties.

“As the summer season winds down, we want our gardens and grounds to be filled with families exploring and playing,” said Lisa Nicholson, program coordinator. “Dress up and have a cup of lemonade in the garden. Play a game of croquet or badminton like the Skinner family may have done.”

For more information or to view a schedule of other upcoming events at Wistariahurst, visit www.wistariahurst.org.

DevelopSpringfield Forges Collaborations in Advance of Redevelopment

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Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — DevelopSpringfield acquired a vacant building at the corner of Dwight and Carew streets together with several adjacent parcels to create a large redevelopment site with the aim of bringing new vitality to the area by redeveloping a critically underutilized and vacant site.

The proposed redevelopment concept would rehabilitate the historic Carew Street Baptist Church building’s 11,680 square feet, in a historically sensitive manner, into modern, energy-efficient office space. The surrounding parcels, formerly a brownfields site, would be redeveloped into parking and landscaping. The project represents a more than $3 million investment in this section of Springfield’s North End.

As a part of this redevelopment initiative, DevelopSpringfield forged innovative partnerships with EcoBuilding Bargains (EBB), Roca, and Habitat for Humanity in an effort to reduce waste and recycle as much of the reusable interior furnishings and building materials as possible. In addition, the site is now secured with fencing salvaged from another recent DevelopSpringfield project.

“We appreciate the opportunity to engage with these organizations to help advance our common goals,” said Jay Minkarah, president and CEO of DevelopSpringfield. “Working together, we can really pay it forward.”

A team from Roca, a local organization dedicated to supporting high-risk young men from the community by providing them with mentoring and transitional employment-training assistance, removed salvageable items like church pews, radiators, an organ, and more, to be shared with EBB and Habitat. Roca also assisted in clearing brush and debris from the adjacent lots. No historically significant building features or fixtures were removed.

“It was Roca’s pleasure to participate in this exciting collaboration. Eighty-six percent of the young men we are privileged to serve here at Roca are from the city of Springfield, and it is wonderful to give them the opportunity to give back to their community,” said Chris Judd, director of Roca Springfield. “Young men work hard at Roca to learn new work skills that help them stay out of harm’s way and succeed, and this is exactly the kind of opportunity that help them and our community move forward.”

Both EBB and Habitat’s ReStore have programs to create treasure from salvage in the form of unique resale opportunities of donated household goods which provide each of their organizations with needed resources to support their important programming.

“We’re very excited to be working with DevelopSpringfield to help find new homes for these valuable materials,” said Amy Weber, eco sales specialist at EcoBuilding Bargains. “Our mission is to keep perfectly good materials out of landfills and make these available at bargain prices.”

EcoBuilding Bargains, located at 83 Warwick St. in Springfield, is an enterprise of the nonprofit Center for EcoTechnology. For information about how to donate materials to EcoBuilding Bargains, call Weber at (413) 341-0098.

This redevelopment will be exemplary of sustainable development and smart growth principles. Rehabilitating an existing building, rather than demolishing it and building new, uses less energy and fewer materials, and enhances sustainability by capturing the building’s ‘embodied energy’ — the energy consumed through the processes associated with constructing the building when it was originally built. The project will also result in the redevelopment of a former brownfields site and is located in a densely populated, walkable urban area at a location with excellent transit access.

The rehabilitated building will be energy-efficient, with a new, natural-gas-fired, forced-hot-air system and energy-efficient air conditioning, as well as energy-efficient windows and insulation. The redevelopment will also minimize water use and feature low-impact development with enhanced stormwater management.

Governor Signs Bipartisan Pay-equity Legislation

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Daily News

BOSTON — Gov. Charlie Baker signed a bipartisan pay equity bill yesterday, passed unanimously by both legislative branches, to ensure equal pay for comparable work for all Massachusetts workers and equal opportunities to earn competitive salaries in the workplace.

The governor was joined by Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, Senate President Stanley Rosenberg, Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo, Treasurer Deb Goldberg, State Auditor Suzanne Bump, state Sen. Patricia Jehlen, state Rep. Ellen Story, state Rep. Patricia Haddad, and members of the Legislature at a signing ceremony in the State House to enact S.2119, An Act to Establish Pay Equity, which will go into effect on July 1, 2018 for Commonwealth employers and employees.

“I am pleased to sign bipartisan legislation to create a more level playing field in the Commonwealth and ensure that everyone has the opportunity to earn a competitive salary for comparable work,” Baker said. “I thank the Legislature for unanimously passing this bill and working closely with the business community to support women and families across the state.”

Added Polito, “this legislation is an important step toward advancing more equal, inclusive, and thriving workplaces throughout the Commonwealth for women and families. We thank the Legislature for their collaboration with the Commonwealth’s employers and their commitment to creating more opportunities for Massachusetts skilled workforce.”

The new law will prevent pay discrimination for comparable work based on gender. The bill allows employees to freely discuss their salaries with coworkers, prohibits employers from requiring applicants to provide their salary history before receiving a formal job offer, and authorizes the attorney general to issue regulations interpreting and applying the expanded law.

Under the new law, employers are permitted to take certain attributes of an employee or applicant into account when determining variation in pay, including their work experience, education, job training, or measurements of production, sales, or revenue.

“This new law is an important step toward ensuring economic security for Massachusetts women and families. It makes vital updates that reflect our modern economy and balance the needs of workers and the business community,” said Attorney General Maura Healey, adding that “pay equity is not only a women’s issue, it’s a family issue, and with this new law on the books, we are closer to closing the pay gap in our state.”

The statute of limitations laid out currently under the equal-pay statute will be expanded from one to three years, and employees will no longer be required to pursue a general claim of intentional discrimination at the Massachusetts Commission against Discrimination before filing a separate equal-pay claim in court.

Carle Museum Presents ‘Brown Bear Everywhere’ Pop-up Exhibition

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Daily News

AMHERST — In celebration of the upcoming 50th anniversary of the book that launched Eric Carle’s career — Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. —the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art is sending the book’s famous characters to the main streets and outdoor spaces of its hometown.

This special pop-up exhibition, “Brown Bear Everywhere,” on view from Aug. 8 through Oct. 10, will bring 14 high-quality reproductions of Carle’s original collage illustrations to some of Amherst’s popular restaurants, schools, and recreational sites. The exhibition helps kick off a year of special events to honor the children’s classic, which is one of the best-selling picture books of all time.

Framed reproductions from Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? will be located at Amherst Commons (White Dog), Bangs Community Center (Purple Cat), Bare Mountain (Brown Bear), Black Sheep Deli (Black Sheep), Fort River Elementary School (Teacher), Hampshire College (Red Bird), High Horse Restaurant (Blue Horse), Hitchcock Center for the Environment (Green Frog), Jones Library (Final Page), Amherst College Mead Art Museum (Endpapers), the Mill District in North Amherst (Original Brown Bear, 1967 edition), Mill River Recreation Area (Goldfish), the Norwottuck Rail Trail (Children), and the UMass Amherst campus pond (Yellow Duck). Labels at each location will provide information about the works of art, the book, and Carle’s artistic process.

“We enjoyed matching each picture in the book to a specific location in Amherst,” said Ellen Keiter, the Carle’s chief curator. “Placing Eric Carle’s Black Sheep at the Black Sheep Deli was an obvious fit, as was displaying his image of a teacher at Fort River Elementary School. Perhaps my favorite is Brown Bear atop Bare Mountain, the highest elevation in Amherst. It seems appropriate that Brown Bear look out over the Valley from this majestic perch.”

Keiter also lauded the town’s enthusiasm for the project. “We’ve spent the last eight months working with the host sites, and the response has been overwhelming. Not a single business or organization turned us down. In fact, each location enthusiastically embraced the project. It’s difficult to find someone who doesn’t know and love the book.”

“Brown Bear Everywhere” kicks off a year-long, nationwide celebration, including “Brown Bear Turns 50!” opening at the Carle on Sept. 13. Support for both exhibitions has been provided by Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group.

Published in 1967, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? had an immediate appeal to children and adults alike. Martin’s rhythmic call-and-response text builds anticipation at each turn of the page, while Carle’s bold graphics and parade of animals encourage learning and imagination. The book has been translated into 31 languages — from Arabic to Vietnamese — and has sold more than 16 million copies. In addition to the original 1967 book, Carle re-illustrated editions in 1970, 1984, and 1992.

In support of both exhibitions, the Carle will launch a special page on its website with Brown Bear teacher activities, photographs, fun facts, and a video of Carle reading the book. An accompanying social-media campaign asks friends to tag the Carle @carlemuseum and submit selfies taken in town with their favorite character using the hashtag #brownbeareverywhere. Selfies will be entered in a weekly drawing to win a Brown Bear anniversary tote bag.

Single-family Home Sales Up Throughout Pioneer Valley

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Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — The Realtor Assoc. of Pioneer Valley reported that single-family home sales in June were up 16.1% compared to the same time last year. The median price was up 2.0% to $209,000.

County reports vary. In Franklin County, sales were up 71.4%, and the median price was up 17.1%. Hampden County, sales were up 9.8%, and the median price was up 1.6%. And in Hampshire County, sales from June 2015 to June 2016 were up 16.5%, while the median price was down 1.9%.

Berkshire Museum Calls Museums for All Program a Success

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Daily News

PITTSFIELD — In its first year, the Museums for All program has been a success at the Berkshire Museum, with more than 800 visitors participating. Initiated in September 2015, Museums for All, a signature access program of the Assoc. of Children’s Museums and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, enables low-income families (two adults and two children) to visit the Berkshire Museum free with the presentation of an electronic benefits transfer (EBT) card.

The program is designed to encourage families of all backgrounds to visit museums regularly and build lifelong museum habits. Berkshire Museum’s participation in this program is funded by the TD Charitable Foundation.

“Adopting the Museums for All and other programs to remove financial access as a barrier to participation is part of a concerted effort to open our doors to ever-larger numbers of people,” said Van Shields, Berkshire Museum’s executive director. “In addition to providing opportunities for more people to benefit from our programs, we are also providing opportunities for more people to connect with each other who might not otherwise do so. We believe that strengthens our social fabric, which is why our mission statement includes a commitment to bring people together.”

Since September 2015, a total of 812 visitors — 503 adults and 309 children — have used the Museums for All program to visit the Berkshire Museum. That’s an average of three people per day, nearly 100 per month. Since the inception of the program, each month has seen an increase in participation over the previous month; in May, 153 visitors used the program to gain access to the museum’s exhibitions and programs.

GoodWorks Insurance to Support HBRAWM Scholarship Foundation

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Daily News

GREAT BARRINGTON — Members of the Home Builders & Remodelers Assoc. of Western Massachusetts (HBRAWM) can now automatically support their own educational foundation under a new agreement with GoodWorks Insurance. The insurance agency will donate 20% of its commissions to the Home Builders Foundation of Western Massachusetts on all business and personal insurance policies members buy from it.

The Springfield-based contractors’ association has nearly 500 members in Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin, and Berkshire counties. GoodWorks Insurance is an independent insurance agency with offices in Great Barrington and Worcester.

“It’s a creative arrangement. Our members will be able to support our foundation without spending an extra cent,” said Brad Campbell, executive director of the Home Builders & Remodelers Association of Western Massachusetts. “GoodWorks has shown professionalism and commitment to work with our members.”

Just as important are the variety of services and solutions GoodWorks Insurance can offer to association members, he added. “It gives us more top-notch products and services in our holster to offer our members.”

Over the years, HBRAWM has provided $500,000 in scholarships and other grants to support the building trades. Besides college scholarships, the foundation offers $500 tool scholarships to vocational-school graduates to help them get started in their careers.

GoodWorks Insurance donates half its operating profits to local nonprofits that support education, healthcare, and public safety. Besides its Massachusetts offices, it has Connecticut offices in Avon, Columbia, Glastonbury, and New Milford. Serving more than 10,000 clients, GoodWorks has special expertise serving building contractors, nonprofits, fuel dealers, aerospace firms, and manufacturers, providing both insurance and surety bonds.

Clowning Around for Shriners Hospital Event Slated for Aug. 13

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Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — The Melha Shriners announced that supporter Wendy Hart has once again organized the third annual Clowning Around for Shriners Hospital event, set for Saturday, Aug. 13 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

VFW Post 872, at 151 Point Grove Road in Southwick, will host this family-friendly event. Entertainment will be provided by the Shrine clowns, a traveling arcade, a photo booth, a dunk tank, and a DJ. The event will also feature a vendor fair featuring more than 40 local enterprises.

“I am really excited about the opportunity to raise money for Shriners Hospital, and hope to increase the amount we raised over last year’s total,” Hart said. The event raised $2,000 for the hospital in 2015.

Food and beverages will be for sale at the event. The Melha Shrine Clowns will present a skit show and spend the day mingling with children of all ages. Chris Howe, Shriner and president of the Melha Clowns, noted that “our clowns love days like this because we can help raise money for our hospital while just having lots of fun with all of the families in attendance.”

Shriners Hospitals for Children – Springfield will receive 100% of the proceeds as it attempts to raise $900,000 for state-of-the-art X-ray technology (called EOS) which exposes children to a mere one-ninth of the radiation of traditional X-ray studies.

For more information about the event, contact Hart at (413) 875-5743 or visit the Facebook event page.

Western New England University Hosts 25 Mexican Students

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Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — Western New England University is welcoming 25 Mexican students through Aug. 20 under the support of the U.S. Department of State’s 100,000 Strong in the Americas initiative, and the complementary Mexican Ministry of Education Proyecta 100,000 initiative.

Western New England University was selected as a host location for the joint U.S./Mexican higher-education programs with the assistance of Bridge Pathways, the university’s international ESL partner. Over the next four weeks, the Mexican students will be living in Commonwealth Hall, dining in the St. Germain Campus Center, and receiving instruction in Herman Hall by ESL faculty and guest speakers. They will also be touring the region, including Boston and other locations.

For more information on the U.S. and Mexican international higher-education programs, click here.

Slide the City to Return to Holyoke on Aug. 27

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Daily News

HOLYOKE — Celebrate Holyoke welcomes the return of Slide the City to Holyoke on Saturday, Aug. 27 as part of its three-day event, and will once again sell discounted tickets prior to the event. In addition, the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Holyoke is partnering with Slide the City to raise money for its organization and help secure volunteers for the day of the slide.

Slide the City will return to the same location along Appleton Street. Tickets are currently available at slidethecity.com, and single tickets can be purchased for $20 on the day of the event. Those looking to purchase tickets in advance at a discounted rate can do so at Stop & Shop on Lincoln Street in Holyoke on Sat., Aug. 13, and Sun., Aug. 14, from noon to 4 p.m.; at the mayor’s office on weekdays; and at the Holyoke Farmers’ Market every Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Discounted tickets can also be found at celebrateholyokemass.com.

For the second year, the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Holyoke will partner with Slide the City to recruit volunteers for the day of the event. For every volunteer signed up, Slide the City will make a donation to the Holyoke Boys & Girls Club.

“The Holyoke Boys & Girls Club is thrilled to be partnering for the second year with Slide the City and the Celebrate Holyoke committee,” said Eileen Cavanaugh, president and CEO of the Boys and Girls Club. “Last year was a great experience, and we were so pleased with and grateful for the amount of volunteers that came out to support the club. I’m sure this year will be even better! We are looking forward to another fun event that allows our club to be part of Celebrate Holyoke.”

Volunteers are still needed for various shifts throughout the day and will be helping with the following tasks: setup, registration tent (check pre-registered customers, take payment for new customers, etc.), slide monitors (check wristbands, help keep people moving along), cleanup, trash pickup, and loading trucks with gear and merchandise.

Anyone who is interested in volunteering to raise money for the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Holyoke should e-mail Cavanaugh at [email protected]. Volunteers must be at least 16 years old. In exchange for their participation, volunteers will receive a Slide the City T-shirt and be provided snacks and refreshments during each shift.

Tech Foundry Named Citizens Bank 
Champion in Action

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Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — Selected from a pool of more than 130 applicants, Tech Foundry was announced as the recent winner of the 2016 Champions in Action award by Citizens Bank. With the award comes a check for $35,000, as well as other support from Citizens Bank that will enhance the work of Tech Foundry. The award also includes significant exposure from New England Cable News.

More than 50 workforce-development stakeholders and Tech Foundry employer partners gathered last week at an event at Tech Foundry to share the news. The organization sees this award as not just affirmation for its program success, but also an award to the collaborative efforts of companies across the region. As Jonathan Edwards of Tech Foundry stated, “this is an award that should be shared with the entire Western Massachusetts region.”

NAI Plotkin Makes Move to Heart of Springfield

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Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — NAI Plotkin announced it will relocate to the MassLive building, 1350 Main St., in mid-August. 1350 Formerly known as One Financial Plaza, the building is well-known throughout Springfield for its first-, third-, and ninth-floor galleries activating the spaces. This move brings a third-generation family business into the dynamic and changing heart of downtown.

NAI Plotkin’s team of commercial real-estate professionals will occupy 5,884 square feet on the 14th floor in the class-A office tower. The space is currently being renovated to best suit the contemporary property management team.

“As we continue to grow our business in and around the Springfield market, we needed to put down roots in a new space that will grow with us,” said Evan Plotkin, company president. “We’re excited to start this new chapter of our company’s history.”

Jewish Music Stars to Headline Federation’s Community Concert

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Daily News

LENOX — Two of the hottest stars in the contemporary Jewish music scene, Neshama Carlebach and Josh Nelson, will come together at the Jewish Federation of the Berkshires’ annual benefit concert for a powerful evening of hope, unity, and spirituality. The concert will take place Sunday, July 31 at 7 p.m. at the Duffin Theater at Lenox Memorial High School.

All concert proceeds will benefit the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Victims of Terror Fund. General admission tickets are $25, $20 for young adults under the age of 30, and free for children under 10. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Jewish Federation at (413) 442-4360, ext. 10, or at the door. The Duffin Theater is located at Lenox Memorial High School, 197 East St., Lenox.

Carlebach continues the legacy established by her father, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. His deep spirituality and love of all humanity filled the songs he wrote and touched the people he encountered as he changed the face of Jewish music. Like her father, Neshama’s talent and charisma endear her to people of all ages and backgrounds as she performs and teaches in cities worldwide.

One of the most popular performers and composers in modern Jewish music, Nelson brings a message of hope, unity, and spirituality to concert stages and worship services across the globe. He is a gifted multi-instrumentalist and songwriter whose work is celebrated and integrated into the repertoire of congregations, camps, and communities around the world.

The Jewish Federation of the Berkshires mobilizes the local Jewish community to care for those in need, and nurtures and sustains Jewish life across the Berkshires, in Israel, and around the world.

Berkshire Museum Hosts JV InvenTeam

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Daily News

PITTSFIELD — This summer, the Berkshire Museum is partnering with the Lemelson-MIT Program in mentoring a JV InvenTeam at Monument Valley Regional Middle School in Great Barrington. Lemelson-MIT JV InvenTeams are comprised of students who hone their hands-on skills and enrich their STEM education through invention-based design activities.

Berkshire Museum educators are leading the classes based on materials and coursework provided by the Lemelson-MIT Program. Thirty-two fifth- and sixth-grade students are participating three days a week, July 5 through Aug. 3. The middle-schoolers at Monument Valley have completed a unit on designing and prototyping shoe soles, creating soles for a range of different activities. The students came up with ideas for their shoe soles, modeled them in clay, and cast them in urethane to complete their prototypes. They are now working on sound; they have dissected earbuds to learn about speakers, created their own electromagnets from common household objects, and built speakers out of paper plates.

The Lemelson-MIT Program continues to celebrate outstanding inventors and inspires young people to pursue creative lives and careers through invention. JV InvenTeams are currently located in four states: Massachusetts, Texas, Oregon, and California.

Students participating in JV InvenTeams learn how to safely use tools and explore new materials to use in hands-on projects. Teams of students practice invention-based design activities and apply their learned skills to create useful and unique projects. They build confidence and curiosity around STEM areas including structures, electricity, materials, and robotics.

Local Providers to Join Together, Increase Service-delivery Options

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SPRINGFIELD — The boards of directors of two area nonprofit organizations, Friends of the Homeless Inc. (FOH) and Clinical & Support Options Inc. (CSO), have voted to pursue a merger.

FOH provides emergency shelter, housing, and support services for low-income residents of Springfield. CSO is a comprehensive behavioral-health organization based in Northampton, providing outpatient and emergency mental-health and substance-abuse services, with regional locations in five counties in Western and Central Mass. FOH will merge into CSO and become a program of Clinical & Support Options.

“This is a merger that is built on mutual, compatible strengths,” said Bill Miller, executive director of FOH. “Friends’ operations will remain largely the same, now with new opportunities for our clients to have ready access to behavioral-health services. We will also have new opportunities to serve the housing needs of communities in Franklin and Hampshire Counties.”

Karin Jeffers, president and CEO of Clinical & Support Options, noted that, in parallel fashion, CSO clients will have access to FOH housing expertise, while CSO expands its behavioral-health services to FOH clients in Springfield. “The leaders of both organizations have been excited to recognize how bringing the two together will benefit our clients and staff. Our communities will benefit from the more efficient use of public resources and broadened access to the resources and services both organizations bring.”

Added Keith Obert, chairman of the CSO board of directors, “the senior management of the two organizations will be combined into one stronger team, with more diverse skills. Also, the two boards will collaborate to create broader and deeper community representation across the region.”

Dan Pouliot, chairman of the FOH board of directors, noted that “FOH has a strong brand recognition throughout the area for critical programming to serve the most vulnerable in our communities. This merger will allow us to keep doing that work, but now with additional resources to expand programming to our clients and support our staff, all of whom are vital to what we do. There will be no reduction in workforce. Rather, we expect that we will be stronger and more efficient together.”

A merger of Massachusetts nonprofit agencies requires filing with the attorney general. Miller said they expect to submit required documents in the coming weeks, with the intent of completing the process before the end of the calendar year.

Free Legal Assistance Available to Small Businesses

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Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — The Western New England University Small Business Legal Clinic is now accepting applications from entrepreneurs and small-business owners seeking legal assistance for the fall 2016 semester. Under faculty supervision, law students assist clients with legal issues, including choice of entity, employment policies, contract drafting, regulatory compliance, and intellectual-property issues relating to trademark applications and copyright. This is a free service available to local businesses that would not otherwise have the resources to obtain these types of services.

The Small Business Clinic at Western New England School of Law has assisted more than 300 small businesses. By using the clinic’s services, businesses can avoid problems by getting legal issues addressed early and correctly. It also provides students with an opportunity to get real-world experience.

The Small Business Legal Clinic asks small-business owners to submit their applications by Monday, Aug. 15. Applications received after that date will be considered if additional resources are available. Students will begin providing services in September. For more information, call the clinic at (413) 782-1469 or e-mail [email protected].

Assoc. for Community Living Names Ruth Banta Executive Director

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Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — The Association for Community Living, which provides residential and community services for people with intellectual disabilities, has named Ruth Banta the new executive director, effective Aug. 22.

Banta, who has served as the vice president for administration at the association since 2003, will oversee the $30 million organization, headquartered in Springfield. The association provides a variety of services to people with disabilities through its programs throughout Western Mass., including Community Resources for People with Autism, Specialized Home Care, Whole Children, an extensive residential division, and Valley Tees.

“We are thrilled to have Ruth Banta taking on the responsibilities of the executive director position,” said Mark Germain, president of the association’s board of directors. “Her first-hand knowledge of the challenges and opportunities we face and her relationships within and outside of the organization will allow her to hit the ground running on her first day on the job. We all look forward to working with Ruth in the years to come.”

Banta has more than 30 years of management, including positions at J.P. Morgan and Aetna.

“I am honored and humbled to be selected as the association’s next executive director,” Banta said. “I am looking forward to working with all our constituents to meet the challenges we face to ensure that people with intellectual disabilities are able to build the lives they seek and deserve.”

Banta has a bachelor’s degree from Smith College and an MBA from Yale University. She became interested in the human-services field when one of her sons was diagnosed with autism. She previously served on the board of Community Resources for People with Autism, a program of the Assoc. for Community Living.

The Assoc. for Community Living, which is set to change its name to Pathlight in September, has been providing programs and services to people with developmental disabilities since 1952. Its programs include residential homes, supports for independent living, family-based living, recreation, enrichment, employment supports, family resources, autism supports, and more.

Banta is an amateur photographer whose photographs have been exhibited in Western Mass. She has volunteered with the Special Olympics and coached the unified basketball team for five medal-winning seasons.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Reports Second-quarter Results

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Daily News

PITTSFIELD — Berkshire Hills Bancorp Inc. reported second-quarter GAAP earnings of $0.52 per share in 2016 compared to $0.35 in 2015. Core earnings increased to $0.54 per share from $0.51 for these respective periods. Results increased due to expanded operations and improved profitability.

Core EPS is a non-GAAP financial measure and is adjusted to exclude net non-core charges primarily related to acquisitions and restructuring activities. GAAP results last year included higher non-core charges related to the Hampden Bancorp acquisition.

Second-quarter financial highlights, compared to the prior quarter, include 5% total loan growth, 4% total commercial loan growth, 3.31% net interest margin (fully taxable equivalent), 58.7% efficiency ratio (non-GAAP financial measure), 0.26% non-performing assets/assets, and 0.22% net loan charge-offs/average loans.

Employment Report Mixed in June, but Job Growth Up Since Last Year

By
Daily News

BOSTON — Local unemployment rates increased in 21 labor-market areas in the state during the month of June and dropped in two areas, while one remained the same, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported Tuesday. Compared to June 2015, the local unemployment rates were lower in all areas.

Thirteen of the 15 areas added jobs over the month, with the largest gains in the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Barnstable, Framingham, Pittsfield, and Haverhill-Newburyport-Amesbury areas. Some of the job gains in the information sector reflect the end of a temporary labor dispute in May.

From June 2015 to June 2016, 14 labor markets in the state added jobs, with the largest percentage gains in the Haverhill-Newburyport-Amesbury area, along with Taunton-Middleborough-Norton, Pittsfield, and Boston-Cambridge-Quincy.

In order to compare the statewide rate to local unemployment rates, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the statewide unadjusted unemployment rate for June was 4.3%. The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 4.2% in June, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported last week. The unemployment rate is down 0.7% over the year.

The state showed an estimated 16,400 seasonally adjusted job gains in June, boosted partially by the resolution of a temporary labor dispute. The over-the-year job gains are estimated at 67,300.

The unadjusted unemployment rates and job estimates for the labor market areas reflect seasonal fluctuations and therefore may show different levels and trends than the statewide seasonally adjusted estimates. The estimates for labor force, unemployment rates, and jobs for Massachusetts are based on different statistical methodology specified by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

American International College Recognizes Trustee Peter Vogian

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Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — American International College (AIC) board of trustees member Peter Vogian made a gift to name a conference room in the new dining commons complex on campus. At a recent ceremony, Vogian was acknowledged for his many years of generous support to the college.

AIC President Vincent Maniaci praised Vogian for his leadership as a trustee and for giving the college a space that provides an ideal venue for professional and academic meetings.

“We know this room will be used by our students for both social occasions and networking opportunities. In this room, our students will learn leadership and presentation skills, they will collaborate and cooperate,” Maniaci said during the dedication ceremony. “Our students will leave this room better than when they walked in. The Peter J. Vogian Conference Room is but one manifestation of your generous spirit and your belief in our students’ potential.”

Vogian has served as a member of the college’s board of trustees since 2001. Graduating from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania, Vogian began his career with Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. in 1960, retiring in 1993 as senior vice president of Pension Management Sales. In addition to his years of dedicated service to AIC, Vogian has donated his time and talent to serving on numerous boards, including Goodwill Industries of Springfield and Hartford and with professional and social affiliations including Chartered Life Underwriters of Pioneer Valley and the Melha Temple Shrine.

Smith & Wesson Purchases Laser-sight Maker for $95 Million

By
Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Crimson Trace Corp., an industry leader in laser-sighting systems and tactical lighting for firearms, for $95 million.

Crimson Trace has long been a key supplier of laser-sighting systems for Smith & Wesson. For more than two decades, Crimson Trace has provided consumers, military units, and law-enforcement officers around the globe with laser-sight and tactical-light products. Offering more than 225 products, its award-winning innovations include the Lasergrips, Laserguard, and Rail Master platforms. The company’s product line also includes the Defender Series, Lightguard, and its new LiNQ wireless activation system. Based in Wilsonville, Ore., Crimson Trace operates from a 50,000-square-foot, leased facility where it engineers and manufactures its products.

Crimson Trace was founded 22 years ago and has organically generated a 10-year compound annual revenue growth rate in excess of 10%. Its products maintain a premium position with hundreds of independent retailers as well as large sporting-goods retailers, including Cabela’s, MidwayUSA, Nation’s Best Sports, and internet retailer Optics Planet Inc.

“Crimson Trace provides us with an exceptional opportunity to acquire a thriving company that is completely aligned with our strategy to become a leader in the market for shooting, hunting, and rugged outdoor enthusiasts,” said James Debney, Smith & Wesson president and CEO. “As the undisputed leader in the market for laser-sighting products, Crimson Trace serves as an ideal platform for our new Electro-Optics Division. Firearms purchasers frequently buy electro-optic accessories to enhance the capabilities and performance of their firearms. The growth that Crimson Trace has delivered is a testament to the high-product quality and the robust product development capability that Lane Tobiassen, president and chief executive officer of Crimson Trace, and his team have established. That capability, combined with Crimson Trace’s leadership position in the market for laser sights, provides a solid framework for organic and inorganic growth.”

Tobiassen, who joined Crimson Trace in 2005, will serve as president of the new Electro-Optics Division of Smith & Wesson, and will report directly to Debney. The Crimson Trace management team and workforce, as well as its base of operations, will remain in Wilsonville, Ore. after the acquisition.

“It is a great honor to lead Crimson Trace into this exciting new chapter in our history by joining the Smith & Wesson team,” Tobiassen said. “Since 1994, we have designed and brought to market more than 225 products, all of which reflect the passion, dedication, and spirit of innovation of our design engineers, production workforce, customer-service representatives, and marketing and sales professionals. As the new Electro-Optics Division of Smith & Wesson, we believe that our capabilities, combined with inorganic opportunities to acquire related technologies, will expand the reach of our existing market footprint. This makes us a great fit for Smith & Wesson, a legendary company with an iconic brand, world-class products, and markets that include consumer, law-enforcement, and international channels. We look forward to offering consumers exceptional performance from two of the industry’s most trusted names.”

Peter Rosskothen Steps to the Plate — Again

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CoverRosskothen0716b
Cover Story

An Appetite for Entrepreneurship

Peter Rosskothen

Peter Rosskothen

Peter Rosskothen has compiled a quarter-century-long track record of entrepreneurial energy and daring — all of it in the broad realms of food and hospitality. He says it exists partly out of necessity in this highly competitive market, but also because he’s always looking for ways to do things differently — and better. His latest venture, which he describes as the cutting edge of food retail, is no exception.

Peter Rosskothen was at a loss for words. Well, sort of, and not for very long, actually.

He was asked to explain, if he could, the origins of, and inspiration for, his very healthy appetite for entrepreneurial ventures — all of them in the broad realms of food and hospitality, ranging from several franchises of a national chain of eateries, to a banquet facility; from coffee shops to an ambitious catering operation.

And, like many who have made the choice to work for themselves instead of someone else, he struggled with that question.

“I’m not really sure how to explain it; it’s always been there, though,” he said of his entrepreneurial drive after pausing for a few moments of reflection, adding that, in many respects, it exists out of necessity in a highly competitive and always-changing marketplace.

“I think we share this belief that you have to always do something a little different, or find a way to do something a little better, to stay in business today, and I’d like to think that this is what drives us,” he said, referring specifically to business partner Michael Corduff and other members of the team that operates his businesses.

He did much better when it came to putting into plain words why he and his partners over the years have been not only so prolific, but so successful.

“Lots of people have ideas,” he explained. “And they’ll talk about these ideas, and talk about them some more. Taking the idea and doing something about it is what makes us entrepreneurs, and that’s what happened last September, when we decided to stop talking about this and do it.”

It’s a scenario that has played itself out several times over the past quarter-century or so, as Rosskothen — by himself or with different partners — has launched Boston Chicken (later Boston Market) franchises; undertaken a massive renovation of the landmark Log Cabin restaurant in Holyoke into a banquet facility; completed several subsequent expansions of that facility, purchased the Delaney House restaurant in Holyoke and, later, the hotel erected adjacent to it; created a catering operation known as Log Rolling; and opened two coffee-and-sandwich shops called Mt. Joe to Go.

And it is playing itself out again with yet another new venture, this one called Delaney’s Market, which is set to open its doors in the Longmeadow Shops in early August. Rosskothen described this as a “retail store for food,” where patrons can grab a container of chicken marsala and accompanying veggies, a fresh loaf of bread, a bottle of wine or a few microbrews, and dessert, and take it all home to enjoy there.

Which means that, like many of the ventures Rosskothen has launched over the years, this one is somewhat unique and cutting-edge when it comes to understanding what the dining public wants and needs.

“There is nothing else like this in our market — nothing,” he explained, adding that various types of operations offer some of the above, to one extent or another, but certainly not all of the above.

BusinessWest as the magazine’s Top Entrepreneurs

Peter Rosskothen and former business partner Larry Perreault were honored by BusinessWest as the magazine’s Top Entrepreneurs for 1997 for their efforts at the Log Cabin.

He said the concept was born from acknowledgment that today’s consumers — and especially the younger generations — want, by and large, food that is fresh, local, healthy, and of high quality. Meanwhile, they also want convenience and help with cramming all that life throws at them into the 24 hours in a day.

Various business operations address some or many of those needs in various ways, said Rosskothen, noting that supermarkets now offer many prepared foods, some ventures will deliver meals to your door (while others will drop off the ingredients and let you cook them), and restaurants, most of which offer takeout, have put a heavy focus on local and healthy.

But extensive research — another common denominator with all of his previous ventures — told Rosskothen there was a desire for, and room for, another — and, in many ways, better — alternative.

“This concept allows people to take it easy and spend more time with their family,” he explained, adding that it represents the best of many worlds — convenience, affordability, variety, and quality.

For this issue, BusinessWest talked with Rosskothen about his latest venture, but also about entrepreneurship in general and his desire to remain on the cutting edge of innovation within the world of hospitality.

Another Bite at the Apple

As he talked with BusinessWest at a small table outside the Starbucks just a few doors down from his new storefront, Rosskothen gestured with his hand toward the scene in front and on both sides of him.

“This if the perfect location for this — if we don’t make it here, we’re not going to make it anywhere,” he said. He was referring, in large part, to the packed parking lot at the Longmeadow Shops, a heavily trafficked lifestyle center (now being expanded) featuring an eclectic mix of high-end tenants including Ann Taylor and Chico’s, but also several popular anchors such as a CVS and a few bank branches. But he was also referencing the facility’s spot on the map, in Longmeadow, but only a half-mile or so from East Longmeadow and the Connecticut border and the affluent communities there.

Rosskothen said his research told him that, while there are many attractive geographic options for launching this kind of venture — the Amherst-Northampton area, Westfield, and East Longmeadow itself were also considered — his instincts told him that this was the place to start.

And his instincts have rarely, if ever, been wrong.

They weren’t when he opened a few Boston Chicken franchises in the region in the early ’90s, deciding that area residents had, or would develop, an appetite for the emerging product known as ‘fast casual.’

They were on target again when, in 1996, he and partner Larry Perreault decided to resurrect the Log Cabin as a banquet facility, guessing that, despite a market flooded with competitors, there was room for, well, a room with a view. And they were right; ‘the Cabin,’ as it’s known colloquially, at least in some circles, remains one of the region’s most popular venues for events, because of those views, as well as a location roughly halfway between Springfield and Northampton.

Those instincts were on the money — in all kinds of ways — with subsequent ventures such as the Delaney House restaurant and its more casual, on-site counterpart, the Mick; the D. Hotel on the Delaney House property; Mt. Joe; and Log Rolling.

That last venture is the catering arm that brings ‘rolling kitchens,’ as Rosskothen calls them (hence the name), to venues across Western Mass. and Northern Conn. The venture has done well during the 17-day Big E, for example, as groups look to stage their own functions in a large tent on the grounds, and he’s anticipating big things this fall as the institution celebrates its 100th birthday.

“Log Rolling has become a nice business division for us — it’s for people who are looking for our services, but at a unique site,” he said, adding that these have ranged from Wickham Park in Manchester, Conn. (which also has a log cabin) to Black Birch Vineyard in Southampton, and a wide array of spots in between and beyond.

Mt. Joe to Go

Mt. Joe to Go, with locations at the Log Cabin and downtown Holyoke, is one of a series of entrepreneurial endeavors launched by Peter Rosskothen and various partners.

And Rosskothen believes his instincts (and those of his team) are again sound with a venture that in some ways encapsulates all the ventures that came before it, to one degree or another. In a nutshell, it brings food to customers in a convenient manner and creates another, and potentially solid, revenue stream.

“This is really exciting because it’s a way to utilize a lot of our brainpower and ability and apply it to a new business,” he explained. “And it’s not conflicting with what we do on weekends.”

That last remark was a reference mostly to the events, and especially weddings, at the Log Cabin and also the Delaney House. Not all events come on weekends, but most of them do, he explained, adding quickly that while this business is quite solid, there is a time of the year — January through March — that is sometimes problematically slow.

Some of the other recent entrepreneurial undertakings have been launched in an effort to overcome those slow months — Log Rolling was also created to counter a marked slowdown that followed the onset of the Greater Recession in 2008 — and Delaney’s Market is no exception.

Full Menu of Options

As he offered BusinessWest a quick tour of the storefront in progress, Rosskothen explained the concept in more detail.

He started by pointing to a long row of coolers along one wall, and then grabbing a sturdy, microwavable plastic container, one of several sizes that would be available. The former would be filled with the latter, he said, adding that food prepared at the Log Cabin would be trucked to the Longmeadow Shops in refrigerated trucks daily.

To fully explain the concept, though, he referred back to still another of his team’s entrepreneurial undertakings — the Mt. Joe facilities, located in the lower parking lot of the Log Cabin and at the transit facility in downtown Holyoke.

It specializes in coffee — hence the name — but also sells meals to go, enough of them to prompt thoughts, talk, and then action to take that business to a different, much higher level.

“We’ve always had this dream about what we could do with meals to go,” he told BusinessWest. “For a while, we studied the home-delivery-of-meals (or ingredients) concept, but the problem with them is you have to be disciplined — the food shows up, and you have to cook it, or you waste it. And it’s not cheap.

“It’s a good concept, but I really like what we’re doing here,” he went on. “I’m on my way home … I don’t really know what I want for dinner … I do know that I really don’t want to prep my meal … I stop in Delaney’s Market, I walk around, see what I feel like, pick it up, grab a bottle of wine or a beer, and take it home.”

TV celebrity Ed McMahon

Peter Rosskothen, then operator of Boston Chicken franchises, is seen with TV celebrity Ed McMahon at a promotion at one of the stores.

Rosskothen and his team are betting that this thought process is common enough to create enormous business potential, and he believes it’s a pretty safe bet.

As for what will be in those plastic containers on the store shelves, Rosskothen said there would be a host of entrees, but also salads, desserts, breads, and beverage options made possible by a surprisingly available liquor license.

The menu is still somewhat of a work in progress, he went on, and would always be something flexible and a reflection of what customers wanted. But when pressed for examples of what patrons might expect, he listed items like chicken francaise, beef bourguignon, salmon salad, and stuffed mushroom caps. This will be a restaurant, but in a retail format.

In keeping with current dietary trends and a broader focus on health, each container will let the customer know how many calories they’ll consume per serving, said Rosskothen, adding that there will be low-calorie, vegetarian, and gluten-free offerings, among other things.

“Everyone I’ve talked to about this — and that’s a lot of people — says, ‘I hope you’re going to have healthy items; I’m trying to lose some weight,’ or ‘I’m trying to be good,’” he noted. “I tell them, ‘absolutely — that’s a big part of our thinking.’

“We have a good idea of what we want to bring here, but we’ll adapt to what our guests want,” he explained. “The best way to explain it is that we’ll have the variety of a restaurant, but with a focus that will make us a regular stop for people.”

Salad Days

As he talked about the timing of his latest venture, Rosskothen believes it’s ideal given the way societal trends are changing and the retail sector is trending.

As for the Aug. 3 scheduled soft opening, he said this date is ideal as well. Not because business will be brisk, but because it will likely be rather slow — although there’s a good deal of buzz about this operation — given the large number of families that will be on vacation.

“We’re opening in August on purpose — I like to start in a slow month,” he said, adding that this strategic decision was made with an eye toward getting whatever kinks there might be out, a staff up to speed, and perhaps an even better feeling for what the buying public wants — and doesn’t want.

This thinking is not exactly straight out of most business-success textbooks, but it’s yet another example of how Rosskothen and his team are thinking outside the box, or food container, as the case may be, and expressing their appetite for entrepreneurship in a way that is both scientific and, as history shows, successful.

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

Community Pride Plays into Hampden’s Growth

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Community Spotlight Features

Community Spotlight

John Flynn

John Flynn says Hampden’s new, $3 million police station will be finished next month.

John Flynn is extremely proud of Hampden — so proud he can’t help talking at length about the close-knit atmosphere he claims pervades every section of town.

“The word that best describes Hampden is ‘community’; it’s a place where people care about their neighbors,” said the chair of the Board of Selectmen. “I talk to people all the time who tell me they were surprised to find their neighbors went out of their way to meet them and bring them food when they moved to our town. It still happens here because we are all about community.”

Flynn added that the selectmen feel the same way about Hampden. “We can’t solve everyone’s problems, but each person is treated with respect,” he told BusinessWest.

Doug Boyd agrees. “Hampden is a great community with a lot of small businesses and self-employed people. The governance is very responsive to issues, and since everyone knows everyone else, communication is very easy,” said the co-chair of the Advisory Committee and member of the Community Preservation Committee.

“It’s what makes Hampden different from other cities and towns,” he continued, explaining that, although there has been a fair amount of development and a significant increase in the number of new homes in Hampden over the past 40 years, the town’s population has increased only slightly, and everyone has an equal voice in determining how tax dollars are spent.

But change has occurred, and the biggest project has been the $45 million conversion of the former Hampden Country Club into what the owners call a ‘lifestyle club’ called GreatHorse that features not only a championship golf course, but a plethora of offerings designed to appeal to families.

“The club was built in the early ’70s and has had four owners,” Flynn noted, explaining that it went up for auction in 2011 and was purchased for $1.4 million by the Antonacci family, which owns USA Hauling and a number of other business ventures.

Their original plan was simply to make improvements to the golf-course bunkers, but one improvement led to another, and it soon morphed into a major undertaking.

Today, the only thing that remains of the former course is the routing of its holes: everything else is new, including the irrigation system, tee boxes, fairways, greens, bunkers, and cart paths.

The old clubhouse was knocked down in 2013, and a new, state-of-the-art, 25,000-square-foot facility took its place. Amenities include two semi-surround simulators for indoor teaching, a fitness center, a salon, massage rooms, a barber’s chair, and an 185-seat dining area that has individual wine lockers and an adjacent horseshoe bar with seven TVs.

There is also an outdoor patio that boasts five TVs and a large, circular firepit; and family fun can be found in the 75- by 30-foot outdoor swimming pool, sprinkler play area, and bocce courts.

“The property was closed for almost three years while it was being rehabilitated, but today it is truly a showpiece,” Flynn said.

Boyd agreed and said the transformation represents a significant investment, one that benefits the entire community.

Public Projects

Residents recently voted to build the town’s third solar farm on two parcels of land that contain a capped landfill. Two other solar-photovoltaic, electricity-generating facilities were built on private property in recent years, and Hampden is waiting for permitting from the state for its newest farm, which will be built and operated by Amaresco Inc.

“It represents a substantial investment that will increase tax revenue without a corresponding increase in services,” Boyd noted, adding that, because Hampden has a unified tax rate, residents and businesses benefit equally when new sources of revenue are developed.

Flynn said the solar farm could generate $200 to $300 a year in taxes, and although that amount of money might seem negligible to some cities and towns, the majority of Hampden’s budget is paid for by property taxes, and small amounts add up, so officials are always looking for new ways to generate income.

“Money from the solar farm could be put toward a new dumptruck or another capital expenditure,” Flynn noted.

National Grid also made an $11 million investment in Hampden last year when it built a new substation that connects 6,500 customers in East Longmeadow, Wilbraham, Hampden, Monson, and Palmer to the larger Massachusetts power grid. The company says the new infrastructure increases its ability to supply backup power to the area, and not only will decrease the number of electric outages but will also improve restoration times when they occur.

“Hampden is where National Grid’s main trunk is located,” Flynn noted. “The new substation will generate $250,000 in tax revenue, and the company told us they plan to add to it every year.”

Hampden is also building a new, $3 million police station on Allen Street. The 5,000-square-foot building will be paid for with a 20-year bond, and is expected to be completed next month. It will replace the current, 900-square-foot station in Town Hall which is sorely inadequate and doesn’t allow for any privacy because other town offices share the same hallway.

Flynn said town officials explored the possibility of building a new station for more than a decade before voters finally cast ballots in favor of the project, but every effort was made to explore costs and viability before the concept was presented to residents at a town meeting.

“We assembled a building committee that went over every detail very carefully. The committee was made up of residents as it’s their money,” Flynn said, referring again to Hampden’s close-knit community and the way information is shared and decisions are made.

Continued Progress

Flynn said the town’s current focus is a half-mile strip on Main Street that needs revitalization. Opportunities for businesses exist there: Hampden Hardware is for sale, and a nearby Cumberland Farms property has been vacant for at least 15 years.

“Both properties overlook the Scantic River,” Flynn said, explaining that the Board of Selectmen recently sought help from state Sen. Eric Lesser to apply for a business-development grant to help bring new life to the area.

“But we take a team approach to everything we do; we hold frequent public meetings, and if we all don’t agree, a project doesn’t happen,” he noted.

In addition, the Community Preservation Committee has consistently spent money to acquire and preserve land, which is something town residents support.

The majority of properties Hampden has acquired were brought to the town’s attention by the Minnechaug Land Trust, a non-profit agency run entirely by volunteers who administer and maintain Minnechaug Mountain and Goat Rock Trail in Hampden, as well as two properties in Wilbraham.

Flynn told BusinessWest that the group coordinates with the state to put together packages that allow the town to acquire land for preservation and conservation.

“Although we don’t gain any tax revenue from these properties, they help to maintain the intangible character of the town,” he said.

Boyd noted that Memorial Park sits directly across from the vacant Cumberland Farms property, and the Parks and Recreation Department has spruced up the playing fields, built a new pavilion, replaced an old playscape, and built a thriving summer program around the spray park on the property.

“Usage is up, and a group of people would like to see the town improve that area of Main Street to keep the good things going that are happening at the park,” he said, adding that, thanks to the Minnechaug Land Trust, the town acquired two parcels of land adjacent to the park, and resident Charles Thompson has volunteered his time to blaze new trails, improve rudimentary ones that existed, and maintain them on a continuing basis.

Laughing Brook is also in conversation with the town to launch a capital campaign to build a new pavilion, and Flynn said the nature preserve continually expands its menu of programs and events.

Hampden is also making a significant investment in its infrastructure. Three years ago residents voted to spend $2 million over a five-year period to rebuild their roads; and Hampden and East Longmeadow recently joined together to submit a grant application to the state through the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission.

Any money gained will be divided between the towns, but Flynn said Hampden could use its share to install sidewalks, because there is only one existing sidewalk in the town.

Another development kicked off in 2014 when Bethlehem Baptist Church on 216 Allen St. acquired a parcel of land directly across from it. It built a new, $6 million, 35,000-square-foot church on the site that opened last fall; it seats 625 people and houses a café, activity center, children’s wing, adult-education wing, and section dedicated to middle- and high-school age youth.

Life Church purchased Bethlehem’s former building, and although it won’t bring in any new tax revenue, said Boyd, “it’s a productive use of the property.”

The key to Hampden is balanced growth, which officials and residents strive to achieve while maintaining the character of the town and strong sense of community that has been its trademark for generations.

“Our town is well-governed, efficient, and responsive, and if someone has a problem, it’s not difficult to find the right person to address it. And many, many residents, including myself, volunteer to help,” Boyd said. “It’s not always easy in today’s busy world to make the effort, but we have a lot of people willing to do it.”

Hampden at a glance

Year Incorporated: 1878
Population: 5,139 (2010)
Area: 19.7 square miles
County: Hampden
Residential Tax Rate: $19.36
Commercial Tax Rate: $19.36
Median Household Income: $80,751 (2013)
Family Household Income: $90,688 (2013)
Type of government: Board of Selectmen
Largest Employers: Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District, Rediker Software Inc., Hampden Police Department
Latest information available

An Inspiring Public-private Partnership

By
Opinion

Editorial

There are a number of intriguing economic-development projects underway across the Pioneer Valley, but perhaps none more compelling — and for a number of reasons — than the initiative taking shape in a building in downtown Holyoke known as the Cubit.

There, a public-private partnership on several levels has materialized, bringing to reality an endeavor that will create momentum in realms ranging from job creation to the revitalization of Holyoke’s central business district.

The facility being created on the structure’s first and second floors is called the MGM Resorts HCC Center for Hospitality and Culinary Arts at Holyoke. That’s a long name (hopefully a suitable acronym or nickname will emerge), but it is necessary, because it really tells the story — or most of it, anyway.

Indeed, this is a partnership between Holyoke Community College (and therefore the state); the city of Holyoke; MGM Resorts, which is building a $950 million casino in downtown Springfield; and the new owners of the Cubit building, who will create market-rate housing on its upper floors. And it takes a partnership to develop a property like this, which is one of many former mill buildings in the Paper City now looking for new life.

The college needed a new home for its culinary arts program, the owners of the Cubit building were looking for a tenant that would anchor the property for years to come, the city of Holyoke was looking for individuals to invest in their community (and help them in their endeavors), and MGM was looking for help in training individuals for the many kinds of jobs at its casino.

To make a long story short, all the parties seem to have found what they were looking for. Holyoke is contributing $400,000 for this project from the funds it will receive from MGM through neighboring community-impact payments, MGM is donating an additional $100,000 toward the center, the state is contributing $1.75 million, the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration is kicking in $1.55 million, and the HCC Foundation is contributing $500,000.

Together, that adds up to $4.25 million, but more importantly, it adds up to opportunity — for the college, for the city, for MGM, and for the thousands of people who will be trained at the facility over the years.

There will be several winners in this endeavor, especially the city of Holyoke itself. The city has made marked progress in reinventing itself in recent years, but it still has a ways to go. The keys to a full resurgence are obvious, and you’ve heard them many times: in short, the community has to position itself as a place where people want to live, work, and start a business.

The Cubit project will hopefully attract young professionals and empty-nesters and create momentum for more projects of this type. But, as mentioned, it needed that anchor to make the project economically viable.

This is a true public-private partnership, the kind this region will need to revitalize its communities, train a workforce, and bring economic-development opportunities to the area. It should serve as a model of what can be done when diverse groups with different, but intertwined, goals come together for the common good. v

Taking a Step Backward

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Opinion

Opinion

By Brad MacDougall

The Massachusetts Senate took a dramatic step backward recently on non-compete agreements, passing Draconian restrictions that would effectively end of the use of the documents in the Bay State.

The Senate passed by voice vote a measure that would limit non-compete agreements to three months and require employers to pay the full salary of the former employee during the restricted period.

The bill would exempt anyone earning $130,000 or less from non-competes.

The Senate measure stands in marked contrast to a compromise version passed by the House in late June that allows one-year non-competes and not require companies that compensate employees at the time they sign non-competes to pay them again during the restricted period.

Lawmakers will have to reconcile all those differences before the session ends on July 31 if a non-compete bill is to become law.

“Employers support the House bill, period,” said John Regan, executive vice president of Government Affairs at AIM.

“House leaders worked with people on all sides of the issue and came up with a reasonable compromise that protects the rights of both employers and workers,” he said. “The idea that you would now compromise a compromise makes no sense.”

Employers believe selective use of non-competes protects the significant investments that allow their companies to be global leaders in their industries and to create jobs in the commonwealth.  The compromise legislation begins to recognize that Massachusetts employers need flexibility and legal options to protect intellectual property.

AIM continues to maintain that there is no evidence that the use of non-compete agreements harms Massachusetts’ position as a globally recognized leader in innovation. In fact, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings indicate that the well-heeled venture capitalists pushing to limit non-competes use such agreements themselves.

Employers have articulated several provisions that would be required for them to support a bill limiting non-competes:

• Minimum one-year duration;
• A “garden leave” provision that requires the employer to pay 50% of the employees’ prorated salary during the restricted period, or other mutually-agreed upon compensation;
• Maintaining and clarifying the ability of a court to reform or alter non-compete contracts to ensure that both parties are treated fairly;
• Those subject to non-compete agreements would have to be given prior notice of the need to sign the agreement, as well as the opportunity to consult with legal counsel; and
• The non-compete would extend to a second year should an employee unlawfully take property belonging to the employer, as included in the House version.

Hopefully, these provisions will become part of the final measure.

Brad MacDougall is vice president of Government Affairs with Associated Industries of Mass. (A.I.M.)

New Westfield State Leader Is Focused on Student Success

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Education Sections

Study in Strategic Thinking

Ramon Torrecilha

Ramon Torrecilha

Ramon Torrecilha took the helm at Westfield State University in late January. Well before he arrived, he understood that the school and its many constituencies were poised to move forward and get to the next level. Since arriving, he’s only become more convinced that the institution is ready to make a positive leap. The challenge ahead is taking the ambitious goals that the school has put down on paper and making them reality.

Ramon Torrecilha recalls that, maybe 15 months or so ago, he was a candidate for a number of advertised college presidents’ positions in several states.

But upon visiting the Westfield State University campus and talking with members of several constituencies there, he decided to drop out of several of those other searches, including the one taking place at another school in the Bay State. When asked why, he started with a quick answer that required a lengthy explanation.

“It was that kind of institution,” he told BusinessWest, using that phrase to describe what he encountered as a student at Portland (Oregon) State University in the early ’80s. Like other schools at the time, it was suffering budget difficulties and undergoing staff reductions. The faculty that remained were dedicated and singularly focused on student success, he recalled.

“The relationship I was able to develop with faculty allowed me to have a transformative experience at Portland State,” he recalled. “And when I looked around here, I felt that Westfield State was very similar in that regard. You get a strong sense of community here.

“We’re student-centered; our faculty members are committed teachers, stellar researchers, and faculty that cares about student engagement,” he went on, clearly proud to shift the tense of his remarks to the present, and thus use terms like ‘we’ and ‘our.’ “So there was an alignment between myself and the kind of institution I was looking for, and Westfield State University.”

Beyond these characteristics, though, Torrecilha, who knew very little about the school before his first visit and was diligent in his “discovery process,” noted that there was something else about the institution that became apparent — and appealing — to him.

 Go HERE for a list of Colleges in Western Mass.

“The sense I got was that the institution was really ready to move forward — it was ready for the next stage,” he said, using a phrase with many applications.

For starters, it meant moving on from the controversy, and statewide negative press, that accompanied the ouster of his predecessor, Evan Dobelle, amid reports of extravagant and reckless spending practices — although Torrecilha believes the school has, by and large, already done that.

“There was an interim president in place [Elizabeth Preston] for two full years, and she did a tremendous job of stabilizing the institution,” he explained. “Westfield State is a very resilient institution; it has what we call good institutional bones. It showed to the higher-education community that it was much, much stronger than a hiccup in leadership.”

But that next stage also refers to a host of other initiatives at this school of roughly 6,000 students, from expanding programs, especially in healthcare, to broadening graduate programs and generating more momentum in regional and statewide efforts to get more people into college and then successfully on to completion of a degree program.

the state university

Ramon Torrecilha says he wants to make Westfield and the state university within it true destinations.

A sociologist by trade, Torrecilha will bring to his new position a deep understanding of multiculturalism and the issues confronting different demographic groups, but also his own opinions on how college presidents should approach their work, one forged through roughly a quarter-century in academia.

“When you think about it, presidents don’t run anything — presidents provide a sense of direction, identify priorities for the institution, and provide a vision and a map for how we’re going to get there,” he explained. “But it’s really the faculty and staff that run the place, so understanding how to do this and understanding the organizational psychology of the institution becomes really important in the presidency.”

For this issue and its focus on education, BusinessWest talked at length with Torrecilha about his decision to take his career 3,000 miles to the north and east, and how he intends to lead efforts to draft that road map for taking this 178-year-old institution to the proverbial next stage.

Course of Action

Visitors to the president’s office at WSU — and a host of other spots on campus, for that matter — can pick up some intriguing reading material if they are so inclined.

Indeed, in an effort to fully communicate what he has seen, heard, and learned since arriving on campus in January — and also to set a tone for what he wants to happen next — Torrecilha has printed a compendium that details it all.

It’s called the “President’s First 100 Days Report,” with the working subtitle “Vision for a Model, Comprehensive Public Institution.” And it includes everything from a detailed accounting of the new president’s meetings since he took the helm — 102 with direct reports, 84 with campus constituents, 11 with the Westfield State Foundation, and five at alumni events, for example — to the results of an extensive survey of students, faculty, and staff.

Torrecilha said the purpose of the report was to put down in black and white (and a host of colors as well) the sentiments he expressed about where the school is and where he and those various constituents want it to go, and also state the basic tenets of a new strategic plan for the school.

That plan will have a number of key bullet points, including stated goals common to all of the Commonwealth’s public schools — increasing retention, improving graduation rates, and decreasing the so-called ‘achievement gap’ among state residents of different demographic groups. But there will be some more specific planks as well.

Ramon Torrecilha

Ramon Torrecilha has been meeting with a host of constituencies since his arrival in January.

These include a broad push to strategically grow graduate programs, which will in turn provide financial and other sources of support for undergraduate programs; better engage alumni, many of whom go on to live and work in the Bay State upon graduation; and strengthening ties to the community, meaning both the host city and the region as a whole.

“Achieving student success does not come from just one mind,” Torrecilha writes in the report. “Currently, we possess the brushstrokes of a vision. But decisions about how we are going to achieve our goals is ongoing. The process is fluid and organic, and relies on collaboration from students, faculty, staff, and other partners.”

Roughly translating this passage, Torrecilha acknowledged that it’s one thing to put goals, aspirations, and visions down on paper. Making them reality is quite another.

“The next fiscal year will bring the hard work of taking ideas on paper and making them happen,” he explained, adding that the overarching goal, or assignment, is to make Westfield and the university there a true destination.

He believes the university’s ready — and he’s ready — to do just that.

And he’ll bring to the task a broad résumé of experience, one that includes everything from experience in the classroom to a host of administrative positions.

Our story starts at Portland State, where Torrecilha majored in sociology and became inspired by a faculty member to get the graduate degrees needed to teach that subject, which he did, with first a master’s at Portland State and then at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, which had one of the nation’s top programs in that field.

Achieving student success does not come from just one mind. Currently, we possess the brushstrokes of a vision. But decisions about how we are going to achieve our goals is ongoing. The process is fluid and organic, and relies on collaboration from students, faculty, staff, and other partners.”

His specific fields of study were demography, poverty, and socioeconomic developments, and this would shape his teaching, starting at Berkeley College in New York, where he taught, among other things, a course titled “Minority Groups.”

In the course of doing so, he essentially refocused it — on sociological concepts, rather than specific demographic groups. He eventually wrote a paper with a graduate student on how to redesign such courses nationally, and it caught the attention of the American Sociological Assoc.

“The next thing I knew, they called me and said, ‘come to Washington and help us think about how to fuse multiculturalism into the curriculum,” he told BusinessWest, adding that this began a stint as director of something called the Minority Fellowship Program and Minority Opportunities Through School Transformation.

From there, he went to the Social Science Research Council in New York, working specifically as director of the Public Policy Research Program on Contemporary Hispanic Issues, before shifting back to higher education and a stint first as director of Multicultural Programs at Mills College and then executive vice president of the Oakland, Calif. School.

He then served as provost and executive vice president at Berkeley College, before returning to Mills College and service in a variety of roles, including interim president. His most recent stop was as provost at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

By 1993, he said, he had made becoming a college president his stated goal, and he spent his career preparing himself for that eventuality.

“In academia, you have to sort of expose yourself to different things and have jobs in the many divisions that form a university,” he explained, “in order for you to harness the know-how and understanding of the different parts of the institution, and the sector.”

Which brings us back to last spring, and his decision to pull out of several presidential searches and focus on WSU.

Degrees of Momentum

Torrecilha said this choice came down to a word many use upon making a career decision of this kind: fit.

“In higher education, the question of fit, both from the standpoint of the candidate and the standpoint of the institution, becomes an important consideration,” he explained, adding that, in all matters that mattered to him, the fit was ideal.

He was looking for a school with a student-centered focus, and the school was looking for someone willing to make a substantial commitment to the school and the host city — and spent a year considering more than 400 candidates to find such an individual.

By commitment, Torrecilha said a stay that would be at least seven or eight years, out of necessity. “It takes that long for someone to really put some strategic initiatives down and then make them happen.”

As he talked about how he intends to go about meeting the goals set down in his first major communiqué to the WSU campus, Torrecilha said he will bring to the task an attitude, or mindset, far different than that of his controversial predecessor.

Summing it up, he said it comes down to putting the school, and especially its students, first — always. This sounds simple and quite obvious, he said, but some college and university presidents tend to forget this basic premise and make it about them.

“I want to serve as the president, but not be the presidency,” he said, choosing those words carefully. “It’s not about me, and as a sociologist I understand the differentiation.

“You bring to the job qualities that allow you to create that road map and enable you to work with members of the community,” he went on. “But you have to be able to put yourself on the side and think institutionally: ‘what’s the best thing for the institution?’ You have to remove personalities from that process.”

This is the approach Torrecilha says he will take to the various initiatives outlined in his “First 100 Days” report. These include efforts to expand and enhance graduate programs, thus making the school more of that destination he described, and for more types of students.

Ramon Torrecilha with the WSU soccer team

Ramon Torrecilha with the WSU soccer team

This strategic step will also help not only with broadening the school’s reputation — it has been known throughout its history as a teachers’ college, and more recently for criminal justice — but also in withstanding certain demographic shifts (something Torrecilha obviously understands) and especially smaller high-school graduating classes for the foreseeable future.

“Birth rates are declining, and the numbers of traditional college students are going down, and for this reason, most of our growth is going to come at the graduate level,” he said, citing, as one example, a new physician assistant master’s-degree program, the first of its kind for a public school in the state.

But those smaller high-school graduation classes means WSU, like all the other public schools in the Bay State, will have to become more diligent about helping students — traditional and non-traditional alike — enter college and then leave it with a degree.

This challenge explains many of the affiliation agreements between WSU and the area’s community colleges — programs that facilitate moving on to the four-year institution — and also why Torrecilha is a strong supporter of the state’s Commonwealth Commitment program, which incentivizes individuals (through rebates on tuition and fees) to enter a community college, graduate in two and a half years or less, move on to one of the state universities or UMass campuses, and wrap up a baccalaureate degree in no more than four and a half years.

When asked about the challenges WSU would face if a large number of students took the state up on its offer, Torrecilha replied simply, “that would be a really good problem to have.”

Applying Lessons

He was speaking about the state, the business community, and area cities and towns that would benefit from having a better-trained workforce. But he was also speaking about the state’s public schools and especially WSU, which embraces its role in training individuals for a global, technology-driven economy.

This is part of that ‘moving forward’ and ‘moving to the next stage’ vibe, for lack of a better word, that Torrecilha experienced when he first visited the campus on Western Avenue.

That vibe was a big factor in prompting him to take his name out of consideration for other presidents’ jobs and focus his sights on WSU. And it’s one he believes will take the school to the various destinations on the road map he’s helping to create.

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

Elms Unveils Its Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership

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Education Sections

Building a Launchpad

Isiah Odunlami

Isiah Odunlami will be among the attendees at the first Startup Lean Weekend, staged by Elms College’s Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership.

Isiah Odunlami is an accountant by trade, currently handling audit and tax work for Springfield-based Moriarty & Primack. He enjoys the work, and, like most in this field, finds the ability to help clients grasp issues and solve specific problems quite rewarding.

But while he’s obviously an accomplished ‘numbers guy,’ ‘bean counter,’ or whatever else one chooses to call those in this field, he believes he has other talents — as a leader, role model, and motivator.

He’s done a few motivational talks, including some before young people in his hometown of Providence, R.I., and recently pieced together a video that enables him to put some of his thoughts, or messages, as he prefers to call them, before potentially much larger audiences.

“It still needs some work, to be sure,” he said of that video, adding quickly that many have already seen it and been moved by it — so much so that he is advancing and escalating thoughts of turning these talents into a business venture. And to do that, he knows he needs contacts, support, advice, direction, and some kind of affirmation that this is something he can sell.

His quest for all the above will bring him to the Elms College campus in Chicopee on July 29 for something called the Startup Lean Weekend (subtitled “Creating Customers and Value”), which is aptly named.

Indeed, this is a full weekend of programs, designed for people who are just getting started, and focused on the Lean Launchpad concept, which involves accelerating the traditional startup method of creating a business plan and then launching a venture from it.

 Click HERE for a list of area Colleges with MBA Programs

It is the first initiative of the Elms College Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL), which was created for … well, people like Odunlami. These are individuals and teams who are not quite ready for prime time as entrepreneurs and, therefore, a group like Valley Venture Mentors (VVM) and its accelerator program, designed for companies with developed concepts and, in most cases, already-established businesses.

But they do have ideas, said Amanda Garcia, CPA, director of the CEL and an associate professor of accounting at Elms, adding quickly that many don’t know whether that idea will sell, how it can be sold, and to whom. And they need to find these things out before they invest significant amounts of time, money, and sweat in that concept.

“Research shows that 42% of startups fail because of a lack of product-market fit,” she explained. “What the Startup Lean Weekend will help people do is flush out an idea and determine if there’s a market for it before they spend a lot of money.”

Amanda Garcia

Amanda Garcia says the basic mission behind the CEL is to help those with entrepreneurial energy “fail less.”

The program will feature a host of specific programs, which all take the form of learning opportunities, networking platforms, or both, said Garcia, listing everything from an “idea jam” to a business pitch competition to a networking dinner. By the time it’s over, participants — and the college is expecting about 30 of them — will have a much better idea of whether there is a market for their concept and how to take that idea forward.

Over the course of the next year, there will be other forms of programming, including a Lean Launchpad course, which will take participants down the pathway of building an idea into a venture, as well as other classes on subjects ranging from marketing to financial planning (more on all this later).

Both Garcia and Nancy Davis, business development specialist for the CEL and Elms’ MBA program, acknowledged that there is a great deal of energy in the region concerning entrepreneurship and educational programs focused on this subject. The emerging goal at Elms was to be part of this movement, while not duplicating any of the efforts taking place at other colleges and universities, or within organizations such as VVM and the Grinspoon Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Initiative.

With that goal in mind, school officials met with these various players, asking questions and listening very carefully to the answers. What emerged was a desire to meet noted gaps in programming, and, eventually, a vehicle for doing so — the CEL.

For this issue and its focus on education, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at this initiative and how those at Elms believe it will be a valuable addition to what is becoming a bourgeoning entrepreneurial ecosystem in the region.

The Idea Is Ideas

As she talked about the CEL, Davis said the name was chosen carefully. It reflects a desire for this new program to focus on entrepreneurship, leadership, and how these skills are intertwined in many ways.

And this brings her back to those many discussions that were had, not only with other colleges and agencies like VVM, but also with those administering the region’s many leadership programs. What came out of those talks was a need for something that wasn’t a four-year degree program, but could help individuals (again, like Odunlami) who have some entrepreneurial energy and could use some help with tapping it.

Putting things another, more colorful way, Garcia said the CEL, and especially its Lean Launchpad weekend and course, will help individuals “fail less,” and save money in the process.

Elaborating, she reiterated that the Elms initiative is, as the name implies, a center for entrepreneurship. It features a full portfolio of programs, from degrees and certificates in entrepreneurship to workshops, to the Startup Lean Weekend (there will be four of them over the next year).

They are designed, said Garcia, for people who have an idea but not a business, or those who have a business and may want to expand it or take it in new directions and need to know if these plans have merit.

Nancy Davis

Nancy Davis says Elms created the CEL with the broad goal of bringing still another dimension to the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

In addition to the Startup Lean Weekend, there will be a CEL Lean Program, an eight-week course focused on subjects ranging from keeping and growing a customer base to creating a revenue model, to defining one’s value proposition. There are also several CEL graduate-program tracks involving accounting and financial planning.

While Elms doesn’t want to duplicate the efforts of other groups involved with entrepreneurship, it does want to partner with them, and there should be plenty of opportunities to do just that, said Garcia.

“Some people aren’t ready for VVM and its accelerator, and this program would be great for them,” she said. “And there’s an opportunity for them to work through their idea and apply to the accelerator for further experience or launch. There are many opportunities for partnership — with us sending people to them, and them sending people to us.”

The solid response to the first Startup Lean Weekend is encouraging, said Davis, adding that it verifies the need for such programming. She said she doesn’t have a firm profile of those who have signed up yet, but knows there is strong interest among Elms alums (Odunlami is one of them) who have an entrepreneurial bent.

This includes many graduates of the school’s health programs, said Garcia, noting that many are looking to open or expand practices in various fields and could look to the CEL and its various forms of programming for help.

“I think that area will grow quickly for us,” she explained. “We have a master’s in nursing and a master’s in business, and there are a lot of entrepreneurial minds there.”

As for Odunlami, he knows there is a need for his motivational speaking and writings, especially when it comes to young people. “We need to nourish our youth — they’re the ones who are going to be running the world,” he explained. “And if we can give positive messages to these people, who’s to say how great our country, and this world, can be? It starts with one young person and continues from there.”

What he doesn’t know if he can convert his desire to meet this need into a successful venture. But he intends to find out.

Venturing Out

There’s a new billboard greeting motorists heading south on I-91, one with a simple message that sums up the CEL.

“Starting a Business? Start at Elms” is the headline in bold type, and it speaks volumes about how the school intends to become an important player in efforts to harness the entrepreneurial energy in the region and help those with ideas, well, fail less.

Elms has practiced what it now preaches; it did exhaustive research and determined that there was a need within the market and a desire for it to be filled, and it has launched what can only be called a business venture itself with great optimism.

That’s because there are many people like Isiah Odunlami, who need a better idea about whether — and how — their idea will fly.

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

New Spin on Bowling Helps Keep Sport Alive

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BowlingFeature0716b
Sections Sports & Leisure

Strike Force

Jeff Bennett, general manager of AMF Chicopee Lanes

Jeff Bennett, general manager of AMF Chicopee Lanes, says there has been a seismic shift in the bowling industry in recent years.

Those who haven’t been in a bowling alley in decades probably wouldn’t recognize today’s centers. There are strobe lights and black lights, disc jockeys, and fine food. These are just some of the adjustments center owners have made to bring people to their doors and, more importantly, bring them back.

It is late Friday night at Shaker Bowl in East Longmeadow — or ‘Galactic Bowl’ time, as it has come to be called.

The lanes are lined with tiny rope lights, and bouncing colored-light orbs dance on the walls and floor as a disc jockey plays tunes and bowlers enjoy drinks from the bar or food from the recently expanded menu. There are also prizes awarded each night in the form of discount coupons for return visits.

“The people who are here come to hear the music and have a good time. It’s a different atmosphere – more of a nightclub feel,” said Justin Godfrey, general manager of the operation.

This scene, and Godfrey’s words, speak to just how much the business of bowling — not the game, really — has changed over the decades and especially the past several years.

Indeed, where once people came to bowl, and the only thing those who owned such establishments had to do to bring in business was unlock the front door, now there’s … Galactic Bowl and a whole host of initiatives like it. And they are the new reality.

Today, there are fewer bowling lanes in operation than even a decade ago, and those still in business would be somewhat unrecognizable to those who grew up on the game in the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s. Now, the lanes have black lights and strobe lights. There are music videos or disc jockeys on weekend nights to appeal to young people looking for a place to socialize with their friends. Arcade games have become a staple, and food and beverage sales figure prominently as a source of income.

Bowling, it seems, is not the thing people come to do — it’s something else they come to do.

“There has been a huge shift in the bowling business,” said Jeff Bennett, general manager at AMF Chicopee Lanes, who has been involved with the industry since the ’80s.

He noted that AMF bowling centers represent the largest operation of its type in the world, and today, some are set up more like lounges and don’t cater to leagues, which were once the backbone of the business. “They’re designed for folks who want to make food and drink as much a part of their experience as bowling.

“Centers used to have double shifts on weeknights for league play; one would start at 6 p.m., and another would begin when the first league finished at 8:30,” he went on. “Years ago, many people bowled three to four times a week; they belonged to a men’s or ladies’ league as well as a couple’s league, and food and drink only accounted for 10 to 15% of a center’s revenue.”

Jon Roberts, left, and Jim Feeley

Jon Roberts, left, and Jim Feeley are committed to making needed adjustments at Agawam Bowl, one of the few remaining candlepin facilities.

Jim Feeley, who grew up bowling and watched it every Saturday on TV, made similar observations. “When I was a youngster and young adult, I was glued to the TV set when candlepin bowling was on,” said the manager of Agawam Bowl, a candlepin operation.

He bowled on a sanctioned team at Springfield Technical High School, and today he enjoys the sport with his son. But Feeley and others who have spent years in the business say people today are too busy to make long-term commitments to league bowling, and there are so many sports and activities for young and old alike that can be done year-round, that bowling no longer takes the lead when it comes to recreational pursuits.

“Owners have had to make big investments to improve conditions and the attractions they offer at bowling centers to stay in business,” Feeley said. “It’s not easy to do well today.”

But some operations are. These are the ones who have made the necessary adjustments — and the requisite investments.

For this issue and its focus on sports and leisure, BusinessWest looks at how the game — and the business — have changed, and the types of programs bowling centers have developed to attract patrons.

No Time to Spare

Erik Semb remembers when people used to line up at the door of French King Bowling Center in Erving, just east of Greenfield, in hopes of joining a bowling league.

Some of its busiest years were from 1987 to 1991, when 300 people bowled in leagues Monday through Friday. At that time, 80% of the business consisted of league play, and 20% was open play.

But today, those numbers have become reversed, not only at French King, but at all bowling operations, and Semb cites changing demographics, attitudes, and priorities as the main reasons why.

Three decades ago, all of the area factories, including Erving Paper Mills and Strathmore Paper Co., had leagues, he noted, but when those industries left town, went to swing shifts, or downsized, business began to plummet.

Meanwhile, today’s young professionals don’t have as much time for recreation as previous generations, or so the theory goes, and there is considerably more competition for what time they do have, he went on, listing everything from the Internet to ziplines.

“It’s a commitment, and people today are so busy today,” he said of bowling and especially league play. “The average person works longer and more hours than they did 20 years ago, and there are more women in the workforce.”

So, like most all bowling facilities, French King has made necessary changes, many of which have been successful.

These include everything from a focus on corporate outings — Dylan Chevrolet in Greenfield has hosted several there, for example — to leagues that play only every other week.

“We also have black-light bowling on Friday nights and all day Saturday and Sunday,” said Semb, adding that these steps are typical of what’s taking place across the industry.

“The industry is at a crossroads,” said Shaker Bowl’s Godfrey, noting that everything about the business is different, from how the game is presented to how it’s marketed to how operations are staffed.

Indeed, most bowling centers now have an event planner on staff, he said, adding that one is necessary to make sure that the many different types of gatherings that now take place are well-planned and well-executed.

“Marketing used to be mainly done for leagues, but now you need to invest in advertising just to get people in the door,” he told BusinessWest, citing another key change. “Arcade games are huge, and many centers are going after birthday parties or offering laser tag.”

“For most people, bowling is simply a night out and a social experience,” he went on, adding that only 5% to 10% of people who bowl do so competitively. “Our goal is to elevate the guest experience; we want to create memorable experiences for every guest on every visit; it’s become our mission.”

And it’s the mission for every bowling facility, because the game itself is not enough to bring people in.

Making the needed adjustments is difficult — and costly — and many operations simply haven’t been able to keep up, said those we spoke with.

There used to be about eight 10-pin bowling lanes locally, Bennette noted, but now there are only a handful, including AMF Chicopee Lanes. “There are none in Greenfield, one in Pittsfield and one in Great Barrington,” he said, adding that few candlepin bowling lanes exist in the area, and the ones that are still open are often small operations. “Their struggle is more mighty than the 10-pin centers.”

Candlepin bowling is almost strictly a New England and Canadian sport. The main difference between 10-pin and candlepin is that, in the latter form, each player uses three balls per frame rather than two; the balls are smaller, weigh less, and don’t have finger holes; the pins are thinner; and when they are downed they not cleared away between balls during a player’s turn.

Justin Godfrey

Justin Godfrey says aggressive marketing is necessary today to get people in the doors and attract new bowlers.

The average age of bowlers at AMF Chicopee Lanes is 25 to 45, and they usually bowl at least once a week. Many are there on weekend nights, when the average age is 25 to 35.

“We have music videos playing on screens over the lanes and black lighting. It’s a very upbeat atmosphere, and people are here for two to three hours, eating and drinking while they bowl,” Bennett said, adding that, generations ago, bowling centers were often empty on weekend nights.

AMF Chicopee has two men’s leagues on Friday nights that are very competitive and a few competitive women’s leagues, but they are the exception.

In general, there are very few men-only leagues, and the remaining women’s leagues are typically made up of senior citizens, although the number of mixed leagues has grown.

AMF Chicopee’s leagues have remained at the same levels they were at 15 years ago, but Bennett says that may be true because there are fewer centers today, and whenever one closes, many of its bowlers move to the remaining centers.

Knowing the Score

Jon Roberts purchased the building Agawam Bowl is housed in on April 1, and had no plans to continue the bowling operation, but decided to do so when he found how important it was to the community.

“There aren’t many candlepin lanes left, and one woman in the senior league has bowled here for more than 50 years,” he said, noting that candlepin centers in Westfield, Holyoke, and Springfield closed over the past several years; there were at least a dozen candlepin centers in Springfield alone decades ago.

His decision to keep the business going and make needed adjustments are steps reflective of those trying to make what amounts to a 7-10 split in this business.

He reconditioned the lanes and recently hired a marketing manager, he said, citing a few examples.

Agawam Bowl offers a number of summer programs, including a Friday Night Pizza League that people can join with no commitment — each person is assigned a handicap score, and each week teams are composed of bowlers who show up. At the end of the night, the top-scoring team gets free pizza courtesy of the other bowlers.

It also started a Summer Fun Bowling program; children have to rent shoes, but if they register, they can play two free games each week.

The program has been very successful: 1,400 young people are registered, and an additional 100 family passes have been sold.

Feeley said there has been a revival of interest in candlepin bowling in Eastern Mass., but owners everywhere have had to improve conditions and add attractions.

For example, the center in Wilmington, Vt., which that was rebuilt after it was devastated by Hurricane Irene, has added a restaurant and mini-golf course.

“We have had a pretty good summer and are trying to reestablish a youth group here, but have problems because so many kids have schedule conflicts,” he said, adding that they tried adding special effects such as lights and music, but it didn’t prove popular.

However, Agawam Bowl does host its share of corporate events and birthday parties.

“The game is not out of the woods, but I have hope for the future. There are people who want to continue to go bowling at a competitive level, but we need more families to start bowling,” Feeley said.

Bennett agreed. “The game’s inexpensive, and something people can do from age 2 to 102,” he said, adding that AMF Chicopee Lanes has an e-mail club that offers discounts several times a month and other special offers for people who sign up when they bowl.

“It’s a benefit for our loyal customers,” he went on. “Marketing has had to change to keep up with time and the demographics; today people can text and get coupons, so we run contests on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to keep in touch with young people. But our customer base is so broad that it takes a lot to keep in contact with people of all ages.”

Although the center used to target 25- to 40-year-olds, today, every age group has become a focus. There are ramps so people with handicaps can bowl, six-pound balls that can be pushed down the ramps by 3- and 4-year-olds (bumpers are put in the gutters to increase their chances of knocking down pins), and senior leagues with members in their 80s. “Millenials have fun here on Saturday nights, and we have programs that cater to all abilities and interest levels,” Bennett said.

AMF Chicopee is also the setting for many corporate outings and fund-raisers; it caters to eight to 10 groups a month and works with corporate planners to build special menus.

Semb says French King Bowling Center holds about two corporate events a month as well as a lot of Christmas and birthday parties. “When companies go out to dinner around the holidays, people usually only socialize with co-workers who sit next to them. But when they have a party here, everyone socializes with each other when they are not bowling,” he said.

Since it’s a candlepin center and the balls weigh only two pounds, six ounces, small children can enjoy it, and even preschool groups have gone to French King.

Next Generation

Although the scope of bowling has changed, many adults are introducing their children to the sport. Theresa Sherman was at Agawam Bowl with her two children, their friend, and her own friend Alicia Richter, who brought her 5-year-old daughter and 4-month-old to the lanes on a recent stifling hot day.

“My high school had a bowling program, and I came from a generation that bowled a lot and enjoyed it. My daughter is at a good age to start, so I definitely plan to bring her here more often,” Richter said.

Sherman recalled bowling lock-ins in high school, when students would spend the entire night in a center, bowling and eating pizza. “I bowl occasionally and came here when my son’s school sponsored a bowling night. We loved it and hadn’t known that there were candlepin bowling centers around here. But we discovered their summer program; the children love it, and it’s definitely a good family activity.”

Five-year-old Logan agreed. “It’s better than anything. The pins are like bad guys, and the balls are like power balls,” he said.

Indeed, although the reasons people bowl have changed, it’s still a sport and an activity which current and future generations can enjoy in a world where superstars and special effects reign.

Ramblewild Offers Adventures, Education Deep in the Forest

By
Sections Sports & Leisure

Return to Nature

Ramblewild’s aerial adventure park

There are eight courses in Ramblewild’s aerial adventure park for people to choose from, accommodating beginners to experts.

Few people ever get the opportunity to play high in the treetops.

But at Ramblewild LLC in Lanesborough, children and adults of all ages and abilities can swing through the forest like Tarzan, climb rope ladders, and encounter a series of challenging obstacles as they make their way through a series of 15 platforms connected by bridge elements set 15 to 50 feet high in the treetops.

Program Director and Operations Manager Luke Bloom says Ramblewild’s aerial adventure park is the largest of its kind in North America.
“When we built this, our goal was to reintroduce kids to nature in an exciting way,” he told BusinessWest. “Technology has become an appendage that consumes so much of everyone’s life, and this is the first generation of children who will have to seek out the solitude of nature on their own. We want to get them excited about being stewards of the forest, and they can see the beauty and relaxation it can provide while they’re here; there is so much that can be learned from the forest.”

The focal point of the park is a central platform rising 15 feet from the ground called the Hub, which is the starting point for eight different adventure courses or trails that meander from tree to tree at various heights throughout the forest.

“We have something for everyone,” said Bloom, noting, however, that children must be at least 7 years old and 55 inches tall to enter the park. “We’re set up like a ski area and have two courses for beginners, two for intermediates, two advanced trails, and two for experts.”

They include elements that range from high wires to ziplines, balancing logs, rope ladders, cargo nets, suspended bridges, and more; four of the courses cross a ravine via ziplines that swing people 100 feet above its bottom.

Although the aerial park is decidedly the crown jewel of Ramblewild, it is far more than a place to have fun. Feronia Forests owns the 1,450-acre property, and the company has chosen not to follow the typical approach taken by most foresting companies, which involves evaluating the trees as a commodity and selling their wood for profit.

Bloom says there are no plans to harvest the trees at Ramblewild for the next 30 to 50 years, although some may be taken down to maintain the overall health of the forest. Instead, four avenues are being used to make the land profitable while sustaining its natural beauty.

platforms

Some platforms in the treetops are joined together by suspended bridges.

The first avenue is recreation, which is provided at the aerial adventure park and through an extensive network of hiking and snowshoeing nature trails that begin at the lodge and wind their way over Brodie Mountain, showcasing a wide variety of flora and fauna.

The second is education; many schools bring classes to Ramblewild to get hands-on lessons about science and history. Their programs are aligned with national STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) applications as well as the Massachusetts Common Core state standards for grades 3 to 12.

“We like to look at this as one of the largest living laboratories in the Northeast. Most classes are already studying what they come here for, and our programs are custom-designed for each teacher,” Bloom said. A 120-acre sugar forest with 6,000 taps provides the raw material for a commercial maple-syrup business, which is the third avenue of business and economic development, while the fourth is providing jobs and vocational opportunities for people in the area.

“These programs all support each other and make Ramblewild a workable, functional place where we can turn a profit without cutting down trees,” Bloom told BusinessWest, adding that wind turbines at the top of Brodie Mountain are a visible display of the power that can be generated from natural resources and also provide lessons in renewable energy.

Sustainable Projects

The philosophy and concepts employed at Ramblewild were the brainchild of Paolo Cugnasca and his daughter, Valentina Cugnasca, who are the principal investors.

“When Valentina was a student at the University of San Francisco she wrote a doctoral thesis titled ‘Tree Hugging Capitalism,’” Bloom said, explaining that the ideas that make Ramblewild successful stem from her work.

Education is a critical component, and it’s based on silviculture, defined as the art and science of controlling the establishment, growth, composition, health, and quality of forests and woodlands to meet the diverse needs and values of landowners and society on a sustainable basis.

“When school and camp groups come here, we explain how we manage our open space compared to other foresting companies, how we get the most of the forest with the least amount of damage,” Bloom noted.

Classroom lessons typically last six hours. A physics class could study the idea of bodies in motion by using the ziplines, and a fifth-grade teacher could use the course for a geology lesson because glacial scarring can be seen from the top of the mountain. There are also opportunities for natural-history lessons, and Bloom said a high-school English teacher brought a class to Ramblewild to inspire students to write poetry.

“We have a stage in the adventure park and had a high school collaborate with area jazz musicians to conduct free concerts in the forest,” Bloom noted. “The potential here is literally unlimited in terms of applicable lessons, and we make things as easy as possible for teachers.”

ropeFor example, a third-grade class might visit Ramblewild during maple-sugaring season and learn how much science is involved in tapping a maple tree, as well as how to care for it and what takes place from the root structure up to the cellular level.

“The students feel the tree, put a tap in it, and are able to taste the sap, which is the tree’s lifeblood,” Bloom said. “It’s like clear water, and we talk about the evaporation process needed to turn it into maple syrup, which many people don’t know about; they think it comes out of the tree as sweetened syrup.

“When we say we’re the largest living laboratory, what we mean is that the forest is a place to hammer home lessons taught inside the classroom,” he continued. “It is infinitely more powerful when you can see something, touch it, smell it, and taste it. Studies have shown that people only retain 10% of what they hear, 50% of what they see, and 90% of what they do, and we operate under that onus: we want people outside seeing, tasting, smelling, and feeling the forest.”

Ramblewild sells light, medium, and dark maple syrup, and this year it began working with Hillrock Distillery in New York to produce maple-bourbon syrup.

Bloom explained that Hillrock is one of few in the country that produces whiskey from farm to bottle on the premises. It ages its whiskey in white oak barrels to turn it into bourbon, and Ramblewild purchases the used barrels, fills them with maple syrup, and ages it for 14 weeks before filtering it into bottles.

A group of campers from Smith College recently visited Ramblewild, and after learning about its full forestry program, they went for a hike in the sugar bush and were taught about that operation.

Berkshire Wind Co-op’s wind power project on top of Brodie Mountain, which consists of 13 wind turbines located on Ramblewild propery, is another place where students of all ages can experience nature in a unique way.

“We take them to a place where they can stand underneath a 320-foot tall wind turbine and talk about how it works and how kinetic energy is turned into electric energy, which is then returned to the grid for use by the consumer,” Bloom said. “It’s one thing to learn about it from a book and another to stand beneath one of these giants and see it firsthand. It’s pretty incredible.”

Classes have lunch at Ramblewild, and afternoons are spent at the aerial adventure park, playing in the treetops.

There is also a nonprofit division of the corporation called Feronia Forward whose sole purpose is to provide funding to allow more schools and students to participate in Ramblewild’s programs.

“A percentage of the price of every bottle of maple syrup we sell goes into the fund. The proceeds are often matched by investors, and over the last two years we have given more than $100,000 to school groups,” Bloom noted.

Dedicated Mission

It took four years for Ramblewild to become operational: three to procure the land and obtain the necessary permits, and a year to build the aerial adventure park.

“We’re in our third season and expect to make a profit this year. We stay very busy from June until after Columbus Day and expect to get about 20,000 visitors this year,” Bloom said.

The operation has five full-time employees but adds up to 40 additional staff during their busy season, which fulfills the goal of providing vocational opportunities for people living within a 100-mile radius.

In addition, every product used at Ramblewild comes from local businesses, including the raw materials needed to create the buildings and the aerial adventure park.

Ramblewild has been named a ‘B corporation’ for the past four years, which is an elite recognition given to companies that use business for the higher purpose of solving society’s most challenging problems. Only a handful of firms have earned the environmental distinction, as the standards are very stringent.

“Our ultimate goal is to be a place where families, teachers, and anyone interested in the forest can come, a place where they can disconnect from technology and reconnect with family and friends in an effort to educate the next generation about stewardship of the forest,” Bloom said. “We want them to claim responsibility for the environment, as if they don’t, no one else will. It’s our sole purpose, and we are proud of what we have created.”

That would be another world, high in the treetops and on top of Brodie Mountain, where it’s easy to forget the pressures of the modern world and find the extraordinary peace that nature can provide.

Center for EcoTechnology Marks 40 Years of Green Innovation

By
Environment and Engineering Sections

Sustaining Success

CET

From its inception in 1976, the Center for EcoTechnology has always responded to the needs of businesses when it comes to being more energy-efficient and reducing waste. But in many ways, the nonprofit has also been an innovator, introducing green-business concepts years before they would be considered mainstream. At a time when energy supply and climate change remain serious concerns, CET’s leaders believe the pace of change in this field will be even more intense over the next 40 years — and they’re helping to raise the next generation to meet those challenges.

In many ways, the 1970s was the birth of the modern environmental movement. The decade saw the first Earth Day, the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, and legislation in the form of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the National Energy Act.

And, of course, it was the decade when Americans wondered when they would run out of gas.

“We were a reaction to the oil crisis of the ’70s,” said John Majercak, president of the Center for Ecotechnology (CET), the Northampton-based nonprofit celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. “Everyone was worried about energy security.”

Instead of just fretting over this new normal, CET’s founders had an idea: to examine technologies and practices that could improve energy efficiency for businesses and reduce their environmental impact, all while increasing profits and raising quality of life.

John Majercak

John Majercak

“We started in the time of the oil embargo, and dependence on foreign oil was a major concern,” said Associate Director Nancy Nylen, who has been with CET since 1982. “There were environmental concerns as well, but this was before the conversation about climate change. Yet, the solutions were very similar. From the start, we were finding an intersection between what’s helpful for the environment and what’s practical and affordable so it can be adopted.”

At first, CET focused on energy conservation, in particular partnering with utility companies on the relatively new concept of ‘energy audits,’ whereby a consultant visits a home or business to talk about ways in which their building or operation could be revamped to save on energy costs.

“We were right on the cusp of that happening across the country,” Nylen said. “In Massachusetts, CET was really the one that got that started, the concept of going through a building and assessing opportunities for reducing energy and identifying waste. That was a new concept, and it was educational for the people; they really appreciated it. I run into people who remember us coming into their building 30 years ago.”

Other early initiatives included the development of a passive solar greenhouse at Berkshire Botanical Garden and Project SUEDE, a program that taught solar energy, energy-conservation theory, and carpentry to unemployed people, who then installed 31 solar space-heating systems in low-income households.

“We were looking to help people and businesses reduce their reliance on fossil fuels, and right from the start we were providing this information in a technical-assistance role and through one-on-one workshops and information sessions,” Nylen told BusinessWest. “We were much smaller then — four people, just a tiny organization working on a couple of programs.”

Go HERE for a chart of Environmental Services in the region

CET still conducts energy audits, helping homeowners and businesses understand the value of sustainable systems and educating them on the incentives available to make changes. But the organization, which now employs some 75 people, has become much more, expanding its mission into a host of new opportunities, from composting and food-waste reduction to recycling building materials through its EcoBuilding Bargains store in Springfield, just to name a few.

“If you look at what’s happened over the past 40 years, the pace of change has really accelerated; the whole environmental space has blown up,” Majercak said. “It’s really exciting and creates a ton of opportunities. It also means we have to keep on our toes to make sure we’re working in areas of the most need. Looking at the next 40 years, the pace of change will be even faster.”

For this issue’s focus on environment and engineering, BusinessWest visits with the leaders of a nonprofit that has been a leader, innovator, and model for the growing green-business industry, and how they expect their work to continue to evolve.

CET’s fellowship program,

From left, Claire Cuozzo, Brittney Topel, Kelsey Colpitts, Coryanne Mansell, and Diana Vazquez, the 2015-16 cohort of CET’s fellowship program, spent 10 months gaining experience to help them prepare for a career in the environmental field.

Dollars and Sense

CET has long used the slogan “we make green make sense,” stressing the intersections between environmental awareness, good business sense, and positive community impact. That goal has always been shaped in part by events outside the Commonwealth.

Take the ‘garbage barge’ of 1987, the vessel that carried 3,168 tons of New York trash — originally headed for a methane-production project in North Carolina but then rejected by that state’s officials — along the Atlantic coast and Gulf of Mexico, with no place to land.

“With the garbage barge, waste management and recycling became a huge issue,” Majercak said. “It galvanized the media and policy makers and organizations like CET, who started saying, ‘let’s do something about it.’ We worked to get the first recycling bylaws in the city of Springfield, and we helped towns and residents set up their first recycling programs. We also started working with businesses around recycling.”

Those efforts have grown significantly over the years, including a program — funded by the state Department of Environmental Protection — called RecyclingWorks in Massachusetts, through which CET offers technical advice and assistance to companies regarding recycling and composting waste.

“We’ve worked with hundreds and hundreds of businesses across Massachusetts,” he said. “We help them set up or improve their recycling or composting programs.”

That work is more important after the state passed a law in 2014 limiting the amount of food waste businesses may dispose of. “We’ve done some award-winning work in Massachusetts in places like Big Y, Whole Foods, and Stop & Shop, as well as lots and lots of restaurants and food manufacturers,” Majercak said. “We’re now doing similar work in Connecticut and looking to take it across New England.”

Nylen referred to such efforts as “innovating and mainstreaming,” the effort to identify the next big need or trend in green business and help popularize it. For Lorenzo Macaluso, it’s more about showing companies how such practices benefit them and their customers.

“For businesses, we’re really adept at understanding their needs and adapting opportunities for them, and then being a neutral solutions finder for them, whether we’re talking about recycling, composting, or energy-efficiency work,” said Macaluso, CET’s director of Green Business Services. “We’re not there to sell them on a product — we’re not going to install a specific type of boiler; we’re not going to compost the food waste ourselves. What we will do is say, ‘here are your options, here are the business implications, the costs, and the incentives.’”

In doing so, CET has worked with companies ranging from small shops to large entities like Big Y and Titeflex.

Nancy Nylen

Nancy Nylen says CET was born from a desire to help people reduce their reliance on fossil fuels, and that goal is still a driving force today.

“We’ve been working with Big Y for over 20 years, way before it was cool,” Macaluso said. “They’re now recycling and composting at all their stores in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and when you factor in the avoided costs of trash disposal and a little bit of revenue from the materials they’re recycling, it’s like a $3 million annual boost to the bottom line. For them, that’s a big deal. They’re also able to take that information about their savings — how they’re not throwing things into the trash, how much greenhouse gas they’re saving  — and share it with their customers.”

That public-information aspect is important for many CET clients, who recognize the popularity of green practices in what has long been a very progressive region. “They want to share the good work of what they’re doing. They can use that to market themselves, or just market internally, sharing the information with their employees.”

The bottom line benefits in other ways as well, Macaluso added. Insulation upgrades, air-quality improvements, and other efforts can also improve employee comfort, which in turn helps with productivity.

“Green business is now half of what we do. There’s so much potential in the commercial space,” Majercak said. “It’s a benefit to their business, and something their customers and shareholders expect. This whole world of greening your business has become pretty much mainstream. Not every business is going green, but the idea that it should happen is pretty well accepted.”

Second Life

Another success story at CET has been EcoBuilding Bargains, which began life as the ReStore in 2001 before undergoing a move and rebranding five years ago.

In its first incarnation on Albany Street in Springfield, the ReStore dealt in recycled building materials, aiming to save builders and do-it-yourselfers money while reducing the burden on landfills. A move to Warwick Street in 2011 involved a $900,000 energy retrofit on the existing building on that site — an example of CET practicing what it preached.

Those improvements began on the exterior of the building, including a white roof to deflect heat, and insulated panels lining the building that interlock in a way that seals out all air leakage. EcoBuilding Bargains also ‘superinsulated’ its roof, using insulation donated from MassMutual when that company installed a solar array on its roof.

In addition, the 3 million-BTU, oil-fired boiler in the basement was replaced with a 500,000-BTU gas unit, while infrared tube heaters located throughout the structure heat building occupants but not the air. The efficiency extends to lighting as well; much of the store features sensor-controlled lights that maintain a low level when no one is around them, but become brighter when someone walks in.

CET4RestoreMost importantly, though, EcoBuilding Bargains has met an ambitious goal set when it moved, doubling the amount of materials it recycles (and keeps out of landfills). Over the next couple of years, it will seek to increase that figure by another 50%.

“There’s a lot of opportunity — lots of stuff being thrown away, a lot of people on a budget who want to fix their homes affordably,” Majercak said. “What’s different now is that reuse is becoming trendy. This new generation of homeowners in their 20s and 30s really like this style of ‘upcycling’ and believe in the mission of upcycling. So we’re getting the bargain-hunting, weekend-warrior type of shopper, but also the mission-style shopper, too.”

CET has also found success in its Go Green Campaign, a three-year effort (2014-16) to help 80,000 people take green actions, reduce energy usage equivalent to taking 40,000 homes off the grid, lowering carbon emissions equivalent to taking 100,000 cars off the road, and creating $100 million in lifetime energy and waste savings for residents and business owners.

“A number of years ago, we decided to focus on measurable impact, to see if we’re doing a good job or not, and also to get people excited about working with us,” Majercak told BusinessWest. “We’ll meet or exceed all these goals by the end of the year. People say, ‘does it really make a difference if I start up a recycling program or change the lights in my house?’ Yes, it adds up over time; it makes a huge difference. And we’ll have new goals at the end of the year.”

These numbers are important because demonstrating impact is the most effective way to build public support for CET’s work, he went on. “They want to know we’re making good investments, and this is one way we can make the case to the community that supports us.”

The center is also making an effort to raise up the next generation of green innovators, through a fellowship program it launched five years ago. Five fellows per year — recent college graduates from across the U.S. — are chosen to work with CET for one year and receive training in environmental science, energy efficiency, waste reduction, and other aspects of green business. They’ve gone on to work at similarly minded nonprofits, and also corporations looking to go green.

“We see it as a way to develop tomorrow’s leaders. This generation is actually going to be responsible for how we deal with climate change,” Majercak said. “They’re super-bright, super-motivated, and when you interact with them, it gives you hope for the future. It’s a very exciting program.”

Nylen agreed. “We started with them doing primarily education and outreach. But it became clear they were really interested in different aspects of what we were doing at CET, helping with green businesses, helping with EcoBuildingBargains,” she said. “We saw it as a way to bring a new set of eyes to our work and be a training ground for new leaders. It’s been quite rewarding.”

Greener Landscape

Majercak is gratified when he surveys the business landscape in Massachusetts and recognizes how ingrained environmental concerns and energy efficiency have become in the Bay State, in industries ranging from architecture and construction to healthcare and food service.

“We love working here. We’re very fortunate to be where we are, with the amount of community support we get and the participation in the things we offer,” he said. “It’s a really phenomenal business community here in the Valley and Western Mass., and Massachusetts and New England in general — very forward-thinking and supportive of our work and very actively engaged, and that’s important because organizations like us need to show it’s possible so our work can be replicated elsewhere. And that’s certainly happening; people call from all over the country.”

Nylen agreed. “We’ve been in an environment in Massachusetts where policy has been beneficial to promoting energy efficiency, and we help bring that to different target audiences, whether homeowners or businesses.”

Majercak knows there’s plenty left to do. For one thing, the next 20 to 30 years will likely see more building retrofitting than new construction. Then there’s the looming threat of climate change, which, if the direst models come to pass, will force everyone to move more quickly toward more sustainable practices.

“If we want to be in a place where we have a low-carbon or no-carbon economy, that’s going to take a lot of work, a lot of innovation,” he said. “It’s going to take not just technology or policy, but getting it to work in the marketplace, getting people to actually practice the behavior, get businesses to make the change.

“It doesn’t matter whether you believe in climate change, or care,” he added. “Everyone knows that wasting energy is not a good thing. Businesses care about the bottom line. Homeowners don’t want to spend too much money. We do a lot of work educating the public on what the benefits are.”

The changing needs of businesses when it comes to green practices lends Nylen’s work a certain freshness, even after 34 years with CET.

“I feel fortunate to do this work as my profession, and to work on each of our new initiatives as they come along. That’s kept me really interested,” she said.

“I’ve always felt we were relevant, but it seems the work we do now is more urgent than ever before,” she added. “Whether we’re reducing costs, reducing waste, or reducing impact on the environment, we can usually find something that addresses what people are interested in. We meet people where they are.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Eric Nelson Takes the Helm at Westmass

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WestMassFeature 0716b
Commercial Real Estate Sections

Developing Interest

Eric Nelson

Eric Nelson

As Eric Nelson takes the reins at Westmass Area Development Corp., the agency’s ambitious Ludlow Mills project, which features economic-development opportunities on several levels, is entering an intriguing new stage. Meanwhile, Westmass is moving aggressively to answer the question ‘what’s next?’ — meaning everything from development of new sites to creation of a development-services arm to provide technical assistance to area cities and towns.

While he was pursuing his master’s degree in landscape architecture at UMass Amherst, Eric Nelson developed a keen interest in land planning and economic development, and eventually wrote his thesis on the adaptive reuse of historic mills.

Specifically, his work concentrated on the town of Uxbridge in the Blackstone River Valley south and east of Worcester, and several mills that had drawn the attention of the National Park Service, which would eventually create a national heritage corridor in the area marketed under the slogan “Birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution.”

One of Nelson’s focal points was the famed Stanley Woolen Mill in Uxbridge, which had a long history of manufacturing military uniforms, including those worn by Union soldiers during the Civil War. His work involved making recommendations to the park service on where and how to invest resources for this heritage corridor. It was rather involved work with many key considerations.

“You were looking at factors such as access, transportation, recreation, the integrity of the buildings, the opportunity for tourism, the opportunity for economic development, and much more,” he explained.

Fast-forward 25 years, and Nelson is tackling these very same issues again — this time on a much different stage and with much different stakes.

Indeed, as the recently named president and CEO of Westmass Area Development Corp., Nelson is overseeing a project with striking similarities to what he encountered in Uxbridge — the ongoing efforts to revitalize the Ludlow Mills, which Westmass acquired in 2011.

This initiative blends elements of economic development, which comes in many possible forms, as we’ll see, as well as access and recreation (a riverwalk is being created), and repurposing of a wide array of different buildings on the property.

“There are many similarities between the Blackstone Valley and Ludlow Mills — and a host of other mills in this region,” he explained. “In many instances, they’re on a river, and in a lot of cases, they’re brownfield sites; there are a great many challenges to reuse of these properties.”

But Ludlow Mills is only one piece of the Westmass portfolio, and one aspect of Nelson’s work to increase the agency’s presence in the region and its impact on overall economic development.

There are other properties to be developed, he told BusinessWest, including the Chicopee River Business Park, which has been a lingering source of frustration for Westmass and remains mostly vacant two decades after it opened. But Nelson sees reason for optimism.

“It’s a great location — it’s only two minutes from the Mass Pike, and it’s right off Route 291,” he said, adding that Westmass is considering a change to its strategic focus on the property, with a shift toward attracting potential suppliers to CRRC MA’s subway-car-manufacturing facility, now taking shape less than mile down the road.

aerial shot of Ludlow Mills

This aerial shot of Ludlow Mills shows the many different elements to this project — from mill redevelopment to river access to green acreage.

Beyond development of its properties, though, Westmass has become more aggressive, if that’s the right word, in efforts to become a resource for other agencies and entities involved in economic development, he noted.

As an example, Nelson cited the ongoing efforts to revitalize the property on Race Street in Holyoke known as the Cubit, because it takes that shape. This project has a number of players, he went on, including the state, the city, Holyoke Community College (which is relocating its culinary arts program there), and private developers. Westmass, and specifically now-former President and CEO Kenn Delude, has been lending technical assistance to bring the initiative together.

“We’re putting together what we call a development-services side of the house,” he explained. “A lot of area towns have resources, but they don’t have the staff; we can be of assistance to them with various development projects.”

For this issue and its focus on commercial real estate, BusinessWest talked at length with Nelson about his vision — for Westmass, Ludlow Mills, the Chicopee River park, and much more, and how he intends to bring it all into focus.

View to the Future

As he talked with BusinessWest in the conference room at the facilities housing Westmass at Westover Metropolitan Airport, Nelson paused to reference a stunning aerial photo of the Ludlow Mills project on one wall.

As he talked, his hand moved over various components of the project — from the land where the new HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of Western Massachusetts now sits (the photo is several years old) to the mill that Winn Development will soon be converting into senior housing; from the so-called Clock Tower building, for which Winn recently announced an ambitious mixed-used project, to the dozens of small block houses, some of which have since been razed; from the intended path of the riverwalk to 47 acres of undeveloped land on the property that constitutes still another key component of the initiative.

The exercise was effective in communicating everything from the importance of the project to the region to what it represents as a career opportunity.

“This is an extremely interesting project with lots of elements and moving parts,” he said. “And it’s significant on many levels — for the town, for the region, for job creation … it’s great to be part of this.”

Nelson, who came to Westmass in 2011 specifically to move the Ludlow Mills project off the drawing board, brings to his new assignment a broad résumé of job experience, with stints in everything from education to landscaping.

He started as a public-school teacher in Amherst, a job he eventually lost to budget cutbacks, and then went into business for himself in landscape construction, specifically the installation of patios, walkways, decks, and other features.

It was that work that eventually took him to UMass and pursuit of his master’s degree. After earning it, he went to work for SVE (Southern Vermont Engineering) Associates, a professional consulting firm specializing in engineering, surveying, and landscape architecture, rising in the ranks to senior project manager and director of the Greenfield office.

He was attracted to Westmass, and a vice president’s position there, specifically by the Ludlow Mills project, which appealed to him on a number of levels, but especially the promise to exercise many of his passions — from landscape architecture to economic development — in one project.

“Westmass was looking for someone to carry the vision out,” he explained. “And the job requirements meshed well with my background, talents, and interests.”

As president and CEO of Westmass, Nelson will see his time and energy parceled in several different directions — geographically and otherwise.

Indeed, the agency owns industrial parks in Agawam, East Longmeadow, and Hadley that are full or mostly full, and Chicopee River, which remains a mostly blank canvas, but one Nelson believes could finally become filled in.

One area has already become home to a solar farm, he explained, and efforts to make a parcel near Route 291 more visible from the highway should generate some momentum.

“I think that will generate a lot of interest because people driving by there don’t realize they can site their building there,” he said of that site work. “And I think that if we can get one company in there, others will follow.”

But Ludlow Mills is getting most of the headlines — and the bulk of Nelson’s attention at the moment.

Winn’s Clock Tower building project comprised the main announcement at the recent Developers Conference staged by the Economic Development Council of Western Mass., and many other components of the project are coming together.

Mill-10-Interior-Before

These before-and-after photos show progress being made in the work to convert one of the Ludlow Mills structures into senior housing.

These before-and-after photos show progress being made in the work to convert one of the Ludlow Mills structures into senior housing.

The property is no longer a brownfields site from a technical standpoint — most all contaminants have been remediated — and extensive infrastructure work, including new water and sewer connections, have made the complex far more appealing to developers.

Overall, the site has enormous potential for many different kinds of development, from the senior housing already taking shape to manufacturing, office, and even retail, he explained, adding that, with its various structures and green spaces, it can handle the needs of growing enterprises.

“We have small spaces that startups can rent,” he explained, “and when they get to the point where they need a manufacturing facility, we have the opportunity to offer them a piece of property they can build on.”

Ludlow Mills is roughly five years into a 20-year redevelopment effort, said Nelson, adding that the ongoing challenge is to determine the best uses for various properties moving forward, and facilitating efforts to develop them.

As one example, he returned to the aerial photo and pointed to one of the mills, this one with low (seven-foot) ceilings, which will ultimately make redevelopment quite challenging. Perhaps the best course for that structure is to raze it and create parking for other projects, he explained, adding that this is one of many decisions that will have to be made in the years to come.

Building Blocks

As he talked about Ludlow Mills, Nelson said this project wasn’t yet on ‘auto pilot,’ a phrase he used to describe a point where most pressing issues have been resolved and matters come down to attracting the development community to the property.

But it’s getting close.

And that means more of the agency’s time and energy can be put toward the intriguing question of what comes next.

There are many components to that answer, said Nelson, who started by saying that this region will soon have more inventory of land and properties to develop.

That’s because absorption of existing buildings, a trend (one less expensive than building new) that emerged and then accelerated in the years following the Great Recession, has continued unabated. And that inventory is dwindling.

“The economics of building new were not going to pencil out, because people were able to go buy an existing building at a big discount,” he explained, adding that this fundamental shift in many ways inspired a change in strategies at Westmass, one that prompted a unique project like Ludlow Mills rather than additional industrial-park development.

Go HERE for a listing of available Commercial Real Estate properties for sale and lease in Western Mass.

But if the pendulum isn’t already swinging back, it’s apparent that it soon will, to one extent or another, he went on, adding that, while the green space at Ludlow Mills can address some of the additional demand that will emerge, more land will be needed, for projects of all sizes.

“We’re at a curve in the road,” Nelson explained. “We need to plan ahead, and we need to start aggregating sites and getting sites ready, knowing that it takes three years to get them ready for building.”

He didn’t give any specifics about where the agency is currently looking for land that could be aggregated, but did say the search is on, and, as in years past, it will be undertaken with diligence and imagination.

Meanwhile, another answer to what comes next is that aforementioned development-services arm, which Nelson believes holds vast potential — for Westmass, but especially the region and individual communities.

He circled back to the Cubit project, and Holyoke Community College’s request for Westmass’ support, as an example of what’s possible.

“The leaders at HCC do what they do well — they run a college,” he explained. “But this is not their area of expertise, so they turned to us for help in deciding which building to go into, finding an architect, negotiating a lease, and, more importantly, going for grant funding.

“This meshed well with our skills and talents, and it’s job creation,” he went on, referring to the opportunities awaiting graduates of the culinary arts program. “I see this as a model that Westmass can develop for towns that don’t have staff.”

Milling About

Nelson admits that he pretty much lost track of his master’s thesis subject, the Stanley Woolen Mills. He did some research, though, and reported that progress was being made in redevelopment of those landmarks for new uses.

He has his own project to keep tabs on now, one that is in many ways similar to those Blackstone Valley initiatives, and in all ways important to the future of this region.

What was once a project undertaken in pursuit of a degree is now essentially his life’s work, a project that is well, a textbook example of generating economic-development activity.

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

Building Permits

By
Building Permits Departments

The following building permits were issued during the month of July 2016.

AGAWAM

Hope Community Church
152 South Westfield St.
$225,000 — Entry elevator lobby addition and alterations to existing building

H.P. Hood LLC
233 Main St.
$545,963 — Renovations

AMHERST

Norwottuck Fish & Game Assoc. Inc.
1352 West St.
$8,000 — Install microwave dish

Slobody Development Corp.
85 University Dr.
$199,830 — Erect commercial-use building with drive through

Woodgreen Amherst Limited Partnership
6 University Dr. 109
$5,000 — Renovations

HADLEY

Hampshire College
893 West St.
$2,587,334 — Installation of solar array in field “K” owned by Hampshire College

Parmar & Sons Inc.
239 Russell St.
$48,000 — New windows replacement and metal framed partition walls, new lighting

Pyramid Mall of Hadley NEWCO LLC
367 Russell St. — Auto Barn
$598,993 — Buildout new Auto Barn Store in space at Hampshire Mall

LUDLOW

Gremio Lusitano Club
385 Winsor St.
$17,100 — Reshingle

Midwoods Dairy Barn
329 West St.
$3,500 — Fence

Portuguese Comm. Cultural Center
33 Norwood St.
$9,000 — Siding

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Bertera Chrysler
539 Riverdale St.
$68,000 — Underpin existing foundation

Century Shopping Center
219 Memorial Ave.
$1,000 — Fit-up for Halloween retailer

Irish Cultural Center
429 Morgan Road
$96,427 — Renovations to existing building

WESTFIELD

J.W. Cowles Construction Inc.
219 Russellville Road
$3,521,160 — Installation of a 2.6-megawatt, ground-mounted solar facility

Demers Family Realty, LLC
227 East Main St.
$105,370,540 — Fire Damage Repair

Peabody-Westfield limited
126 Union St.
$46,000 — Convert Unit to AAB handicap accessible unit

Streamfield, LLC
303 East Main St.
$116,050 — Re-roof and interior alterations

Real Estate Transactions

By
Departments 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

BERNARDSTON

379 Brattleboro Road
Bernardston, MA 01337
Amount: $219,000
Buyer: Joseph Ruscio
Seller: Robert D. Gardner
Date: 06/22/16

BUCKLAND

74 East Buckland Road
Buckland, MA 01338
Amount: $276,000
Buyer: Nicholas P. Boivin
Seller: Judy A. Grader
Date: 06/13/16

CONWAY

326 Hart Road
Conway, MA 01341
Amount: $325,000
Buyer: Jessica E. Bryant
Seller: Mark W. Meunier
Date: 06/16/16

13 West Parsons Dr.
Conway, MA 01341
Amount: $239,161
Buyer: Wilmington Savings
Seller: Frank M. Glenowicz
Date: 06/14/16

DEERFIELD

9 Braeburn Road
Deerfield, MA 01373
Amount: $329,900
Buyer: Matthew S. Reopel
Seller: Mark Wightman
Date: 06/24/16

11 Eastern Ave.
Deerfield, MA 01373
Amount: $331,575
Buyer: William C. Wolf
Seller: Sara Pond-Cummings
Date: 06/15/16

60 Graves St.
Deerfield, MA 01373
Amount: $392,000
Buyer: Stephen W. Billias
Seller: Thornton C. Lockwood
Date: 06/13/16

5 North Hillside Road
Deerfield, MA 01373
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Thomas M. Richmond
Seller: Kim R. Phillips
Date: 06/24/16

77 North Hillside Road
Deerfield, MA 01373
Amount: $224,400
Buyer: Kevin C. Kolakoski
Seller: Andrew J. Black
Date: 06/21/16

136 North Hillside Road
Deerfield, MA 01373
Amount: $264,000
Buyer: Raymond E. Miller
Seller: Erik W. Wrisley
Date: 06/17/16

GREENFIELD

19 Carpenters Lane
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $137,000
Buyer: Victor L. Almeida
Seller: Chrystal Santos
Date: 06/24/16

79 Davis St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: 80 School Street LLC
Seller: Barbara A. Fingold
Date: 06/21/16

58 Haywood St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $158,500
Buyer: Wells Fargo Bank
Seller: Brian K. Rybinski
Date: 06/17/16

20-D Phyllis Lane
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $257,500
Buyer: Jacob G. Toomey
Seller: Timothy W. Petrin
Date: 06/17/16

76 School St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: 80 School Street LLC
Seller: Barbara A. Fingold
Date: 06/21/16

80 School St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: 80 School Street LLC
Seller: Barbara A. Fingold
Date: 06/21/16

136 Shelburne Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $199,500
Buyer: Richard I. Fennessey
Seller: David M. Prevost
Date: 06/17/16

141 Silver St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $159,800
Buyer: Lawrence Jones
Seller: Feng Liang-Wang
Date: 06/24/16

203 Silver St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $229,000
Buyer: Steven M. Bersch
Seller: Scott T. Motyka
Date: 06/16/16

9 Willow St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $204,000
Buyer: Thea P. Atwood
Seller: Marc J. Belanger
Date: 06/22/16

LEVERETT

37 Long Plain Road
Leverett, MA 01054
Amount: $268,000
Buyer: Ellyn A. Vohnoutka
Seller: Von, Glasersfeld, C., (Estate)
Date: 06/17/16

198 Montague Road
Leverett, MA 01054
Amount: $340,000
Buyer: Naman Hampton
Seller: Frank J. Dezenzo
Date: 06/24/16

MONTAGUE

130 Millers Falls Road
Montague, MA 01376
Amount: $256,000
Buyer: Tracy L. Mantell
Seller: Frances C. MacPhail
Date: 06/13/16

6 Newton Lane
Montague, MA 01351
Amount: $224,000
Buyer: Mark W. Meunier
Seller: Audrey L. Reipold
Date: 06/20/16

7 Ripley Road
Montague, MA 01351
Amount: $316,500
Buyer: Katherine E. Smith
Seller: Valerie Young
Date: 06/13/16

161 Wendell Road
Montague, MA 01349
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Philip H. Lyon
Seller: Donna J. Jackman
Date: 06/21/16

NORTHFIELD

74-A Main St.
Northfield, MA 01360
Amount: $450,000
Buyer: Aida LLC
Seller: William L. Barnes
Date: 06/21/16

571-C Millers Falls Road
Northfield, MA 01360
Amount: $234,900
Buyer: Stephen A. Stacy
Seller: Brian M. Kellogg
Date: 06/24/16

ORANGE

37 Lake Ave.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Leanne M. Lovell
Seller: Wilkinson, Neysa E., (Estate)
Date: 06/24/16

41 Lake Ave.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $177,500
Buyer: Moises Ramos
Seller: William Howland
Date: 06/24/16

ROWE

506 Tunnel Road
Rowe, MA 01367
Amount: $139,000
Buyer: Gordon E. Cowie
Seller: Webster, Gideon K., (Estate)
Date: 06/21/16

SHELBURNE

Patten Road
Shelburne, MA 01370
Amount: $204,000
Buyer: Massachusetts Audubon Society
Seller: Patten Hill Farm TR
Date: 06/21/16

SUNDERLAND

375 Hadley Road
Sunderland, MA 01375
Amount: $138,358
Buyer: Hadley & Ferry LLC
Seller: Peter M. Telega
Date: 06/15/16

WARWICK

12 Chase Hill Road
Warwick, MA 01378
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Agnes H. Piscopo FT
Seller: Harold & Marian G. Wolfson TR
Date: 06/17/16

73 Hastings Pond Road
Warwick, MA 01378
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: James F. Abels
Seller: Richard Sachs
Date: 06/16/16

139 Wendell Road
Warwick, MA 01378
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Chestnut Hill RT
Seller: Joel Vernon-Rice
Date: 06/23/16

10 Wheeler Road
Warwick, MA 01378
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Seth M. Barger
Seller: Judith A. Fountain
Date: 06/24/16

HAMPDEN COUNTY

AGAWAM

10 Alfred Court
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $156,500
Buyer: Joanne Brown
Seller: Paul R. Vella
Date: 06/24/16

92 Barney St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $271,000
Buyer: Jose M. Merced
Seller: Carl S. Keller
Date: 06/17/16

116 Barry St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Won G. Seo
Seller: Ericka E. Johnson
Date: 06/17/16

16 Cedar Knoll Dr.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $355,000
Buyer: Jason M. Taylor
Seller: Charles J. Sclafani
Date: 06/23/16

36 Dutchmaster Dr.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: Brook B. Fanti
Seller: Diane Lecuyer-Zalewski
Date: 06/23/16

129 Elizabeth St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $460,000
Buyer: Ronald H. Corliss
Seller: Marnie T. Budreau
Date: 06/16/16

62 Granger Dr.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $229,000
Buyer: Jonathan J. Mendez-Rosado
Seller: Randall L. Noftall
Date: 06/14/16

48 Nicole Terrace
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Sergey V. Radionov
Seller: Philip C. Ronca
Date: 06/16/16

892 North St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Michael G. Rijos
Seller: Devall, Virginia M., (Estate)
Date: 06/15/16

1157 North St. Ext
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $198,000
Buyer: Ali Dastigir
Seller: Ronald R. Moquin
Date: 06/23/16

94 Northwood St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $184,900
Buyer: Eric W. Olson
Seller: Joseph S. Golon
Date: 06/17/16

422 South Westfield St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $149,900
Buyer: Meredith A. Thomas
Seller: Edward M. Bryant
Date: 06/16/16

41 Spencer St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Richard J. Olson
Seller: Calabrese Construction
Date: 06/17/16

794 Suffield St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $178,000
Buyer: Denise A. Coelln
Seller: Leigh G. Mahoney
Date: 06/15/16

BLANDFORD

169 Otis Stage Road
Blandford, MA 01008
Amount: $372,000
Buyer: Phoebe Booth
Seller: Laura M. Battaglia
Date: 06/24/16

BRIMFIELD

17 Carriage Dr.
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $460,000
Buyer: Mai Hong Nguyen
Seller: Michael D. Houle
Date: 06/16/16

CHICOPEE

31 Alfred St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Carmen M. Jimenez
Seller: Josephine A. Geissler
Date: 06/15/16

28 Amherst St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $142,000
Buyer: Robert G. Gordon
Seller: US Bank
Date: 06/16/16

779 Britton St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $222,000
Buyer: Gregory Bennett
Seller: Jeremy M. Brown
Date: 06/24/16

295 Burnett Road
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $2,800,000
Buyer: 295 Burnett Road LLC
Seller: Burnett Road LLC
Date: 06/24/16

18 Calvin St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $176,900
Buyer: James C. Brunelle
Seller: Amanda M. Abrams
Date: 06/24/16

231 Chicopee St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Jason A. Dout
Seller: Campagnari Construction LLC
Date: 06/20/16

87 Cochran St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $129,000
Buyer: Raul Cumba
Seller: Bank New York Mellon
Date: 06/22/16

311 College St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Michael O’Leary
Seller: Heather J. Johnson
Date: 06/20/16

35 Dejordy Lane
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $250,000
Seller: Ryan, Lots A., (Estate)
Date: 06/21/16

28 Dorrance St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $167,500
Buyer: Janessa M. Santana
Seller: Ashley Lebeau
Date: 06/24/16

24 Grant St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $224,500
Buyer: Alex J. Rosario
Seller: Lucjan Dzierzgowski
Date: 06/20/16

697 Grattan St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $340,000
Buyer: TDS Sports Realty LLC
Seller: Brian P. Burnham
Date: 06/21/16

854 Grattan St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Jackie N. Coleman
Seller: Judy A. Roy
Date: 06/21/16

14 Hampshire St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $177,000
Buyer: Laura R. Alvarado
Seller: Caitlyn M. Bennett
Date: 06/24/16

49 Mount Vernon Road
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: James V. Pietroniro
Seller: David C. Labrie
Date: 06/23/16

252 Nonotuck Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Kyle S. Henrich
Seller: Crystal Hynek
Date: 06/17/16

135 Nutmeg Circle
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $283,000
Buyer: Ryan Barnes
Seller: Robert A. Janik
Date: 06/24/16

70 Old Fuller Road Ext.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $229,450
Buyer: William E. Kieda
Seller: Ronald H. Corliss
Date: 06/16/16

250 Old Lyman Road
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Daniel A. O’Sullivan
Seller: Donald A. Overson
Date: 06/16/16

103 Ondrick Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $248,000
Buyer: Walter S. Sawa
Seller: Anabela P. Pereira
Date: 06/23/16

25 Piquette Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Amy M. Deauseault
Seller: Matthew B. Baker
Date: 06/21/16

793 Sheridan St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $123,700
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Meagan L. Laramee
Date: 06/22/16

109 Stedman St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Erick M. Santana-Colon
Seller: Tomasz Karas
Date: 06/17/16

128 Sunnymeade Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $134,400
Buyer: Wells Fargo Bank
Seller: Christopher R. Lavertu
Date: 06/15/16

45 Syrek St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $157,000
Buyer: Daniel J. Flaherty
Seller: Jessica M. Miner
Date: 06/24/16

23 Trilby Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Roberto W. Cruz
Seller: Joseph A. Croteau
Date: 06/17/16

126 Valier Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $149,900
Buyer: Anastasiya Sevostyanova
Seller: Daniel S. Korkosz
Date: 06/16/16

1612 Westover Road
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $145,794
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Gifford W. Fogg
Date: 06/17/16

EAST LONGMEADOW

93 Barrie Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: James R. Goldrick
Seller: Judith O. Lawrence
Date: 06/16/16

91 Birch Ave.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $320,000
Buyer: Safet Karakus
Seller: Jared A. Figueroa
Date: 06/24/16

116 Colony Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $261,000
Buyer: James M. Lentz
Seller: Steve Wenninger
Date: 06/24/16

20 Cross Meadow Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $415,000
Buyer: Tilak A. Thanaratnam
Seller: Cynthia J. Gallant
Date: 06/20/16

39 East Circle Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Sean A. Potito
Seller: John P. Wiedersheim
Date: 06/24/16

32 Frankwyn St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Tracy L. Stanek
Seller: Patricia A. Kelly
Date: 06/24/16

66 Glen Heather Lane
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $249,000
Buyer: Emily C. Lapointe
Seller: Nancy Dusek-Gomez
Date: 06/15/16

144 Hampden Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: James M. Lasonde
Seller: Paul R. Duprey
Date: 06/20/16

38 Kenneth Lunden Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Valerie D. Valentine-Shaw
Seller: Marguerite F. Crawford
Date: 06/15/16

43 Knollwood Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Sean E. Rudzinsky
Seller: James J. Curran
Date: 06/21/16

125 Parker St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Carolina L. Joos
Seller: Lauren T. Morgan
Date: 06/17/16

560 Parker St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $320,000
Buyer: Allen K. Chau
Seller: John A. Hebert
Date: 06/22/16

110 Pembroke Terrace
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $882,500
Buyer: Daniel J. Kleeberg
Seller: Timothy B. Schulze
Date: 06/23/16

270 Prospect St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $383,500
Buyer: Andrew Vital
Seller: Brian D. Basgen
Date: 06/22/16

116 Tanglewood Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $349,000
Buyer: John P. Wiedersheim
Seller: Jose M. Gomes
Date: 06/24/16

21 White Ave.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $229,900
Buyer: Patrick J. Lynch
Seller: Daniel T. Mahoney
Date: 06/24/16

GRANVILLE

1641 Main Road
Granville, MA 01034
Amount: $233,000
Buyer: Louis P. Lodovico
Seller: William N. Magni
Date: 06/23/16

808 Main Road
Granville, MA 01034
Amount: $271,000
Buyer: Rodney P. Stevens
Seller: John M. Doherty
Date: 06/24/16

HOLLAND

64 Mashapaug Road
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $295,000
Buyer: Bernard L. Baldwin
Seller: Deborah M. Sichol

117 May Brook Road
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $126,840
Buyer: Gabrielle A. Rossetti
Seller: Michael D. Cameron
Date: 06/20/16

15 Pine Tree Dr.
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $340,000
Buyer: Thomas Terbush
Seller: Thomas R. Lewin
Date: 06/23/16

17 Pine Tree Dr.
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $269,000
Seller: Kenneth C. Owen
Date: 06/14/16

28 Stony Hill Road
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Bradley Sulewski
Seller: Barry S. Kuhnly
Date: 06/24/16

86 Vinton Road
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Bryan J. Cook
Seller: Elde D. Dutter
Date: 06/20/16

HOLYOKE

37 Dale St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $147,500
Buyer: Halldor Hildigunnarsson
Seller: Bernice Hildigunnarsson
Date: 06/20/16

5 Donlee St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Elizabeth Colon
Seller: William Lyle
Date: 06/13/16

33 George St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Catina Galanes-Grass
Seller: Lester G. Provost
Date: 06/16/16

238 Hillside Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Cathleen M. Lee
Seller: Steven Michalewicz
Date: 06/17/16

20 Laurel St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $168,000
Buyer: Carmen L. Lopez
Seller: Martin A. Cardoza
Date: 06/22/16

88 Lynch Dr.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Stephen C. Konstantinidis
Seller: David J. Meunier
Date: 06/15/16

158 Morgan St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $233,000
Buyer: Arnold Jaffe
Seller: Alfred J. Albano
Date: 06/20/16

68 Nonotuck St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $189,000
Buyer: Elana R. Aubrey
Seller: Kristen A. Beam
Date: 06/22/16

47 Norwood Terrace
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Timothy D. Burgos
Seller: Kristin M. Aimi
Date: 06/15/16

2 Whittier Circle
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Kirk Krause
Seller: Sandra B. Hindle
Date: 06/15/16

LONGMEADOW

175 Cedar Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Buyer: Anthony Barnes
Seller: Jimmy Chang
Date: 06/21/16

681 Converse St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $261,000
Buyer: Robert Kushner
Seller: FNMA
Date: 06/16/16

58 Falmouth Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $499,900
Buyer: Michael M. Kwoka
Seller: Thomas C. McCarthy
Date: 06/20/16

128 Farmington Ave.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: Gabriel Huffstutler
Seller: Jason T. Pananos
Date: 06/21/16

861 Frank Smith Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $257,500
Buyer: Michael G. McDonough
Seller: Amparo M. Briones
Date: 06/24/16

859 Longmeadow St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Commonwealth Title Services
Seller: Jeffrey Hopkins
Date: 06/17/16

1562 Longmeadow St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $222,500
Buyer: Jonathan B. Hall
Seller: Margaret J. Perry
Date: 06/24/16

455 Maple Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $203,421
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Virginia A. Martel
Date: 06/22/16

N/A
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $166,000
Buyer: Jonathan S. Weibel
Seller: Nationstar Mortgage LLC
Date: 06/13/16

123 Shady Side Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $323,000
Buyer: Amy L. Ruiz
Seller: Charles A. Camerlin
Date: 06/24/16

25 Tedford Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $278,000
Buyer: Alan D. Rudman
Seller: Carleton H. Brown
Date: 06/20/16

53 Willett Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $345,000
Buyer: Breandan Ireland
Seller: Dean F. Curtis
Date: 06/17/16

LUDLOW

152 Barna St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $201,000
Buyer: Mark Augusto
Seller: Michael V. Langone
Date: 06/24/16

138 Center St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $185,400
Buyer: Scott Hawkins
Seller: Kenneth R. Breault
Date: 06/17/16

1528 Center St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $249,900
Buyer: Logan S. Brown
Seller: Gaston R. Desrochers
Date: 06/24/16

214 Church St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Travis Odiorne
Seller: Nolan Wallace-Hood
Date: 06/20/16

58 Edison Dr.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $186,000
Buyer: Jessica H. Majeran
Seller: Mitchell R. Talbot
Date: 06/13/16

100 Hubbard St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Nelson S. Goncalves
Seller: Marc D. Soares
Date: 06/24/16

64 Longview Circle
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $239,000
Buyer: Daniel F. Ryan
Seller: Raymond A. Yando
Date: 06/24/16

22 Norwich Road
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Gaston R. Desrochers
Seller: Humber, Elizabeth J., (Estate)
Date: 06/24/16

MONSON

63 Bethany Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $343,000
Buyer: Peter Warren
Seller: Robert E. North
Date: 06/20/16

21 Bradway Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $281,450
Buyer: Matthew R. Currier
Seller: Margaret L. Allard
Date: 06/17/16

170 Bumstead Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $167,000
Buyer: Madeline R. Goodrich
Seller: Charles E. Baker
Date: 06/17/16

233 Cedar Swamp Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Nathan C. Eckhoff
Seller: Jacob M. Rylander
Date: 06/17/16

4 Gates St.
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $222,500
Buyer: John A. Bibbo
Seller: Linda Q. Trott
Date: 06/24/16

PALMER

80 Buckland St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Colin E. Grudgen
Seller: Frank S. Mancuso
Date: 06/13/16

114 Longview St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: Kristine L. Somers
Seller: Howard F. Reed
Date: 06/24/16

2358 Main St.
Palmer, MA 01080
Amount: $144,102
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Sean Padykula
Date: 06/14/16

1624 North Main St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $229,000
Buyer: William H. Fitzpatrick
Seller: James M. Hurley
Date: 06/15/16

25 Robinson Road
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $309,000
Buyer: Bryan Moller
Seller: Wesley J. Pascale
Date: 06/17/16

189 State St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $129,900
Buyer: Dianne A. Gilligan
Seller: Scott H. Kozak
Date: 06/14/16

46 Ware St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $121,000
Buyer: Christopher L. Girard
Date: 06/21/16

RUSSELL

368 Blandford Stage Road
Russell, MA 01071
Amount: $143,000
Buyer: Tyler Cullen
Seller: Wells Fargo Bank
Date: 06/23/16

SPRINGFIELD

122 Ambrose St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: James L. Shaver
Seller: Bretta Construction LLC
Date: 06/24/16

140 Armory St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $1,600,000
Buyer: Armory St Holdings LLC
Seller: F. L. Roberts & Co. Inc.
Date: 06/21/16

171 Balboa Dr.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $134,807
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Philip C. Macken
Date: 06/15/16

16 Barrison St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $124,000
Buyer: Darwin Salinas
Seller: Eileen M. Morrow
Date: 06/15/16

42 Belvidere St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $168,000
Buyer: William Gonzalez-Crespo
Seller: Bryant M. Melluzzo
Date: 06/17/16

119 Belvidere St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $189,400
Buyer: Clarence J. Brady
Seller: Maria C. Miranda
Date: 06/20/16

14 Benz St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Ryan C. Thomas
Seller: Jared D. Smith
Date: 06/24/16

148 Benz St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $179,000
Buyer: Ralph Manzi
Seller: Richard McDermott
Date: 06/13/16

1274 Berkshire Ave.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $122,000
Buyer: Stephen M. Nareau
Seller: Amanda A. Staubin
Date: 06/20/16

60 Blake St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: Stefanie Flynn
Seller: Blanka Suchy-Mechem
Date: 06/17/16

99 Blunt Road
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $126,000
Buyer: Dorthy W. Kendra
Seller: Syreeta D. Frazer
Date: 06/20/16

927 Boston Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $362,250
Buyer: Gina G. Daniele
Seller: Bucknell Enterprises LLC
Date: 06/20/16

284-286 Bridge St.
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Develop Springfield Corp.
Seller: James W. Fiore
Date: 06/23/16

30 Burnside Terrace
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: Adilenys Z. Rivera
Seller: Mark L. Plasse
Date: 06/14/16

23 Castle St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Lousleily A. Vega
Seller: Mary P. Murray
Date: 06/15/16

18 Claremont St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $117,000
Buyer: Juan Galarza-Vasquez
Seller: Jose I. Toledo
Date: 06/24/16

89 Clement St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Justin M. Illig
Seller: Elaine R. Johns
Date: 06/24/16

34 Cornell St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $139,000
Buyer: Kenneth R. Breault
Seller: Karla P. Shea
Date: 06/17/16

130 Creswell Dr.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $139,000
Buyer: Susan J. Curran
Seller: Barbara F. Fleming
Date: 06/21/16

12 Danaher Circle
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $166,000
Buyer: Richard D. Baez
Seller: Susan M. Provost
Date: 06/15/16

60 Deepfield Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $182,000
Buyer: Amanda C. Derby
Seller: Brian M. Cox
Date: 06/20/16

100 Donbray Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $176,900
Buyer: Laurie Bonano
Seller: Cardinal Home Investors
Date: 06/22/16

81 Dwight Road
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $196,669
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Peter J. Lacamera
Date: 06/16/16

125 Fair Oak Road
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Joseph Alvarado
Seller: Erik R. Strom
Date: 06/16/16

125-127 Federal St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Armory Street Holdings
Seller: Carlina Caceres
Date: 06/15/16

59 Flower St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Kaitlin M. Reilly
Seller: Kevin E. Lynn
Date: 06/22/16

74 Forest Park Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Carmen Reyes
Seller: Richard T. Longo
Date: 06/17/16

229 Fountain St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $150,900
Buyer: Jason D. Macleod
Seller: Joseph A. Cacciola
Date: 06/24/16

83 Francis St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $129,600
Buyer: Miguel Martinez
Seller: Mary Hartpence
Date: 06/24/16

182 Garland St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Raymond Steiner
Seller: Nicole Santos
Date: 06/24/16

19-21 Glenwood St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Rainey Wise
Seller: Seajay Group LLC
Date: 06/16/16

29 Hadley St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $139,500
Buyer: Nicole Amorette-Worrell
Seller: Melissa Danehey
Date: 06/24/16

129-131 Hamburg St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $163,500
Buyer: Jessica Y. Gonzalez
Seller: William F. Gelinas
Date: 06/13/16

146 Hampshire St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Kristopher M. Rickson
Seller: Nuno Santos
Date: 06/24/16

11 Hartford Terrace
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $157,900
Buyer: Miguel Rivera
Seller: US Bank
Date: 06/14/16

17 Health Ave.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $139,000
Buyer: Jacelyn Diaz
Seller: Kevin Czaplicki
Date: 06/22/16

25 Hilltop St.
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $188,000
Buyer: Madelaine Roig
Seller: Hannah Y. Chung
Date: 06/13/16

33 Homestead Ave.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $141,000
Buyer: Ramon J. Rios
Seller: Daniel Delaney
Date: 06/20/16

129 Kane St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $136,000
Buyer: Deutsche Bank
Seller: Maria L. Vaz
Date: 06/22/16

118-120 Kensington Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $153,950
Buyer: Bank New York
Seller: Stanley Bates
Date: 06/17/16

112 Lumae St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $164,000
Buyer: Daniel Mahoney
Seller: Catherine E. Pericolosi
Date: 06/24/16

520-526 Main St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $318,000
Buyer: Mei Management LLC
Seller: L&S Properties Inc.
Date: 06/13/16

45 Manitoba St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $154,000
Buyer: Evelyn Cruz
Seller: Dawn A. Tamarkin
Date: 06/20/16

56 Marengo Park
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $132,500
Buyer: Manny N. Son
Seller: Judd, Jane, (Estate)
Date: 06/17/16

65-67 Mayfair Ave.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $193,000
Buyer: Yonalvy Acosta
Seller: Juan A. Santana
Date: 06/20/16

154 Mayflower Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $144,500
Buyer: Sean Collins
Seller: Jeremy P. Zarrella
Date: 06/21/16

81 Merrimac Ave.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $128,000
Buyer: Brendalee Gonzalez
Seller: Maurice F. Fitzgerald
Date: 06/23/16

30 Merritt St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $124,900
Buyer: Jonathan Rosa
Seller: Kenneth G. Dulude
Date: 06/24/16

10 Monrovia St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $117,500
Buyer: Yasbel Colon
Seller: David W. Dearden
Date: 06/15/16

114 Monrovia St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $127,499
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Nicanor Tosado-Vasquez
Date: 06/20/16

16 Montclair St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Wells Fargo Bank
Seller: Victor Alvarado
Date: 06/17/16

390 Newhouse St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $151,000
Buyer: Devon D. Williams
Seller: Luis A. Negron
Date: 06/17/16

41 Old Point St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $115,500
Buyer: Alma L. Cedeno
Seller: Brad Dimiero
Date: 06/14/16

1847 Parker St.
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $266,600
Buyer: Bayview Loan Servicing LLC
Seller: Lucy O. Jones
Date: 06/24/16

107 Perkins St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $134,500
Buyer: Wilmington Savings
Seller: Robert C. Brote
Date: 06/23/16

103 Pilgrim Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $162,000
Buyer: Sara E. McNally
Seller: Anthony V. Matteis
Date: 06/24/16

99 Pine Acre Road
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $179,900
Buyer: Liam T. Walsh
Seller: Travis E. Odiorne
Date: 06/13/16

1373 Plumtree Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $184,000
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Edgar Villalobos
Date: 06/17/16

8 Riverview Terrace
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $187,000
Buyer: Randall J. Fortunato
Seller: Carrie A. Cirillo
Date: 06/23/16

15 Rollins St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $144,900
Buyer: Berris D. Smith
Seller: Sergey Savonin
Date: 06/20/16

Seymac Estates
Springfield, MA 01101
Amount: $135,500
Buyer: James Waltein
Seller: Maria Cuccovia
Date: 06/17/16

72 Squire Lane
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $252,500
Buyer: Geraldine A. Brasin
Seller: Amanda M. Maynard
Date: 06/17/16

139 Talbot Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Manuel Shirley
Seller: Sean V. Rebman
Date: 06/14/16

36 Telbar St.
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Lana J. Kudo
Seller: Lindsey S. Bubar
Date: 06/13/16

26 Tioga St.
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $189,000
Buyer: Kendall Knapik
Seller: Joshua A. Gougeon
Date: 06/23/16

24 Truman Circle
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $133,000
Buyer: Kyle J. Hendricks
Seller: JJS Capital Investment
Date: 06/21/16

46 Truman Circle
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Sandra J. Cardinal
Seller: Lee A. Scott
Date: 06/24/16

151 Vincent St.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $177,000
Buyer: Albert J. Billings
Seller: Carmine Santaniello
Date: 06/17/16

63 Waldorf St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $149,500
Buyer: Keya M. Hicks
Seller: All Waste Management LLP
Date: 06/15/16

169 Whittum Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Michael Cosgriff
Seller: Kara A. Pelczarski
Date: 06/17/16

13-15 Willard Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Daniel M. Walsh
Seller: Jeremiah P. Sullivan
Date: 06/13/16

46 Willowbrook Dr.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Mindy E. Rosengarten
Seller: Carlos R. Aviles
Date: 06/17/16

SOUTHWICK

7 Buckingham Dr.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $228,000
Buyer: Dale R. Tryba
Seller: Angela V. Brunelle
Date: 06/23/16

133 Feeding Hills Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $217,500
Buyer: Christa M. Smith
Seller: Parker Hart LP
Date: 06/22/16

37 George Loomis Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: William H. White
Seller: Donna L. Makuch
Date: 06/15/16

55 Hudson Dr.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $460,000
Buyer: Hudson Holdings LLC
Seller: CCC Real Estate Holdings Co. LLC
Date: 06/14/16

21 Lakeview St.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $630,000
Buyer: Timothy J. Bertrand
Seller: CRA Holdings Inc.
Date: 06/24/16

33 Lauren Lane
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $546,000
Buyer: Shawn W. Howard
Seller: Cara R. Balboni
Date: 06/15/16

WALES

95 Union Road
Wales, MA 01081
Amount: $167,115
Buyer: Wells Fargo Bank
Seller: Paulette Reed
Date: 06/22/16

WEST SPRINGFIELD

402 Birnie Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Couture Partners LLC
Seller: Karen J. Richard
Date: 06/13/16

22 Cedar Woods Glen
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $510,000
Buyer: Linh Huynh
Seller: Thomas J. Dion
Date: 06/17/16

113 Circle Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Matthew M. Vallan
Seller: James L. Willemain
Date: 06/15/16

258 Circle Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $184,900
Buyer: Olcay Kocaman
Seller: Piquette, Raymond A., (Estate)
Date: 06/24/16

23 Elm Circle
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $143,000
Buyer: Debbie D. Leavitt
Seller: Nathalie A. Currie
Date: 06/24/16

52 Ely Ave.
Amount: $242,000
Buyer: Randall H. Pyrro
Seller: Brian M. Candon
Date: 06/15/16

65-67 Fairview Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Anastas Pchelka
Seller: Vyatcheslav Tsukanov
Date: 06/20/16

54 Galaska Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $379,450
Buyer: William K. Fritz
Seller: Michael J. Dubois
Date: 06/24/16

23 Howard St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Lee Thurston
Seller: Diana A. Newhouse
Date: 06/24/16

116 Jensen Circle
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: John J. Taskey
Seller: Anti, Ernest A., (Estate)
Date: 06/15/16

Lincoln St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: KandC Associates LLC
Seller: FNMA
Date: 06/24/16

177 Norman St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Stephen P. Smrecek
Seller: Sunnyside Corp.
Date: 06/24/16

189 Piper Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Mali Inc.
Seller: Muhammad A. Sabir
Date: 06/15/16

304 Prospect Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $252,000
Buyer: Carrie L. Talbot
Seller: Ann M. Roy
Date: 06/24/16

29 Redden Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: Anthony A. Hannoush
Seller: Martin T. Cathro
Date: 06/23/16

332 Rogers Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Joaquin Bello-Carro
Seller: West Co Investments LLC
Date: 06/22/16

31 Spring St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $124,900
Buyer: Bishnu Tamang
Seller: Carl J. Dombrowik
Date: 06/24/16

1900 Westfield St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: David Thompson
Seller: Heritage Ventures LLC
Date: 06/16/16

91 Westwood Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $246,450
Buyer: Brian M. Candon
Seller: Ryan P. Murray
Date: 06/15/16

WESTFIELD

7 Atwater St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $181,000
Buyer: Cody A. Rida
Seller: Craig A. Miller
Date: 06/22/16

26 Bates St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $248,150
Buyer: Bank Of America
Seller: Matthew A. Fryer
Date: 06/17/16

36 Blueberry Ridge
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $398,000
Buyer: Jason C. Colbath
Seller: John C. Dolan
Date: 06/20/16

36 Bowdoin St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $214,000
Buyer: Brian Boglisch
Seller: Jason C. Colbath
Date: 06/15/16

80 Brookline Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $181,900
Buyer: Marianelle Amaya
Date: 06/17/16

52 Day Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: John K. Self
Seller: Gerald M. Oleksak
Date: 06/24/16

184 Falcon Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $900,000
Buyer: Koziar Capital LLC
Seller: GPW Realty LLC
Date: 06/23/16

18 Fowler Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Nathan W. Gaido
Seller: Nellie C. Gaido
Date: 06/13/16

206 Fowler Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $268,000
Buyer: Aaron J. Kremer
Seller: Paul C. Speckels
Date: 06/15/16

4 Heritage Lane
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $272,000
Buyer: April S. Lassard
Seller: Judith Raibeck
Date: 06/24/16

99 Hillcrest Circle
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $289,000
Buyer: Deutsche Bank
Seller: Steven A. Ala
Date: 06/17/16

167 Joseph Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $191,000
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Paul M. Nadolski
Date: 06/17/16

11 Kylie Lane
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $298,400
Buyer: Kevin J. Padberg
Seller: William J. Tella
Date: 06/23/16

11 Meadowbrook Lane
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Elizabeth Aucoin
Seller: Kenneth P. Crosscup
Date: 06/17/16

72 Plantation Circle
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $375,000
Buyer: Eric J. Lucas
Seller: Guy J. Barbieri
Date: 06/16/16

263 Russellville Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $375,150
Buyer: Ashley M. Sullivan
Seller: Michael A. Hoffman
Date: 06/23/16

467 Russellville Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $389,000
Buyer: Angela L. Depalo
Seller: Marshall S. Harris
Date: 06/20/16

10 Smith Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Anatoliy I. Ovdiychuk
Seller: First Nationwide Realty
Date: 06/14/16

357 Southampton Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $144,000
Buyer: PHH Mortgage Corp.
Seller: David C. Dexheimer
Date: 06/17/16

35 Sunbriar Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $295,000
Buyer: Joshua A. Gougeon
Seller: Paul T. Johnson
Date: 06/24/16

213 Valley View Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $285,000
Buyer: Cynthia J. Gallant
Seller: Kristin L. Cressotti
Date: 06/20/16

944 Western Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Kyle M. Pierce
Seller: Joseph L. Hart
Date: 06/20/16

28 Woodbridge Lane
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $247,500
Buyer: Kathryn E. Megraw
Seller: Paula Ribeiro
Date: 06/24/16

52 Woodbridge Lane
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $162,000
Buyer: Wells Fargo Bank
Seller: Samantha M. Nadeau
Date: 06/17/16

79 Woodsong Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Ronald A. Roux
Seller: Adelard P. Dumaine
Date: 06/17/16

WILBRAHAM

23 Briar Cliff Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $650,000
Buyer: Cynthia Richards
Seller: Shannon A. Pons
Date: 06/15/16

22 Brookside Circle
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $335,100
Buyer: Benjamin A. Fontaine
Seller: Richard S. Himmelwright
Date: 06/22/16

25 Carla Lane
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $385,000
Buyer: Shane J. Coffey
Seller: AC Homebuilding LLC
Date: 06/21/16

49 Cypress Lane
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $461,447
Buyer: Joseph A. Cacciola
Seller: Mile Oak Land Holdings
Date: 06/24/16

Cypress Lane #51
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $582,395
Buyer: John Kubetin
Seller: Mile Oak Land Holdings
Date: 06/24/16

4 Devonshire Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $282,525
Buyer: Nicole M. Eldridge
Seller: John J. Barcome
Date: 06/24/16

39 Faculty St.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Wilbraham & Monson Academy
Seller: James S. Burke
Date: 06/17/16

3 Linwood Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $198,473
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Claire L. Caney
Date: 06/21/16

2 Porter Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Michael F. Hebb
Seller: Bradley Silver
Date: 06/17/16

15 Rochford Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $340,000
Buyer: Francesco N. Gencarelli
Seller: Joel B. Dearing
Date: 06/24/16

109 Stony Hill Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $158,864
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Kimberly L. Royer-Hawkins
Date: 06/14/16

1072 Stony Hill Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $171,007
Buyer: William Raleigh
Seller: Nationstar Mortgage LLC
Date: 06/20/16

4 Tinkham Glen
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $327,500
Buyer: John W. Kineavy
Seller: Alan D. Rudman
Date: 06/20/16

HAMPSHIRE
COUNTY

AMHERST

147 Bay Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Tracy S. Chhun
Seller: James M. Rodrigue
Date: 06/17/16

570 Bay Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Hubert E. Robert
Seller: Robert, Marjorie L., (Estate)
Date: 06/14/16

591 Bay Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $423,000
Buyer: Miranda Balkin
Seller: Christopher J. Diamond
Date: 06/15/16

47 Chesterfield Dr.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $324,000
Buyer: Michael S. McLaughlin
Seller: Martin B. Karlin
Date: 06/16/16

138 Columbia Dr.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Gui D. Liang
Seller: Wei Ding
Date: 06/15/16

47 Country Corners Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $610,000
Buyer: David L. Hamilton
Seller: Jiuming Ye
Date: 06/24/16

4 Dwight Circle
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Richard Iacovelli
Seller: Wing Y. Ho
Date: 06/17/16

87 Larkspur Dr.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $415,000
Buyer: Nicole K. Strieter
Seller: Edith M. Bachrach
Date: 06/24/16

710 Main St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $236,900
Buyer: Loren Wellesley-Walker
Seller: Lisa Pack
Date: 06/24/16

15 Wentworth Manor Dr.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $292,000
Buyer: Jonathan T. Sikes
Seller: Grethe B. Camp
Date: 06/14/16

BELCHERTOWN

29 Allen Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $299,900
Buyer: Bobbie Kendall
Seller: Peter K. Rosengarten
Date: 06/17/16

96 Amherst Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $209,900
Buyer: Nikki Laforte
Seller: David I. Bell
Date: 06/14/16

34 Hickory Hill
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $415,000
Buyer: Matthew G. Sherwood
Seller: J. N. Duquette & Son Construction
Date: 06/17/16

28 Ledgewood Circle
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $271,000
Buyer: Roland R. Chagnon
Seller: Averi W. Luscomb
Date: 06/16/16

North St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Tracy Q. Farnham
Seller: Henry E. Whitlock
Date: 06/22/16

15 Old Farm Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Buyer: Jacqueline Iskander
Seller: Skerrett, Joseph T., (Estate)
Date: 06/20/16

401 South St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $148,000
Buyer: Carl R. Nolan
Seller: Tillie M. Szydlowski
Date: 06/15/16

20 Stadler St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $197,500
Buyer: 20 Stadler Street LLC
Seller: George B. Jackson RET
Date: 06/17/16

376 Stebbins St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $287,500
Buyer: Ryan Mcintosh
Seller: David L. Hamilton
Date: 06/24/16

125 Warner St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $470,000
Buyer: Mathew J. Anziano
Seller: Margaret A. Hulmes RET
Date: 06/21/16

202 Warner St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $187,500
Buyer: Erin E. Fernandes
Seller: Donna M. Sullivan
Date: 06/23/16

CHESTERFIELD

173 South St.
Chesterfield, MA 01012
Amount: $345,000
Buyer: Joshua D. Puza
Seller: Donna M. Weyant
Date: 06/20/16

EASTHAMPTON

34 Ashley Circle
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $371,000
Buyer: Linda Leavenworth
Seller: William Flanagan
Date: 06/16/16

36 Briggs St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $355,000
Buyer: Sarah D. Prall
Seller: Manfred J. Melcher
Date: 06/23/16

12 Chapin St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Scott P. Southwick
Seller: Stanley W. Jasinski
Date: 06/22/16

29 East Maple St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $321,000
Buyer: Charlotte C. Lawrence
Seller: Robert S. Cowell
Date: 06/17/16

10-12 Exeter St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Zachary C. Swanson
Seller: Scott M. Kenney
Date: 06/24/16

13 Gaugh St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $177,500
Buyer: Caitlin M. Kelley
Seller: Stephen G. Sireci
Date: 06/24/16

5 Laurin Lane
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $299,000
Buyer: Patrick A. Foley
Seller: Christopher J. Jolicoeur
Date: 06/16/16

11 Laurin Lane
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $262,000
Buyer: Patricia A. Bonner LT
Seller: Stephen J. West
Date: 06/22/16

11 Pine Hill Road
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $319,000
Buyer: Seth J. Harwood
Seller: Dennis J. Meehan
Date: 06/20/16

24 Sandra Road
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Darren K. Moore
Seller: Tracy Mahaffy
Date: 06/21/16

GOSHEN

7 Dresser Hill Road
Goshen, MA 01096
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: David Krassler
Seller: Daniel P. Lamontagne
Date: 06/20/16

566 East St.
Goshen, MA 01096
Amount: $295,000
Buyer: Michael Kurland
Seller: Patricia A. Bonner LT
Date: 06/21/16

GRANBY

9 Greystone Ave.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $176,330
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Christopher T. Albert
Date: 06/16/16

16 Griswold Circle
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $212,500
Buyer: James A. Guzman
Seller: Francisco O. Perez
Date: 06/16/16

15 Sherwood Dr.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Westover Metropolitan Development Corp.
Seller: Raymond E. Miller
Date: 06/15/16

HADLEY

115 Mount Warner Road
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Peter R. Heronemus
Seller: Zaskey FT
Date: 06/17/16

122 West St.
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $245,700
Buyer: Isaac Chow
Seller: US Bank
Date: 06/14/16

HATFIELD

117 Linseed Road
Hatfield, MA 01088
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: Thomas J. Meshako
Seller: Terri Haven
Date: 06/24/16

22 Main St.
Hatfield, MA 01038
Amount: $388,000
Buyer: Smith College
Seller: Martin Antonetti
Date: 06/21/16

111 Old Stage Road
Hatfield, MA 01088
Amount: $325,000
Buyer: Anthony V. Matteis
Seller: Jessica L. Hunt
Date: 06/24/16
HUNTINGTON

10 Russell Road
Huntington, MA 01050
Amount: $193,000
Buyer: Anne M. Picard
Seller: Henry E. Thomas
Date: 06/17/16

NORTHAMPTON

11 Bernache St.
Northampton, MA 01053
Amount: $256,700
Buyer: David P. Berson
Seller: Timothy D. Fyalkowski
Date: 06/20/16

20 Bridge Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $441,357
Buyer: Marc G. Weinberger
Seller: Bridge Road LLC
Date: 06/16/16

20 Bridge Road #35
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $408,303
Buyer: Thelma J. Grossholtz
Seller: Bridge Road LLC
Date: 06/20/16

8 Crestview Dr.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Nim W. Li
Seller: Wilmington Savings
Date: 06/22/16

19 Edwards Square
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $207,000
Buyer: Sherry L. Taylor
Seller: Patricia A. Palmer
Date: 06/15/16

60 Emerson Way
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $122,500
Buyer: Richard Cianflone
Seller: Emerson Way LLC
Date: 06/17/16

171 Emerson Way
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Margaret Krotowski
Seller: Emerson Way LLC
Date: 06/24/16

854 Florence Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $783,000
Buyer: Christopher K. O’Connor
Seller: Eugene Y. Ferrer
Date: 06/16/16

441 Pleasant St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $800,000
Buyer: Ritmar Realty Corp
Seller: Community Enterprises
Date: 06/13/16

130 Prospect Ave.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $647,500
Buyer: Dhara M. Macdermed
Seller: Michelle S. Kaskey
Date: 06/24/16

543 Riverside Dr.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $362,950
Buyer: Rebecca E. Hamlin
Seller: Matthew J. Fine
Date: 06/15/16

437 Spring St.
Northampton, MA 01053
Buyer: Russell J. Mayhew
Seller: Ralph Mcdonald
Date: 06/17/16

32 Vernon St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $510,000
Buyer: Safe Journeys LLC
Seller: Sharon H. Deal
Date: 06/17/16

PELHAM

338 Daniel Shays Hwy.
Pelham, MA 01002
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Joseph R. Davis
Seller: Peter S. Landry
Date: 06/24/16
SOUTH HADLEY

66 Amherst Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $295,000
Buyer: Michael P. Mazur
Seller: Jung H. Yun
Date: 06/15/16

22 Ashton Lane
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $360,000
Buyer: Jared J. Schwartzer
Seller: Ronald S. Curran
Date: 06/16/16

52 Bridge St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Christine E. Flannery
Seller: Jodine Powers
Date: 06/23/16

16 Country Lane
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $217,000
Buyer: Martin J. O’Brien
Seller: Caroline J. Smith
Date: 06/24/16

20 Doane Terrace
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $322,000
Buyer: Messina J. O’Grady
Seller: Charles A. Boulais
Date: 06/15/16

26 Edison Dr.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $346,699
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Angela M. Frew
Date: 06/13/16

6 Hadley St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Center Redevelopment Corp.
Seller: Couture, Karen A., (Estate)
Date: 06/14/16

191 Lathrop St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $204,000
Buyer: Scott J. Walsh
Seller: Dorothy A. Castonguay

4 Miami St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Michael J. Rohan
Seller: JJB Builders Corp.
Date: 06/22/16

285 Morgan St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Corey A. Koske
Seller: Lawrence D. Williams
Date: 06/17/16

17 Red Bridge Lane
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $442,500
Buyer: Katherine B. Jacobson
Seller: John L. Champagne
Date: 06/16/16

514 River Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $307,500
Buyer: Lorelei L. Raymundo
Seller: Irene Lucchesi
Date: 06/15/16

SOUTHAMPTON

167 Brickyard Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $259,900
Buyer: Matthew S. Gangne
Seller: William C. Belisle
Date: 06/15/16

51 Cold Spring Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $295,000
Buyer: Joshua J. Russell
Seller: Aaron G. Gay
Date: 06/24/16

262 County Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Emerald City Rentals LLC
Seller: Harold R. Gokey
Date: 06/15/16

3 Freyer Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Emerald City Rentals LLC
Seller: Harold R. Gokey
Date: 06/15/16

Halons Way #2
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: G&F Custom Built Homes
Seller: RGB Industries Inc.
Date: 06/15/16

Halons Way #3
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: F&G Development Corp
Seller: RGB Industries Inc.
Date: 06/15/16

WARE

74 Anderson Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $183,000
Buyer: Philip A. Lovett
Seller: John P. Sacco
Date: 06/24/16

3 Beaver Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $217,000
Buyer: J. F. Pasternak 3rd Inc.
Seller: Kathryn E. Boyd
Date: 06/15/16

5 Berkshire Circle
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $219,500
Buyer: J. D. Beaudry
Seller: William H. Whitley
Date: 06/13/16

60 Maple Ave.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $189,000
Buyer: Thomas P. Cummings
Date: 06/17/16

245 Osborne Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: Darren Plotnick
Seller: Christopher J. Colby
Date: 06/23/16

92 Pleasant St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $161,000
Buyer: Leslie S. Rivera
Seller: Miranda L. Lacoste
Date: 06/24/16

WESTHAMPTON

64 Reservoir Road
Westhampton, MA 01027
Amount: $248,000
Buyer: Richard E. Matteson
Seller: Randall H. Pyrro
Date: 06/13/16

WILLIAMSBURG

5 Clary Road
Williamsburg, MA 01096
Amount: $1,125,000
Buyer: New England Craft
Seller: Clary Road LLC
Date: 06/17/16

97 Main St.
Williamsburg, MA 01096
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Lawrence E. West
Seller: Brenda L. Robertson
Date: 06/17/16

Bankruptcies

By
Bankruptcies Departments

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

Atkins, Donette
53 Denver St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/17/16

Barfitt, Evelyn G.
213 Birnam Road
Northfield, MA 01360
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/23/16

Bedard, Jr., Andrew W.
580 State Road, Apt. 1
North Adams, MA 01247
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/30/16

Benoit, William Joseph
75 Pleasant St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/22/16

Bradford, Steven K.
242 Regency Park
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/28/16

Brown, James Leroy
121 Lincoln St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/20/16

Cherry, Philip R.
Cherry, Yolanda
71 Martindale Road
Bernardston, MA 01337
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/20/16

Clark, Katie M.
PO Box 521
Hardwick, MA 01037
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/30/16

Clarke, Daniel E.
49 Bernard St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/26/16

Coburn, Joseph E.
96 North Brook Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/20/16

Cook, James E.
Cook, Lisa M.
276 Southwest St.
Feeding Hills, MA 01030
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/21/16

Costa, Valdir Ferreira
76 Maple St. Apt. 1
Springfield, MA 01105
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/24/16

Cruz, Luis A.
Robles-Cruz, Jacqueline
76 Pinehurst Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/24/16

Cuene, William Edward
Cuene, Marlene Marie
115 Huckleberry Lane
Becket, MA 01223
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/27/16

Daniels, Judith A.
PO Box 251
Belchertown, MA 01007
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/16/16

Delgado, Felicita
318 Goodwin St.
Indian Orchard, MA 01151
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/24/16

Donahue, David P.
59 Pleasant St.
Granby, MA 01033
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/17/16

Farmer, Raymond F.
Farmer, Doris K.
75 Old Poor Farm Road
Ware, MA 01082
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/28/16

Full Circle Bike Shop
Lynne Graves Photography
Graves, Jason Michael
Graves, Lynne C.
29 Harvey Road
Worthington, MA 01098
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/30/16

Garcia, Carlos A.
a/k/a Garcia-Martinez, Carlos A.
609 Nassau Dr.
Springfield, MA 01129
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/28/16

Gendreau, Lisa Anne
a/k/a Gendreau Boivin, Lisa Anne
270 Berkshire Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/28/16

Grant, Susan E.
2363 Westfield St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/16/16

Harnden, Michael S.
Harnden, Lillian M.
42 South Maple St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/16/16

Heydare, Hooman G.
Heydare, Christine M.
21 R Lathrop St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/20/16

Horton, Beverly J.
a/k/a Goerlach, Beverly J.
282 Huckleberry Lane
Becket, MA 01223
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/30/16

Hutkoski, Angela Kay
a/k/a Thornton, Angela
149 Christian Lane
Whately, MA 01093
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/23/16

Jacques, Thomas F.
22 Mechanic St.
Ware, MA 01082
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/17/16

Kielbowicz, Joseph
8 Carol Ave.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/24/16

Labonte, Jeffrey Michael
Labonte, Mandy Lynn
a/k/a Parker, Mandy
44 Park St
Ware, MA 01082
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/21/16

Lanza, Vincent A.
162 Mallard Circle
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/22/16

Lawrence, Richard K.
14 Devonshire Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/29/16

Mallette, Amy Lynne
20 Lakeview Ave.
Athol, MA 01331
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/30/16

Mancuso, Jennifer L.
90 Harkness Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/16/16

McCarthy, Michael J.
32 Algonquin Place
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/30/16

Mongeon, Peter Whitney
208 Elm St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/17/16

Noyes, Jerome K.
Noyes, Janice E.
61 Ward St.
Athol, MA 01331
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/16/16

Perfectly Posh with Amy
Origami Owl
Carr, Amy Jean
a/k/a Houle, Amy Jean
301 Harkness Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/23/16

Perry, Bryan
Perry, Cynthia
a/k/a Dejordy, Cynthia
14 Sherwood St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/25/16

Rivera, Lizbeth
17 Allyn St., 2nd Fl.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/20/16

Stairs, Patricia J.
22 Second Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/30/16

Stark, William F.
Stark, Tolly
a/k/a Ganotes, Tolly
1221 Keets Road
Deerfield, MA 01342
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/20/16

Stylista’s Boutique
Johnson, Christine M.
34 Leatherleaf Circle
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/22/16

Sullivan, David J.
4 McGregor Dr.
Sherborn, MA 01770
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/23/16

Suter, Michael
94 Pratt Corner Road
Shutesbury, MA 01072
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/24/16

Tassone, Viola M.
29 Nelson St.
North Adams, MA 01247
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/29/16

The Williamsville Inn
Wendt Enterprise Inc
Wendt, Kandy
286 Great Barrington Road
West Stockbridge, MA 01266
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/21/16

Tidlund, Brian V.
26 Rural Lane
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/29/16

Turner, Raymond E.
75 Milford St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/20/16

Vargas, Oneida
153 Regency Park Dr.
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/16/16

Vega, Fernando E.
Vega, Ivette
45 Watling St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/16/16

Wonsey, Sheila A.
17 Pickett Lane
Greenfield, MA 01301
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/20/16

Wright, Melanie Ann
67 West St. #7
Northampton, MA 01060
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/22/16

Doing Business As Certificates

By
DBA Certificates Departments

The following Business Certificates and Trade Names were issued or renewed during the month of July 2016.

AGAWAM

Alpha Dog Stump Grinding
35 Danny Lane
Mathew Wysocki

Class Solutions
417 Springfield St. #111
Vitaliy Yusenko

Hand to Paw
32 Calico Lane
Karen Spinelli

King of Cuts Barber Shop
326 Springfield St.
Pamela Barkyoumb

Nicora Property Service
51 Chestnut Lane
Dominic Nicora

Oksi Company
102 Glendale Road
Yevgeniy Reznichenko

The Back Room
827 Springfield St.
J. Liquori, N. Liquori

Tom’s Home Repair
103 Regency Park
Thomas Gamelli

CHICOPEE

Chicopee Convenience Mart
201 Exchange St.
Amir Maqboul Paracha

Extra Innings Chicopee
340 McKinstry Ave.
John W Roy, Stephen R. LeBel

Josh of all Trades
1246 Granby Road Lot 34
Joshua M. Gendron

MJ Nails Spa
1893 Memorial Dr.
Hang Bui, Huong Dan

Sophisticated Cuts
5 Willow St.
Caridad Cruz

HOLYOKE

A Touch of Beauty Nails and Spa
50 Holyoke St., Unit G313
Hoang Vo

Andrew Gordon Jewelry
30 Fairfield Ave.
James Sutter

Holyoke Strings
256 Pine St.
Jenifer Gelineau

Mercy Women’s Health
306 Race St.
Mercy Inpatient Medical Assoc. Inc.

NORTHAMPTON

Bending Reeds Counseling LLC
78 Main St., Suite 403
Thomas Wahlund

CDT Construction
158 North Maple St.
Eugene Tacy, Richard Tacy

RC Communications
150 Main St.
Ruth Griggs

Structure Chiropractic
32 Masonic St.
Tim Molitoris

Tiny Golem Press
218A North St.
Don Zeller

Transformational Bodywork
53 Center St.
Patricia Gates

Valley Nerd Watch
80 Damon Road, Apt. 2307
James Edward Olchowski

SPRINGFIELD

Berkshire Key Realty LLC
122 Pineview Dr.
Nadine Marie Hiser

Billiard Aiden
391 Belmont Ave.
Giang T. Pham

Brooklyn’s Ottos & Service
824 Berkshire Ave.
Nelson Garcia

Cummins Sales and Service
177 Rocus St.
Cummins Northeast

Dollar Tree #6119
383 Allen St.
Dollar Tree Stores

Ebenezer Cleaning Service
50 Nursery St.
Sergio Gonzalez

Emily Alger & CO
112 Dorset Street
Stephanie Lynn

Express Mini Market
904 State St.
Ismail Elkatib

Gateway Barber Shop
479 Breckwood Blvd.
Jose G. Roldan, Jr.

Hometown Helper
129 Champlain Ave.
Marc Anthony Thompson

Ilia Klimov
34 Sumner Ave.
Ilia Klimov

J’s Cuts: Men’s Grooming
603 Sumner Ave.
Juan G. Rodriguez

La Casa Del Reggaeton
72 Locust St.
Mercedes M. Tejada

Legendary
46 Tinkham Road
Quinisha Naylor

Lularoe Pam McCray
87 Lakevilla Ave.
Pamela McCray

Millennium Nail Salon
1655 Boston Road
Anh Tuyet Diep

Naylor’s Cleaning/Landscape
21 Gerold St.
Louis Naylor

Pham Agency
303 Belmont Ave.
Hung Pham

Quality Home Improvement
222 Pearl St.
Axel Cruz Gonzalez

Rodriguez Grocery
1133 State St.
Pamela C. Rodriguez

Shary’s Cleaning and More
78 Somerset St.
Sharol Llanos Diaz

Storage Discoveries
513 Main St.
Melissa Sheehan

Sunshine Collections
1133 E Columbus Ave.
Glenn Perry Michelman

Vics Cleaning Solution
198 Denver St.
Victor M. Dotel

Western Mass Tire Service
74 Florence St.
Bernie Efrain Nieves

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Y & D Landscaping Services
56 Burford Ave.
Radu Sinigur

WESTFIELD

413 Auto Repair
128 Meadow St.
128 Meadow Street LLC

A Cut Above The Rest
37 Elm St.
Isander Robles

Dr. Vinyl
98 Ridgeway St.
Richard D. Roos

Joyner Custom Homes
20 College Park Lane
Gerald A. Joyner

Keith A. Plant
68 Western Ave.
Keith A. Plant

Pagans Deli
122 Montgomery Road
Luis O. Pagan

Splash Marketing & Creative
16 Union Ave. Suite 3B
Crystal Childs-Gryszkiewicz

Sweet JJs
32 Orange St.
Junghyun Park

Whip City Pitbike
253 East Main St.
Christopher P. Kasperek