A.J. Enchill and the Berkshire Black Economic Council work to attract more Black residents to cultural venues. Page 2
Berkshire Business Journal 75 S. Church St. Pittsfield, MA 01201
PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID Permit 137 New England Newspapers, Inc.
Change service requested
Tracks to North Adams could carry passenger trains, but issues persist. Page 5
Berkshire Business Journal AUGUST 2022 | VOL. 1, NO. 3
Values-driven currency BerkShares enters the digital marketplace, but on its own terms BY TONY DOBROWOLSKI EGREMONT — Robin Helfand founded Robin’s Candy
Shop in 2004, two years before the launch of BerkShares, the county’s local currency. But she never accepted the BerkShares paper currency at her store. It’s worth 90 cents on the dollar, so it took too much time for her staffers to calculate the difference in transactions between BerkShares and U.S. currency at the end of the day. But BerkShares has now issued a digital currency, available through a digital app. It’s a oneon-one match with U.S. dollars. Now Helfand is all in. “It’s not only the right thing to do, it’s a smart thing for a business owner to do,” Helfand said, “because if you use them rather than turn them in for dollars you avoid the 2 to 3 percent fee that you pay on credit card transactions. There’s no discount when you’re taking (digital) BerkShares. There’s no 90 cents on the dollar, like with the paper BerkShares, which are discounted. So you’re removing the administrative headache. And when you take the BerkShares in your account and use them at another business I’m not incurring a credit card transaction fee and neither is the accepting business.” BerkShares Inc. launched its digital app in April, but with a twist. Unlike some of the other players in the digital currency space — an often rough and tumble world where benefits are available, but the risks are great — BerkShares entered the market without selling its soul. With the help of a company founded by a New York City-based lawyer who started her career as CURRENCY, Page 12
PHOTOS BY BEN GARVER
Above: Susan Witt and Jared Spears of the Schumacher Center for a New Economics in South Egremont, which runs the BerkShares program. BerkShares are now in digital form — in addition to the original paper currency, you can purchase goods with an app on your phone using blockchain technology. Top: A proof of the original paper BerkShare currency, created on Crane paper at Excelsior Printing. The original BerkShare is still in circulation, along with the new digital currency.
“It’s not only the right thing to do, it’s a smart thing for a business owner to do.” ROBIN HEFLAND, Robin’s Candy Shop founder, on BerkShares
2
Berkshire Business Journal
August 2022
Front Pages SCULPTING BERKSHIRE AFRO FUTURISM
‘We need to diversify’ Region flush with arts and culture opportunities, but survey finds Black visitors are few By Tony Dobrowolski STOCKBRIDGE — Berkshire County has
several well-known cultural venues. But what those sites don’t have is a lot of Black visitors. According to a survey conducted by the Black Arts Council of the Berkshire Black Economic Council, 47 percent of the respondents had never been to Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, 43 percent had never gone to Tanglewood in Lenox and 33 percent had never traveled to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams. And those weren’t the highest numbers. Seventy five percent said they had never been to WAM Theatre in Lenox, 65 percent had never taken in a show at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, and 59 percent had never been to Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket. The number of respondents was small, just 137, but it provided a snapshot of a situation that the Berkshire Black Economic Council would like to change. “We need to diversify,” said A.J. Enchill, the executive director of the Berkshire Black Economic Council, referring to the county’s arts and cultural sector. “It’s something that needs to be taken seriously.” The council revealed those numbers publicly for the first time last month at a gathering that the group hosted at Chesterwood, famed sculptor Daniel Chester French’s historic studio and residence. The event was titled “Sculpting Berkshire Afro Futurism,” which Enchill said referred to envisioning a “real way” for Black Berkshire residents to live out their dreams and for what it means for them to be Black in the Berkshires. “We want to inform Berkshire County, specifically the arts and cultural institutions what would make Berkshire County more inclusive and trustworthy for Black residents and visitors,” Enchill said. He hoped the data would provide Berkshire cultural venues with ideas of how to provide programming that would be more relevant and appealing to Black residents of the Berkshires, and provide information on jobs that would allow these sites to have more diversity in their workforces. “It’s making sure that Black residents know that there’s a Chesterwood,” Enchill said. “We want Black people to know that they can be more than just the performers, that they can also be the artists or the executive director, or the individuals that are part of the lighting team and costume design. “These are all great jobs,” Enchill said. “But if we don’t know about them we’re not going to fill those positions. In order
PHOTOS BY STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN
Top: A.J. Enchill, president and executive director of the Berkshire Black Economic Council, presents the survey data that he and his team compiled about the involvement and experience of Black residents in the Berkshires during the Sculpting Berkshire Afro Futurism event hosted by the Black Arts Council of the Berkshire Black Economic Council at Chesterwood in Stockbridge. Above: Evie Smith-Williams, 4, and Gloria Williams, 13, try their hand at modeling with clay during the July 9 event. to do that we need to see ourselves in the community.” The survey was conducted by the Black Arts Council, an affiliate of Enchill’s organization, between April 4 and May 22 and took place across the entire county. The respondents ranged in age from 20 to over 60, with the majority (63 percent) between the ages of 20 and 40. The survey also compiled data on the types of art that the respondents were interested in, their comfort level at the events that they’ve attended; the number of cultural events they’ve gone to, the logistical barriers they face in attending events at Berkshire cultural venues; and the experiences that they’ve had at those events. For the record, 72 percent of the respondents said they were most interested in painting and drawing, just ahead of dance (71 percent). 56 percent said they felt comfortable at cultural events compared to 11 percent who didn’t and 25 percent said they felt engaged at Berkshire cultural events, compared
to 4 percent who felt discriminated against. 55 percent said they found performers and events relatable and 35 percent said that they had attended at least two or three cultural events in the Berkshires. As for logistical barriers, 22 percent listed timing, 18 percent transportation and 15 percent ticket prices. Respondents also said they would like to see more street festivals, poetry, comedy and spoken word events. In an area where public transportation can be spotty, Enchill said he hoped arts and cultural institutions would be interested in holding more events in urban areas like North Adams and Pittsfield. Ranisha Grice of Pittsfield, one of the three council members who conducted the survey, said she had never been to Chesterwood before. “I think it’s a blessing to be at the home of the artist who did the Abraham Lincoln Memorial,” Grice said, referring to French’s most famous sculpture, which is located at the
THINK YOU HAVE THE BEST PROCESSING RATES?
THERE IS A NO-COST WAY TO FIND OUT - GET A FREE COST COMPARISON TO SEE IF YOU COULD SAVE MONEY EACH MONTH
My goal is to provide my clients with great pricing along with local, personal service. SHOP LOCAL AND KEEP YOUR MONEY IN OUR BERKSHIRE ECONOMY!
Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. “This is the part of the Berkshires that they don’t tell you about. I’m just excited to be connected with the people who allow opportunities like this for us.” Grice was not alone. Donna Hassler, who retired as Chesterwood’s executive director June 30, said only about 10 percent of the historic site’s annual visitors are Black. “I think it’s all about communication and promotion and it’s also about outreach,” Hassler said, when asked about the disconnect between Black Berkshire residents and the county’s arts and cultural venues. “I think that this is a start for us to reach the Black community through the Berkshire Black Economic Council and the Black Arts Council. “Now that we’ve established a relationship I think we’ll see more of a connection,” she said. Tony Dobrowolski can be reached at tdobrowolski@berkshireeagle.com or 413-496-6224.
Shopping Local = Local Service Member of 1Berkshir erkshire, Lee Chamber of Commer ommerce & Southern Berkshiree Chamber of Commercee
BERKSHIRE MERCHANT SERVICES | Don Raiche | www.BerkshireMerchantServices.com| 413-637-2100
August 2022
Berkshire Business Journal
3
New life for historic Lenox inns Trio of town properties undergo extensive renovations, name changes By Clarence Fanto LENOX — Three historic downtown inns
are under new ownership, renovated and renamed for early owners of the properties. Combined with an expansion and renovation of the former Days Inn motel on Pittsfield Road north of downtown, the region’s hospitality industry has seen an infusion of about $15 million within the past 12 months. Purchased last year by 388 Ventures, a New York real-estate investment firm, the combined price for the three downtown properties was $5.5 million, according to documents on file at the Berkshire Middle Registry of Deeds. The firm hired Life House, an independent hotel management company, to redesign, rebrand and operate the properties for Lenox Collection LLC, formed by managing partners Seth Johnson and Russell Lange as a subsidiary of 388 Ventures. • The Church Street Inn, originally the Village Inn — one of the oldest standing properties in town — is now The Whitlock. It was renamed for local farmer John Whitlock, the original 1771 owner who transformed his two-room farmhouse into an inn for stagecoach travelers. The site was bought by 388 Ventures/ Lenox Collection early last year for $2.6 million. The 32-room inn includes a reopened restaurant, Ophelia’s, with indoor and outdoor seating. It serves light farm-totable, locally sourced fare and cocktails, with full dinner service expected soon. • Also part of The Lenox Collection is The Constance, formerly the Rookwood Inn at 11 Old Stockbridge Road adjacent to Town Hall. The 21-room property was sold to 388 Ventures last year by longtime owner Amy Lindner-Lesser for $1,637,750. The inn dates from 1825, built as the Williams Tavern at Main and Cliffwood streets. According to a history of the property, since Lenox then had the original county courthouse and jail (later the town library), the tavern was a popular “watering hole” for judges and lawyers. The tavern was relocated to its current site in 1880 by new owner Frederick Constance Peters, a real estate speculator and entrepreneur from England. He added the Victorian front of the building and offered lodging for employees of the wealthy owners of Berkshire “Cottages” such as Elm Court, Belvoir Terrace, Ventfort Hall, Bellefontaine (now Canyon Ranch Lenox) and Blantyre. It operated as the Quincy Lodge under multiple owners from 1946 to 1996. Now, the inn has undergone extensive renovations. • On North Main Street, across from the Church on the Hill, is the former Birchwood Inn, now branded as The Dewey. According to historical records, the
Above left: The renovation of the former Days Inn motel in Lenox combined with three historic downtown inns under new management has seen the region’s hospitality industry get an infusion of about $15 million in the last year. Left: New ownership has converted the historic Church Street Inn to a new boutique stay called The Whitlock. PHOTOS BY GILLIAN JONES
11-room site at 7 Hubbard St. — sold to 388 Ventures for $1,262,000 last year — was built in 1767 as a private home by one of the town’s earliest settlers, Israel Dewey, a founder of the town’s Continental Congress Committee. It hosted the first Lenox town meeting on March 11, 1767, as the community was incorporated, and became a tavern in 1798, under the ownership of Col. Laddock Hubbard. Later, again as a private residence, it was expanded and renovated by several owners until 1953, when it was converted to an inn and then served as a home for
Addressing Tobacco-Related Health Disparities The Role of Food Insecurity in Smoking and Smoking Cessation
August 18, 2022 8:30 am - 10:00 am Live via Zoom Webinar In this seminar presentation, Dr. Jin Kim‑Mozeleski will discuss burgeoning work that aims to address smoking disparities by attention to food insecurity as a key social determinant of health behavior.
World War II veterans during the 1960s and 1970s. It became a full-fledged bed-and-breakfast in 1981 and went through three ownerships before Gutman Chenaux purchased it in February 1999. 388 Ventures describes itself as a real estate investment firm focused on regional leisure destinations nationwide. Life House, founded in 2017 as a lodging operator backed by institutional venture and private equity investors, has nearly 60 hotels in North America, including the Wheatleigh Hotel in Stockbridge and properties on Nantucket,
Martha’s Vineyard and the Hamptons of Long Island, N.Y. Life House will operate the renovated, expanded 65-room former Days Inn by Wyndham on Routes 7/20 (194 Pittsfield Road), scheduled to reopen in early August as Life House Berkshires. That property was purchased in May 2021 by Ross Group Development LLC of Tulsa, Okla., for $1,950,000 from Lalji Inc. The costs of renovation, addition of five guest rooms and the new amenities represent an investment of up to $8 million, according to Charles Snyder of the Ross Group.
Jin Kim-Mozeleski, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine Cleveland, OH Presented By
FREE Applications for continuing education credits have been submitted. Please visit berkshireahec.org for the status of continuing education accreditation.
For More Information and Pre-Registration • berkshireahec.org or 413-842-5160 This program is funded by the Berkshire Tobacco Free Community Partnership
4
Berkshire Business Journal
August 2022
Berkshire Flyer on the right track By A manda Burke PITTSFIELD — The first trip on the
Berkshire Flyer ferried more than 60 people from New York City to the streets of Pittsfield, letting travelers off right near North Street. And when they got here after a more than four-hour trip, many had already arranged transportation to their ultimate destinations. Not so for two travelers, for whom an unexpected hiccup during the trip led to their “last minute” transportation plans falling into place. Eva Jacobs, 26, and Rachel Sobelsohn, 27, both of New York City, said they were among the eight or so “Berkshire Flyer” passengers who missed the train out of Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station. Sobelsohn and Jacobs had made the weekend trip to see the play “ABCD” at Barrington Stage Company, which was written by their friend, May Treuhaft-Ali. But the arrival-departure board at Penn Station failed to display the platform from which the train would be departing, so they and the other handful of passengers missed it, and had to take the next train to Albany. There, they linked up with the train en route to Pittsfield. In the process, they met Eoin Keigher, 23, who hails from Ireland and was traveling to the Berkshires to visit family in Lenox, not far from Sobelsohn and Jacobs’ weekend accommodations. The friends had planned to try to hail a ride-sharing car,
STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN
State Sen. Adam Hinds greets members of the assembled crowd at the Intermodal Transportation Center after disembarking from the first trip of the Berkshire Flyer rail line from New York City to Pittsfield. until Keigher offered to give them a ride. “We were going to get a Lyft, now we’re getting a lift,” Jacobs said. Many people who rode the train in met up with people who gave them rides back to their final destination, said state Sen. Adam Hinds at a news conference following the inaugural Berkshire Flyer journey to the county’s largest community. Hinds himself was the first off the train, and was greeted by a clapping crowd that included state Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, D-Pittsfield, Transportation
Secretary Jamey Tesler, and state Sen. Eric Lesser, D-Longmeadow, who is running for lieutenant governor. Shuttles from Transport the People parked on Columbus Avenue waiting for passengers, with vehicles running to north and south county. Rebecca Brien, the managing director of Downtown Pittsfield Inc., and a few “downtown ambassadors” from DPI, greeted passengers, handed out literature listing events in the county this weekend and offered directions. By the time people gathered
in the Joseph Scelsi Intermodal Transportation Center for the press conference, dozens of passengers who took the train in had moved on to their next destination. “I see no Berkshire Flyer travelers stranded,” Hinds said. The train represents the latest component of the historical linkage of New York City and the Berkshires, where the tourism industry generated $870 million a year before the pandemic, said Tom Matuszko, the executive director of the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission.
Tesler said the outgoing Baker-Polito administration is focused on building passenger rail service, and looks at the Flyer as a learning opportunity that came together thanks to federal and state partnerships, and the leadership of Hinds. “I have faith that if we can do this, we’ll be doing a lot more,” Tesler said. “This is the beginning.” The night was five years in the making, said Hinds, who evoked a round of applause when he voiced his hope the train won’t be just seasonal and run on weekends, but will one day stop at the Pittsfield’s Intermodal Center every day. “It’s my view that this should be daily, year-round service,” Hinds said. “This is the beginning of the expansion of rail in Western Massachusetts.” Farley-Bouvier thanked Hinds and said she is “a little freaked out” to be losing him as a colleague in the Legislature. Hinds had put his hat in the ring for the lieutenant governor seat, but failed to secure enough votes from delegates at the Democratic Party convention to qualify for the Sept. 6 primary ballot. Farley-Bouvier said Western Massachusetts taxpayers deserve passenger rail. She pointed out that one penny of the state sales tax, not including meal taxes, goes to fund the MBTA in the eastern part of the state. “Every single person in Berkshire County pays the same amount of taxes as the people in the eastern part of the state,” she said. “And we deserve the same kind of service.”
We Couldn’t Have Said it Better
They’ve made our financial situation kind of wonderful, with a much better understanding of what we share together and a whole new outlook on how we live. — Tony & Joe
This is a testimonial of Berkshire Money Management (BMM) by a client of the firm. BMM has not provided any direct or indirect compensation for this testimonial. Berkshire Money Management, Inc. 161 Main Street, Dalton, MA 01226 322 Main Street, Great Barrington, MA 01230
(888) 232-6072
BerkshireMM.com/Testimonials Investment in securities, including mutual funds, involves the risk of loss.
August 2022
Berkshire Business Journal
5
In South County, a microtransit solution Pilot would create shared ride service in Great Barrington, Stockbridge, Egremont By Tony Dobrowolski LENOX — With public transportation op-
A free monthly publication by The Berkshire Eagle 75 South Church Street, Pittsfield, MA 01201 Visit berkshirebusinessjournal.com for advertising information and to subscribe. NEWS DEPARTMENT TONY DOBROWOLSKI, Editor 413-496-6224 tdobrowolski@berkshireeagle.com
ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT KATE TEUTSCH, Director of Ad Services 413-496-6324 kteutsch@berkshireeagle.com CHERYL GAJEWSKI, Director of Ad Sales 413-841-6789, 413-496-6330 cmcclusky@berkshireeagle.com Share your news with the Berkshire Business Journal. If you have a company promotion, a new business or a new venture, let the Berkshires know about it. Remember the 5 W’s and that briefer is better. Email text and photos to BBJ@newenglandnewspapers.com. Provide your expertise in the Berkshire Business Journal. Do you have the answer to a persistent question about business and the Berkshires? Do you have ideas and suggestions on how our business community can grow? If you have a comment to make about doing business in the Berkshires or if you’re looking to raise an issue with the business community, this is the venue for that. We welcome letters up to 300 words and commentary up to 600 words. Send these to Tony Dobrowolski at tdobrowolski@berkshireeagle.com. Berkshire Business Journal is published monthly by New England Newspapers Inc., 75 S. Church St., Pittsfield, MA 01201. Periodicals postage paid at Pittsfield, MA 01201. Berkshire Business Journal is delivered free to businesses in Berkshire County via third class mail. Additional distribution is made via dropoff at select area newsstands. The publisher reserves the right to edit, reject or cancel any advertisement at any time. Only publication of an advertisement shall constitute final acceptance of an advertiser’s order. All contents are copyrighted by New England Newspapers Inc.
tions in the Berkshires limited and local employers facing staffing shortages, a plan has emerged to create an on-demand microtransit service that would serve the residents of three south county towns. The plan would set up a one-year pilot program for an on-demand transportation service for residents of all ages who live in Egremont, Great Barrington and Stockbridge. Its principals have applied for a $93,500 grant from the Federal Transportation Administration through the town of Great Barrington to finance the program, and are seeking an additional $200,000 from a federal bond bill, according to state Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli, D-Lenox. The program could start as soon as the beginning of next year “if all goes well,” said Tate Coleman, of Great Barrington, who helped develop the idea when he interned for the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission last summer. Coleman, who recently graduated from Bard College at Simon’s Rock, used the proposal as his senior thesis. A self-described “public transit activist,” Coleman became Great Barrington’s representative to the regional transportation advisory committee for Southern Berkshire County three years ago when he was 14 years old. A survey taken at the end of last year to gauge community interest in the project received 2,000 responses, “which is very good for our area,” Coleman said. “We saw a lot of interest and after some meetings determined the Great Barrington, Egremont [and] Stockbridge zone as the area for a one-year pilot.” Coleman outlined the plan for state Sen. Brendan Crighton, who heads the Joint Committee on Transportation, at Lenox Town Hall last week when he visited the Berkshires for a daylong tour of county transportation facilities. Coleman was joined by Pignatelli, state Rep. Paul Mark, D-Peru, and Great Barrington Town Manager Mark Pruhenski. Pignatelli, whose district includes the three towns that would utilize the service, said an on-demand ride service would provide a way for folks who live in rural areas like the Berkshires to get to and
TONY DOBROWOLSKI
State Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli, left, discusses a proposed on-demand microtransit service with state Sen. Brendan Crighton, center, and state Rep. Paul Mark. from work at times when public transportation services are not available. “In our community we don’t have any Sunday service, so we have people who will have to walk a few miles to work,” Pignatelli told Creighton. “Housatonic to our Price Chopper plaza [n Great Barrington] is one that we’ve heard. That’s not a very nice walk, especially during the winter and when it’s raining. “We know that employers are looking for staff, but the current transportation system is really not a nine-to-five operation. No weekends, no Sundays, no after-hours,” he said. “This on-demand ride service would be perfect because when you get out of work at 10 p.m., how do you get home? “You see signs from Great Barrington to North Adams for good paying jobs. I think transportation is that disconnect for people.” Coleman said an on-demand microtransit service was selected as the best option for this kind of service following an examination of the county’s existing public transportation resources. “The idea behind shared ride on demand is that it comes when you want it to,” he said. “Since there’s no particular time for riding, it [the service] is not riding around wasting gas when it’s empty. “Sort of like a shared-ride Uber is the best way to describe it for the general public.” Such a service would be operated by either a municipality or a transit authority instead of a transit company, Coleman said. Passenger fares “would be something like $2.50 a ride,” he said. “If you happen to be lucky enough to get a Uber it’s going to cost you a lot more than that.”
To obtain vehicles for such a service, Coleman said the group has been looking at local council on aging organizations that already transport senior citizens in some Berkshires communities, to see if they have “additional capacity.” “Often they have vehicles and drivers, so there’s structure already there,” he said. But Pruhenski said finding enough vehicles and operators to drive them are challenges. “I tried to buy an initial van for our existing transportation program, but can’t get it,” said Pruhenski, referring to a program in Great Barrington. “We’ve been in line for almost two years now. In Egremont, they’ve been waiting two-yearsplus for a van for their transportation program ... If we could just find a car we would buy that. “We have some vans that we can use now. But if this takes off that will be a key for us.” Crighton’s stop in the Berkshires was his first on a statewide tour of state transportation facilities. He said he liked the idea and thought the concept would work well in the Berkshires. Further development of the program requires a sense of urgency, Pignatelli said. “There’s going to be an election in the next six months and transitional turnover so we want to position ourselves with the current administration so we can hit the ground running with the new administration,” he said. “Otherwise, it won’t be January of next year it will be January of the following year. “I don’t think we have the time to lose for this.”
North Adams-Boston passenger rail line viable, sort of By Greta Jochem Existing railroad tracks between North Adams and Boston could support passenger trains, but it’s not clear how good that ride would be. That was one takeaway from a recent meeting of a working group of politicians, municipal leaders and experts looking into the possibility of re-establishing a passenger rail line linking North Adams and Boston. The Northern Tier Passenger Rail Study, ordered by the Legislature, is run by the state Department of Transportation. The study began nearly a year ago. In June, the DOT project presented study updates to the group, which first met in December. The study is examining the viability, costs and benefits of restored passenger rail service. Anna Barry, a project manager and vice president for HNTB Corp., a Boston infrastructure design firm working with the the state, warned that use of existing rail lines had drawbacks. “While we did say it would support passenger service, we didn’t say it was competitive or high-quality service,” she said. Paul Nelson, deputy project
PROVIDED BY MAINE RAIL GROUP
The the east-west line that loosely follows the Route 2 corridor across the north part of the state marks the prospective route that is being examined for passenger rail service. manager, analyzed data on demographics and existing travel patterns along the Route 2 corridor. Based on 2019 GPS data, 29 percent of daily trips in the state start or end in the northern tier area, he said. Compared to the eastern part of the state, the central and western areas are growing slower, Nelson said. Would passenger rail service across the northern part of the state encourage people to move west? “The aging populations and loss of younger workers may reduce the
employment pool,” said state Rep. John Barrett III, D-North Adams, a member of the working group. “Will that, however, be an attraction to younger people coming to the area and starting to look at some of these jobs?” Barrett asked. It’s a major question, Nelson said. “I think that’s one of the things we’ll be looking at,” he said. “I speculate that maybe you’re more likely to see people moving into the area who have jobs in other parts of the corridor, and then use the rail service to connect with it.
... That would almost happen first, before you see big changes in the underlying employment and job market.” Thomas Matuszko, executive director of the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, and a working group member, cited a need for more data on changes in rural areas. “I think it will be very important to try to get some empirical data to determine the shift in employment patterns and work life patterns to rural areas,” he said. “So that we can justify the ‘build it and they will come’ or they’re already coming and they need a way to get to the other urban areas.” It’s not yet clear how long it would take to get from North Adams to Boston on the line. Most of the line in the western part of the state, which is used for freight operations, has a maximum speed of 30 miles per hour, according to data Barry presented. The study is looking at up to six possible routes. Though the legislation that ordered the study mentions Greenfield and North Adams, Barry said, planners should look at other destinations that could be useful. The next working group meeting will be later this summer, said Makaela Niles of the DOT. The study is expected to be done by next spring.
6
Berkshire Business Journal
Business updates Berkshire Medical Center received an “A” Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade for spring 2022 from the Leapfrog Group, an independent national watchdog organization. This national distinction recognizes BMC’s achievements in protecting patients from preventable harm and error in the hospital. Berkshire Medical Center has achieved an “A” grade for four successive ranking periods. The Leapfrog Group assigns a grade of “A” through “F” grade to general hospitals across the country based on over 30 national performance measures reflecting errors, accidents, injuries and infections, as well as systems hospitals have in place to prevent harm. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is the only hospital ratings program based exclusively on hospital prevention of medical errors and harms to patients. The grading system is peer-reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public. Grades are updated twice annually, in the fall and spring. To see BMC’s full grade details and to access patient tips for staying safe in the hospital, visit HospitalSafetyGrade.org. Entrepreneurship for All Berkshire County awarded nearly $10,000 in prizes to the members of its Spring 2022 Business Accelerator Cohort at a recent awards ceremony. Jenny Gitlitz, of Dalton, and Berkshire Family Advocates received the Paula Buxbaum Award, established in honor of a member of the fall 2021 cohort who died in a car crash in October. The award is granted to an individual making a career pivot and incorporating a social mission into their business. Class speaker Rachel Hailey, of North Adams, received $1,000 for her business venture, DEI Outdoors; Deidre Horan, of Great Barrington, received $2,300 for Dri Ocean Products; Jackye Stoddard, of Hudson, N.Y., received $2,500 for Hierba Buena Foods; and Elizabeth Heller, of Pittsfield, received $3,500 for The Kids Super Journal. The virtual event was simulcast on Pittsfield Community Television and can be viewed at youtu.be/yTeFMsVcB-4. EforAll’s next accelerator class begins in September. Applications are due at www.eforall.org before Aug. 25. The People’s Pantry is holding its Help Fill-the-Bag fundraiser, which aims to raise $300,000 by year’s end to cover projected annual expenses. Dramatic increases in the cost of living in combination with diminished affordable housing have resulted in an exponential increase in the number of clients from roughly 500 during the pandemic to 2,000 individuals a month. The pantry’s operating budget increased 500 percent between 2018 and 2021, and has gone up even more this year. Because the People’s Pantry’s administrative costs are far below average, the organization can turn more than 85 cents of each dollar donated directly into food for its customers. The People’s Pantry of Great Barrington is a 501©(3), nonprofit organization and all monetary donations are tax deductible. Information: www.ThePeoplesPantryGB.org, Goodwill Industries of the Berkshires and Southern Vermont has been awarded a $25,000 grant from the Feigenbaum Foundation that will be applied toward the cost of replacing the roof at Goodwill’s headquarters, warehouse and training center at 158 Tyler St. in Pittsfield.
The roof is leaking in a number of places and has been an ongoing challenge that has significantly limited the amount of usable space in the building, according to Goodwill President and CEO David Twiggs. Earlier this year the nonprofit organization was awarded $200,000 for infrastructure improvements by the city of Pittsfield through the federal American Rescue Plan Act. Those funds will also be put toward the cost of the roof replacement, which is estimated to cost $400,000. MountainOne Insurance has realigned its two Pittsfield offices to better serve customers. The MountainOne office located in the William Stanley Business Park of the Berkshires on Silver Lake Boulevard will now be the hub for all personal insurance needs. MountainOne Insurance’s downtown Pittsfield office at 101 South St. will become the company’s new location for business insurance needs and the firm’s commercial lending team. The South Street location will also serve client needs for life insurance, Medicare, investments, and surety bonding. MountainOne took over the South Street location when it acquired Cross Insurance’s Pittsfield office in January. All offices can be reached via the MountainOne Customer Care Center at 855-444-6861. The Crane Family Fund of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation has awarded $2,200 to Berkshire Environmental Action Team to support connecting young people with nature through programs in parks in Pittsfield’s Westside neighborhood. The grant will allow BEAT to purchase materials and plan programs that will give youngsters the opportunity to collect insects and teach them how to collect in a safe and mindful way that is beneficial to themselves and the insects. It will also allow teaching opportunities on pollination, biodiversity and the importance of insects to the global ecosystem. Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival has reached an agreement with Sodexo Live! and joint venture partner Gourmet Caterers of Boston, to enhance the food, beverage and hospitality offerings for its patrons this summer. Boston Gourmet Management Co. will incorporate the Berkshires’ influences into curated food and beverage offerings and displays at the Pillow. Menus, infused by inclusion of local ingredients, will complement the venue’s historic, artistic space. The enhancements and updated offerings will also be reflected in the Pillow’s three onsite eateries: The Restaurant Café, The Pub and The Coffee Bar. The Berkshire County Historical Society is currently in the process of updating its strategic plan that will guide the organization over the next several years. As part of that process, the organization is asking the community to participate in an online survey to help shape its strategic plan. The brief, anonymous survey is available on the BCHS website at berkshirehistory.org/2022-community-survey/; a link to the survey can also be requested by writing melville@berkshirehistory.org. Those participating in the survey will be entered into a drawing for a hat or T-shirt from the museum shop. Applications are being accepted for the Berkshire Sustainability Challenge, sponsored by small business accelerator Lever Inc. The winner
August 2022
receives a $20,000 innovation grant, while startups selected as finalists receive a $3,500 scholarship provided by MassCEC. Scholarships are provided on a case-by-case basis at the discretion of MassCEC The winner of the innovation grant will be incubated at Lever for four months at no cost. Lever will provide access to top leaders within the clean energy industry as mentors, one-on-one coaching, and customized workshops. To be eligible, business models must have high growth potential, yield technology products or services with clean energy applications, and leverage one or more pre-existing asset in the Berkshire region. The application deadline is Aug. 26. Workshops will take place Sept. 23, Oct. 7, Oct. 28, and Nov. 18. The final event is Dec. 2. Applications/information: Visit leverinc.org or email Elizabeth Nelson at nelson@leverinc.org.
The Berkshire Economic Recovery Project, a partnership between 1Berkshire and the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, has launched its women and minority-owned business enterprise module. This training module, available in both English and Spanish, provides a high-level overview of what it means to be a certified women- and/or minority-owned business enterprise, and how such a certification can help support the small businesses here in the Berkshires. Interested businesses will also find a direct link to schedule a free intake consultation with the Economic Development team at 1Berkshire. These consultations will allow 1Berkshire to make direct referrals to technical assistance support to help guide interested women- and minority-owned businesses through the certification process.
Berkshire Family and Individual Resources raised over $31,000 at its first summer kickoff festival, which took place June 11. With support from 34 sponsors and 28 in-kind donations from local businesses, the festival featured musical acts, food, two mini-golf courses and 15 games and activities. Over $3,000 in prizes and raffles were distributed. “Support that we receive through events like the Summer Kick-Off Festival and with other fundraising activities, helps us to provide essential and individualized care to persons with developmental disabilities, autism and acquired brain injury,“ said Tara Jacobsen, BFAIR’s fundraising and grants manager.
Berkshire Family and Individual Resources was honored in June as the state charity for the Massachusetts Fraternal Order of the Eagles Auxiliary, and has received over $15,000 in grants and donations from that organization, which has a facility in North Adams. Sharon Barrett, a BFAIR employee since 2012, chose BFAIR as the state charity during her past year as the Massachusetts State Auxiliary president. The motto of the auxiliary, “people helping people,” resonates through chapters across the state, nation, and world. Barrett and Betty Cahill-Corbin, of North Adams, helped BFAIR receive the donations and grants .
The Community Development Corporation of South Berkshire has received two grants from local banks that total $25,000. Berkshire Bank has approved a $20,000 grant to support the organization in its work to create affordable housing and economic development opportunities, noting that it is “committed to supporting initiatives that work to close the wealth gap in communities served by Berkshire Bank.” Salisbury Bank has approved a $5,000 contribution toward the organization’s “efforts toward affordable housing and economic development programs in the Berkshires.” Community Development Corporation has helped develop more than 140 affordable housing units, with more than 40 additional units under construction. The new housing includes plans for community gardens and greenspaces that encourage intergenerational activities. It is also developing a public park next to an in-town development. The organization’s SBTA program has helped more than 43 businesses launch, pivot or stabilize, and helped secure nearly $1 million for these businesses.
Twenty farms in Berkshire County and eastern New York are among 74 similar enterprises from the greater Western Massachusetts region that have received funds for infrastructure improvements from the Local Farmer Awards, an initiative launched in 2015 by the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation of Agawam and Big Y Foods of Springfield. Each recipient received $2,500. The total amount of the grants is $165,500, which put the project over the million dollar milestone for the first time. Over the past eight years, more than 470 grants have been made to farmers in Western Massachusetts and the Berkshires. The grants help sustain projects that are related to growing, harvesting and processing.
Four Berkshire County entities are among 70 organizations from around the state that have received a combined $262,000 from the state Attorney General’s Office to fund summer jobs for young people. The Berkshire organizations include: Berkshire South Regional Community Center in Great Barrington; Greenagers in South Egremont; Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield; and Northern Berkshire Community Coalition in North Adams. All the funded positions are focused on promoting healthy living. This is the eighth year that the AG’s Office is running the Healthy Summer Youth Jobs Grant Program, which enables teens and young people to have a direct impact in their communities by working in jobs that promote good nutrition, healthy living and professional development. The grant program is funded with fair labor related settlement
money from the AG’s Office.
Lee Bank Foundation has awarded $70,700 to 13 Berkshire area organizations in its second-round of 2022 community funding. Recipients were awarded grants ranging from $1,000 to $12,500 to support their local programming. Included in the awards are a series of Arts Access Grants for arts and culture organizations to expand access to programming for underserved audiences. The organizations that received funding include: Berkshire Black Economic Council; Berkshire South Regional Community Center; Berkshire Bounty; Community Health Programs; Construct Inc.; Elizabeth Freeman Center; Flying Cloud Institute; Goodwill Industries of the Berkshires and Southern Vermont; Link to Libraries; and South Community Food Pantry. Art Access Grants of $1,000 each were awarded to Berkshire Theatre Group, Bodysonnet and Norman Rockwell Museum. The deadline for the next round of 2022 foundation funding is Sept. 1. Applicants are only eligible for funding once in a 12-month period. The application and more information can be found on the Community Impact section of Lee Bank’s website at www.leebank.com/community-impact/donations-sponsorships.html.
August 2022
Berkshire Business Journal
7
Is it a farm or solar energy project? Lenox grants access in face of legal threat, but limits developer’s use
The 46-acre parcel at issue in Lenox can be seen as the largely open area at the top of this satellite image. The Mountainview Cemetery is at the lower center. At right, several businesses can be seen clustered along Willow Creek Road.
By Clarence Fanto LENOX — Seeking to avoid a second
lawsuit against the town, the Zoning Board of Appeals has approved a second curb cut granting access to a primarily residential property purchased by a major solar energy developer. But there’s a big catch: The board has ruled that the additional access to the land only can be used for agricultural purposes. Any future solar proposal would have to come back to the board for a special permit application, since town bylaws rule out solar in residential zones. Allco Renewable Energy Ltd., of New Haven, Conn., submitted its curb cut petition through PLH Vineyard Sky LLC, the real estate partner of Allco Renewable Energy subsidiary Ecos Energy, which operates 37 solar projects across the nation. The petition states that the company intends to harvest hay on the site, but town officials believe the company ultimately hopes to build a solar array on the site. The decision came after the developer threatened to escalate a legal confrontation with the town of Lenox, as it began groundwork for a bid to install solar panels on land located mostly in a residential area. Previously, there had been hot words at municipal meetings and filings in local court. Several Lenox officials want an end to “bombastic” statements by the developer and suggest they are not getting the whole truth about whether land adjacent to Lenox Dale will be used for farming or a large photovoltaic solar array. The developer said the town was blocking a property owner’s use of its land for agricultural purposes — and the company would do what it takes to prevail. In June 2020, a 46-acre hilltop property at 383 Housatonic St., straddling the town’s residential and industrial zones, was purchased from the estate of Carol Peters for $575,000, over its assessed value of $348,000. The parcel, which also has frontage on Willow Creek Road in the town’s industrial area, included an 1880 house and an open field mowed and hayed for four decades by a local farmer using an access road from the neighboring Mountainview Cemetery. The 383 Housatonic St. property had been on and off the market since 2010, when it was listed for $3 million. Alarm bells might have sounded, since the buyer was listed as PLH Vineyard Sky LLC. That’s the real estate partner of Ecos Energy, based in Minneapolis, which operates 37 solar projects across the nation for its parent company, Allco Renewable Energy LTD, headquartered in New Haven, Conn. In 2018, the property had been targeted for a $10 million commercial solar project by Sustainable Strategies 2020 and its partner, Syncarpha Capital of New York City. But local opposition doomed the project. In North Adams, Syncarpha’s $9 million, 3.5-megawatt solar array built in 2015 produces enough energy to meet the city’s municipal electricity needs. But in Lenox, neighbors argued that the array of solar panels would obstruct scenic views and depress property values. The current Lenox zoning bylaw for ground-mounted solar installations allows them “by right” only in industrial zones. While a small slice of the property is zoned industrial,
Company has faced opposition in Bennington, Vt. Thomas Melone’s son Michael, Allco’s vice-president and general counsel, has figured in two large, controversial solar projects in a section of Benningtion — both stalled amid stiff opposition from neighbors. According to reports in the Bennington Banner newspaper, both Melones have been involved in filing Vermont Public Utility Commission as well as court petitions and motions regarding the Allco Renewable solar projects in Bennington and in several other locations in Vermont. Last February, the commission shot down the developer’s proposal to move two large solar projects to a different Bennington location. Then, in May, state regulators again denied a permit for the proposed solar installations. most of the land is in the residential zone. THE FILING Last March, on behalf of Ecos, PLH Vineyard Sky filed a variance application with the town’s Zoning Board seeking a second curb cut on the property. A month earlier, the Lenox Planning Board had declined to exempt the company from approval requirements for a site plan that included adding a parcel to the property along Willow Creek Road. In a June 1 appearance before ZBA, Rodney Galton, Ecos Energy’s senior project manager, said a curb cut from Willow Creek Road was needed to reach the property’s agricultural fields on the eastern section of the land. He explained his company could not access those fields from Housatonic Street because of wetlands concerns raised by the town’s Conservation Commission. Galton wrote that “it is our plan to utilize the access to support farming activities.” He acknowledged “it is our intention to utilize the agricultural fields to support other divisions of our company.” He did not offer details nor specify a potential solar array. Allco’s president and senior counsel is Thomas Melone. According to his biography on Allco’s website, Melone “spends much of his time advancing Allco’s corporate mission of fighting the devastating impacts from climate change.” That text includes language that might speak to what’s afoot between the company and Lenox. It says Melone works to “open up markets to distributed renewable energy generators, and ... challenging utilities’ and state agency and municipal actions.” In an email interview with The Eagle, Melone confirmed that “a proposal for a solar facility at the site is very much a possibility. We are currently working on possible plans for an installation.” ‘CREDIBILITY’ QUESTION At the June 1 meeting, which followed a site visit to the property, Galton said the proposed gravel access driveway to the
GOOGLE EARTH
agricultural field had been regraded with a “swale” — a basin designed to manage water runoff and sediment from wetlands, a concern pinpointed Melone by Lenox Department of Public Works officials. “Right now, we have no legal way to access this field from Housatonic Street, and that is the issue here, so we can legally continue the agricultural operations of this field from Willow Creek Road,” Galton said. Kimberly Duval, a member of the Lenox ZBA, called the petition “very troubling to me, I have a hard time with the evidence presented seeing any credibility to this petition as presented.” Citing references to a potential solar project, Duval listed as “unnerving to me as a citizen sitting on this board the removal of trees and filling in of wetlands on the property” as clues to the developer’s intentions. “I’m disturbed by the entire thing,” she said, adding that she did not believe the access road would be used merely for agricultural purposes. “I don’t see any value in the request whatsoever. It sets a bad precedent for whatever you’re planning for that property.” Galton said the board should not be concerned with “whether you think I am trustworthy or not. This project is to get access to the agricultural field, plain and simple.” After Galton said couldn’t speak for the company’s owners, Thomas Melone came on the Zoom meeting. He said his intention was to exercise “certain rights we have under Massachusetts law” to access agricultural land. “Whether you believe it’s for agricultural use or not, is really beside the point for this application,” Melone said. He said his company has sued the Lenox Conservation Commission in Berkshire Superior Court on the grounds that the panel blocked the company from accessing its land from Housatonic Street. The company’s timber-cutting on the property to expand the agricultural field is also an issue in the lawsuit, he said. He warned ZBA members that if the board denied his company’s application, he could file a lawsuit with the Massachusetts Land Court. “The town can’t stop us from accessing the agricultural use,” he said. Given the ongoing lawsuit at Berkshire Superior Court, Melone insisted that “we need access to the farm field, whether you believe it or not is immaterial, it’s an agricultural use and under Massachusetts law, the town can’t block us from accessing agricultural use. And the only way to get that done now is through a second curb cut, it’s a huge property.” Since the proposed access road is from an industrial area on Willow Creek Road, Melone declared that
the curb cut would have no effect on the town. “The only effect here is what the town is trying to do to us, which is to block our use of the land,” he said. Town officials say local boards are following the law, including the Wetlands Protection Act. Land Use Director and Town Planner Gwen Miller said the company must show proof that the land in dispute is being used for agricultural purposes. She also flagged what she termed a “bombastic letter” from Melone citing case law and legal issues. “There was very little information in it that the board can use to make its decision,” she said. As for potential development of the land for a commercial solar complex, ZBA Chair Robert Fuster Jr., said that any approval of Melone’s application could be conditioned on barring use of the property for anything other than farming, specifically for haying to be used as feed for sheep used by Ecos Energy in Connecticut to mow lawns at its solar installations. Melone contended during the session that no such condition would apply, since the land could be used for any agricultural purpose and that haying is the intended use “for the foreseeable future.” That remark prompted Miller to ask the key question: “Is solar an agricultural use?” “No, solar is not an agricultural use,” Melone answered. But solar is a separate “protected use” under state law, he added. In an online fact sheet, the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) states “it is prudent for communities to allow large-scale ground-mounted solar energy systems somewhere in the community. However, DOER is unable to provide a definitive interpretation of unreasonable regulation of large-scale ground-mounted solar energy systems. … We anticipate that municipal legal counsel may offer a different interpretation and that communities will need to consider these alternatives moving forward.” Fuster said at the meeting that Melone’s company had stated it would never use the land for solar purposes. Melone responded: “We didn’t represent that we would never put solar there.” He argued that the state’s DOER has issued new guidelines “allowing solar in conjunction with other agricultural uses.” “You guys are speaking out of both sides of your mouth,” Fuster replied. “You say it’s not going to be used for solar, then you say you may use it for solar in the future. You can’t have it both ways.” Melone insisted the current use of the land is agricultural, for haying. “Right now, we’re just trying to get a driveway to access the agricultural use,” he said. “Whether we put solar on there in the future is not something we’re going to take off the table.”
TIMELINE Key events in the dispute over a possible commercial solar farm on a mostly residential site in Lenox: 2018: Proposed $10 million commercial solar project for 383 Housatonic St. is abandoned by its developer amid local opposition. June 2020: The 46-acre hilltop property at the same location on Housatonic Street is sold to PLH Vineyard Sky. October 2020: Because of wetlands issues, the Lenox Conservation Commission denies a requested second curb cut for PLH Vineyard Sky to access the agricultural land at the site. November 2021: Parent company Allco and affiliate Ecos sue the Conservation Commission in Berkshire Superior Court. March 2022: PLH Vineyard Sky files a variance application with Lenox ZBA for the second curb cut. June 1, 2022: After a confrontational Zoom meeting with Allco Energy chief Thomas Melone, the ZBA defers further discussion and a vote until a future meeting. July 2022: The ZBA approves a second curb cut, but access is limited to agricultural use of the land. For any future solar project, Allco or its subsidiaries would have to apply for a special permit.
8
Berkshire Business Journal
August 2022
Spiliotes steps down as CHP executive B y Tony D obrowolski GREAT BARRINGTON — Citing a need to focus on family health, Amelia “Lia” Spiliotes has stepped down as CEO of Community Health Programs. Spiliotes, who has led CHP since 2015, the last six years as CEO, was replaced on an interim basis by Richard H. “Rick” Gregg of Lenox, who has been a CHP board member for six years, most recently serving as vice president. CHP will conduct a nationwide search for Spiliotes’ replacement, but did not announce a timetable for hiring a permanent CEO. Gregg, a former director and CEO of the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in Stockbridge, is also a professor of health care administration at Sawyer Business School of Suffolk University in Boston, where he has been a faculty member since 2001. CHP doubled the number of patients it serves and expanded its health and family services in the Berkshires during Spiliotes’ tenure. Spiliotes said in a statement to staff and colleagues she intends to refocus on family health priorities in Boston and New York, and concentrate more on public and economic policy issues related to community health. “We have accomplished so much by advancing and accelerating CHP’s mission and vision,” Spiliotes said in her statement. “CHP reaches so many in our community in need, regardless of their ability to pay, but CHP is also a choice for many people who have plenty of health care resources and options. They choose CHP’s excellent team for their care, and I am proud to have been among the CHP stewards of our community’s health and wellness.” Spiliotes originally came to CHP to oversee the nonprofit organization’s day-to-day management and assess its needs and structures after former CEO Brian Ayers resigned in November 2015, when questions were raised about the nonprofit’s leadership. CHP conducted a nationwide search for Ayers’ replacement, but gave the position to Spiliotes on a permanent basis in 2016 after she had served one year as interim CEO. Spiliotes previously served as interim CEO of Community Health Connections in Fitchburg and had been a partner and senior adviser at Cambridge Management Group in Boston.
FILE PHOTO
Amelia “Lia” Spiliotes, who has led Community Health Programs in Great Barrington since 2015, has stepped down as the nonprofit’s CEO.
FILE PHOTO
Karen Faul, former owner of Clean All Over Laundromat in Great Barrington, had rented space from Big Y Foods for more than a dozen years. The company did not respond to requests for comment about how it next plans to use the space.
Laundromat closure still making impact By A ina de Lapparent A lvarez
Fran O’Neil sits in her backyard, reading the paper and waving at passersby. The closing of Great Barrington’s only laundromat also shut down a community space enjoyed by O’Neil and others.
GREAT BARRINGTON — With the closing of
the Clean All Over Laundromat in February, Great Barrington has gone several months without a place where members of the public can wash their clothes, forcing travel to nearby towns. A new laundromat is planned, but for now, people without washing machines in their homes must haul their dirty clothes out of town — to a small laundromat in Stockbridge, or others in Lenox and Lee. People without cars must rely on friends or neighbors to help. “This is something that I think about every day,” said Michelle Kaplan, a Great Barrington resident and longtime user of the now-shuttered laundromat in the Big Y plaza south of the town center. “It’s a major inconvenience for me because I have to alter my whole day around to do laundry now,” she said. Still, Kaplan counts herself as among the lucky ones. “I’m thinking about people who don’t have a car. Our public transportation just isn’t so great here, either,” she said. Friends have offered Kaplan use of their washing machines, but she doesn’t feel comfortable accepting. Officials with Big Y Foods have not responded to questions from The Eagle about what the company plans to do with the space formerly occupied by Clean All Over. Its owner, Karen Faul of Sheffield, posted notices in February telling customers she’d lost her lease. At the time, the closing caught people off guard. Steven Coe of Great Barrington told a reporter for The Eagle he wasn’t happy. “It’s our only place to go and do our laundry,” he said. “Big Y absolutely has every right to do this, but they didn’t let the community know, didn’t let anybody know this is what’s going on or even what’s going on.” Heather Haim, owner of laundromats in Lenox and Lee, says she inquired about reopening a laundromat at the old Great Barrington location. Haim operates the Lenox Wash & Dry Laundromat on Pittsfield Road in Lenox and the Lee Wash & Dry on Park Street in Lee. According to Haim, Big Y told her the company wasn’t interested in a new laundromat and was instead looking for a retail operation. Four months later, the space remains empty. Since Kaplan works full-time, she says she is sometimes too tired to drive more to do her laundry. It becomes a time-consuming weekend task, and at times a wait for machines, including at the Village Laundromat in Stockbridge. “There are only two large machines
AINA DE LAPPARENT ALVAREZ
there and there are always people waiting. It’s an all-day thing,” she said of the Stockbridge business. BUSY PLACES In Lenox and Lee, people say they’ve seen an increase in foot traffic at laundromats in those towns. Pam Rabbu, who lives in Lee, said she now tries to come between 7 and 9 a.m. or after 5 p.m. to avoid waiting for available washers and dryers. With the summer, Rabbu expects the situation will get worse. Summer camp counselors, campers, wedding guests, and Appalachian Trail hikers are all known to visit area laundromats. In addition to being a necessity, Kaplan believes an invaluable community space was lost with the closing of Clean All Over. “I was going once a week, and there was this sense of community,” she said. “Sometimes we’d sit outside and just chat while we waited for our clothes.” In particular, she kept running into a neighbor, Fran O’Neil, 88, also known as Nana Fran. “We had this weird psychic thing that we always ended up doing laundry at the same day and time, so we’d sit and talk,” Kaplan said. O’Neil had a washing machine at her home in Great Barrington until 2018, when it was knocked out of commission by local flooding. Looking on the bright side, she says she decided the situation offered good reason for her to get out of her house more often. “I said ‘Oh, that gives me a good excuse to remind elder people you should try to get out of your own house for a couple of hours and still converse with people,’” she said in an interview at her home. “You got to keep that human touch!” She sees laundromats as an essential place to engage with different people. “We have to learn how to cultivate contention, taking offense. People need to practice that too.’’ When the laundromat closed, she admits she was devastated. O’Neil moved to Berkshire County more than 50 years ago, but found only recently that the former Great Barrington laundromat was
a great place to meet and visit with her neighbors. Since she doesn’t drive, O’Neil now relies on friends and family to drive her to clean her clothes once a week. They tried to talk her into replacing her appliances. “‘You need to stay off the street,’” she recalls them saying. She defended the virtues of going to a laundromat. “You have that fellowship. And Jesus said to the Holy Spirit that people have to embrace one another at every opportunity. That’s what the Bible says.” COMMUNITY SPACES O’Neil isn’t alone in seeing a laundromat as more than rows of washers and dryers, plus counters for folding. Kaplan says she’s been a student of laundromats all over the world, particularly those that embrace the local community. “People open laundromats with cafés or bookstores. I guess there are endless possibilities,” she said. Kaplan also views laundromats as spaces in which to be creative. She took many photos of the former Great Barrington location. “I loved sitting there and watching people,” she said. “One day, I just wanted to bring my Polaroid camera and take this photo. I’m really glad I did.” Because it’s gone, she means. Haim, meantime, has been working to turn her laundromat in Lenox into a gallery for Community Access to the Arts. The Great Barrington organization celebrates the artistic ability of people with disabilities. “I’ve purchased some art from Community Access to the Arts, and I’m going to be hanging it as a gallery and educational element for our laundromat. I think everybody will really enjoy it,” she said. Customers aren’t the only ones who see a business void in Great Barrington. Paula Kohler of Sandisfield is said to be preparing to open a new laundromat in Great Barrington. The timeline for opening is between late 2022 or early 2023, said Allen Harris, a consultant working with Kohler.
August 2022
Berkshire Business Journal
9
LULU’S TINY GROCERY
A new take on breakfast
Co-owners of Flat Burger, Thistle and Mirth aim to feed the early birds
By Tony Dobrowolski
idea of offering some sort of retail.” The business has two employees besides Oliver and Bowman. Oliver and Bowman opened The Flat Burger Society, named after a type of hamburger the restaurant serves, last summer in the space formerly occupied by Flavours of Malaysia, which closed in late 2020 due to the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Bowman founded Thistle and Mirth around 10 years ago. Oliver joined him as co-owner shortly before the pandemic struck the Berkshires two years ago. Originally a bar with an extensive tap list, Thistle and Mirth reopened last year as a restaurant serving Ramen noodle-style items after it expanded into an adjacent space on West Street that had been vacated by the Berkshire Print Shop. Small business owners in downtown Pittsfield have been struggling. The west side of North Street between Columbus Avenue and Summer Street that once contained a variety of small businesses is now almost totally vacant. But where others have struggled, Bowman and Oliver have been able to thrive. “I think we just thoroughly believe in Pittsfield,” Oliver said. “I think it’s on an upward trajectory and we want to be on the rising tide.” But what about all those businesses that closed? “When businesses close that means the opportunity is there for others,” said Oliver, when asked why the partners decided to open a third business. “We see it as an opportunity, more so than a negative. “I think it would have been much more difficult to do this before the pandemic,” he said. “But I think since we started right in the midst of it ... I think we have a firm grasp on being able to be successful.” Lulu’s is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday and is planning to open Saturdays in the near future.
PITTSFIELD — The owners of two Pittsfield
restaurants have opened a third business downtown. “We just thoroughly believe in Pittsfield,” says Austin Oliver. Oliver and Joad Bowman, who co-own Thistle and Mirth on West Street and The Flat Burger Society on McKay Street, have opened Lulu’s Tiny Grocery in the Crawford Square building on the corner of North and Depot streets. Lulu’s, a breakfast and brunch spot, is located on the ground floor near the rear of the building in space formerly used by Bigg Daddy’s Philly Steak House and more recently Red Apple Butchers, which had two go-rounds in the location. The space contains a large commercial kitchen and previously housed a deli and catering business. After Red Apple Butchers closed the second time, Bowman and Oliver started using the space as a prep kitchen for Thistle and Mirth and as a commissary for both their restaurants about six months ago. “We’d already been utilizing this kitchen for awhile, so we came up with an idea after we had already been putting it to use,” Oliver said. “We noticed a hole in the market in Pittsfield for a bagel spot — and then everything else came together.” The concept is proving popular. Lulu’s had 418 followers on its Facebook page at the end of June. Lulu’s, named for Bowman’s daughter, offers breakfast and lunch sandwiches whose ingredients are subject to change. “It’s a pretty evolving menu each week,” Bowman said. The store also provides some grocery items, which Oliver said will expand over time. “As we continue to grow, we’ll continue to make a small specialty grocery out of the place as well,” he said. “We just like the
Thistle & Mirth and Flat Burger Society restaurant coowner Austin Oliver, above, at the newly opened Lulu’s Tiny Grocery in Crawford Square in Pittsfield, serving breakfast, brunch and lunch items, including “Fruity Pebbles” muffins, right. PHOTOS BY STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN
Lender in Commercial / Industrial Sales and Leases in Berkshire County
75 NORTH STREET, PITTSFIELD Professional office space in the Central Block Suite 301 with 5 offices on the third floor 75 North St., Pittsfield, Ma. 01201 For Lease: $16/SF/YR
44 MAIN STREET, STOCKBRIDGE
Development Opportunity. Portfolio of 3 condos located in historic downtown Stockbridge. Being sold AS IS; units to be built out by new owner. Condo #2 1,448 sf. Condo #3 - 1,023 sf, Condo #4 - 1,844 sf. 44 Main St., Stockbridge MA 01262
For Sale: $700,000
199 SOUTH STREET, PITTSFIELD Medical/Professional Office Space Recently refreshed office space for lease 199 South St., Pittsfield, Ma. 01201 For Lease: $16/SF/YR
15 PRINTWORKS DRIVE, ADAMS Multi-purpose building for sale or lease 15 Printworks Dr., Adams, Ma. 01220 Zoning allows cannabis cultivation/ manufacturing For Sale: $1,495,000
66 WEST STREET, PITTSFIELD Class A office space for lease. The Tierney Building offers space in Pittsfield. This building has open spaces from 1,0005,000 sf. 66 West St. Pittsfield, Ma. 01201. For Lease: $16/SF/YR
71 MAIN STREET, EGREMONT
36 PITTSFIELD ROAD, LENOX Prime high visibility commercial building lot on Route 7 with signalized access north and south. 36 Pittsfield Rd., Lenox, Ma. 01240 For Sale: $400,000
406 MAIN STREET, GT BARRINGTON The building was totally renovated in 2018-2019 and is fully occupied. 15 Parking Spaces 406 Main St. Great Barrington, Ma. 01230 For Sale: $1,500,000
Iconic Multi Tenant commercial building. This highly visible and largely renovated building is now for sale with long-term tenants and a great cash-flow. 71 Main St., Egremont MA 01258
For Sale: $929,000
www.BerkshireCommercialProperties.com RICH ALDRICH rich.aldrich01238@gmail.com 413-243-1739
COMMERCIAL SALES & LEASES BUSINESS BROKERAGE SERVICES INVESTMENT PROPERTIES 55 Railroad Street • Gt. Barrington, MA
10
Berkshire Business Journal
August 2022
Mill Town buys into moving, storage Forms investment group to purchase Mullen Cos. By Tony Dobrowolski PITTSFIELD — Mill Town Capital has formed
an investment group with four local partners that recently purchased the assets of a long-standing, Berkshire-based moving, storage and warehouse company. The new entity, Mountain Capital Partners LLC, has acquired the Mullen Cos., which operates self-storage, mobile mini-storage, archive and records management and warehousing operations in Adams, Pittsfield and three locations in New York state. The group paid a combined $9.8 million for Mullen’s four Berkshire properties: One at 71 Grove St. in Adams, and the three others in Pittsfield’s Downing Industrial Park, according to documents filed at the Middle Berkshire Registry of Deeds. Mill Town CEO Tim Burke declined to say how much it cost the group to purchase Mullen’s other properties in New York, which are located in Ballston Spa, Glens Falls and Schenectady. According to its website, Mullen opened a state-of-the-art warehouse, storage and distribution facility in Saratoga County, N.Y., in 2005. The four members of the investment group are equal partners in the Mullen Cos., which they will directly own and operate, Burke said. The company will retain its current name. No additions or subtractions to the company’s current labor force are anticipated. “There are no definite plans for changes at this time,” Burke said. The new owners also expect to maintain the continuity of existing business operations and staff, except at the top, where Anthony Massimiano has been named incoming president. A Pittsfield native, Massimiano most recently served as director
ABOVE: FILE PHOTO LEFT:GOOGLE
This Mullen Cos. site in Pittsfield, left, is included in a $9.8 million purchase by a new investment group in the region, Mountain Capital Partners LLC, led by CEO and Managing Director Tim Burke, above. of strategy and consulting with Accenture in Boston. Mill Town Capital is a Pittsfield investment firm that owns a number of Berkshire properties, including Bousquet Mountain, the former Berkshire West Athletic Club and the former Pontoosuc Country Club in Pittsfield, The Gateways Inn in Lenox, and the former Skyline Country Club in Lanesborough. “We bought it because it’s a long-standing business in the Berkshires and it’s performed well, and we think this is a good business category,” said Burke, speaking on behalf of the investment group. In Mill Town’s case, Burke said the Mullen Cos. fits into the the company’s real estate investment portfolio, which includes rental and commercial properties. When asked if the purchase of the Mullen Companies was intended to complement Mill Town’s existing assets, Burke said, “potentially.” “If there are potential synergies we will
look at that, but right now we view it as a pretty solid business on its own,” he said. THE NEW COMPANY Mountain Capital Partners was formed in 2021. The group’s four other partners include Brian Tremblay and Matt Scarafoni, who own Berkshire Fairfield Insurance and Scarafoni Financial Group in Pittsfield; Carr Hardware owner Bart Raser; and Peter Quinlan, principal of PQ Capital Group and former treasurer of Signature Bank in New York state. The Mullen Cos. are a fifth-generation family business. It specializes in facility and industrial moving, museum and library relocation and climate-controlled warehousing and transportation. Other lines of business include information storage and management and the shipment internationally of household goods. It got its start in the 1880s in New Bedford. Founder Patrick Ryan Mullen, who held a stevedore license, moved the firm to North Adams in the early 1900s when rail
service was expanded to western Massachusetts. Mullen’s grandson, Jack, expanded the company into New York state when he purchased facilities in Glens Falls, Saratoga Springs and Schenectady in 1946. Fourth generation owner Martin Mullen created the businesses’ information storage and management, Pack N’ Ship, mini self-storage, mini warehouses and trailer storage facilities during the 1980s. In 1997, Mullen purchased the Consolidated Freightways Terminal in Pittsfield and formed Mullen Logistics LLC, a commercial warehousing and distribution center. Two of the Pittsfield properties in the Downing Industrial Park were operated by Mullen Logistics, while the two other Berkshire-based sites were operated by Mullen Brothers. The most expensive property on the list, 50 Downing II in Pittsfield, a mini storage facility that belonged to Mullen Bros., sold for $4.9 million, according to registry documents.
WE KNOW WHY YOU ARE HERE.
BERKSHIRE INNOVATION CENTER Sparking innovation and sustainable growth for technology-focused businesses in our region.
Visit us online to: Sign up for programming updates Book your next meeting or event Schedule a tour Download our Member Guide
WE’RE HERE FOR THE SAME REASONS.
F fulfill.
Visit us online!
The Berkshires.
rom one season to the next, this is more than a destination. It’s a set of experiences, qualities and values that
Your financial advisors should embody these same attributes. It’s why we’re here. We’re here with you. And for you. Come learn more. Let’s start a conversation.
Portfolio Management ▪ Financial Planning ▪ Trust & Banking Services* 103 West Park Street Lee, MA 01238 (413) 243-4331 www.octobermountainfa.com *Banking & trust administration services provided by Lee Bank. October Mountain Financial Advisors is a d/b/a of St. Germain Investment Management.
LEARN | INNOVATE | COMMUNITY
A SEC Registered Investment Advisor
Member SEC, FINRA, SiPC
August 2022
Berkshire Business Journal
11
COME BY TODAY FOR YOUR MULCH, STONE, TOPSOIL, GRAVEL AND AIRPORT MIX! Offering During Winter Months:
Commercial Plowing and Salting
CALL 413-464-9574 FOR DELIVERY 185 FENN STREET • PITTSFIELD, MA
12
Berkshire Business Journal
August 2022
Cover story Currency FROM PAGE 1
a bond trader for J.P. Morgan and served as both a lawyer and entrepreneur in the cryptocurrency space, BerkShares digital currency reflects the nonprofit’s core values of keeping money and goods circulating with in the community and working with local banks “The way we describe it is we’re bringing the blockchain to Main Street,” said Susan Witt, the executive director of the Schumacher Center for a New Economics in South Egremont, referring to the term that is used to record transactions in bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies across computers in a peer-to-peer network. The Schumacher Center oversees the BerkShares program. According to Witt, no other local currency has a digital app that is set up like BerkShares. “There’s one in South Africa that’s using the blockchain,” she said. ‘But it’s not going through the banks.” BerkShares digital app is fully backed in U.S. dollars by two local banks, Lee Bank and Salisbury Bank & Trust, of Salisbury, Conn., which operates three branches in the Berkshires. BerkShares was founded as a local currency that could be used at participating businesses to keep money circulating throughout the Berkshire region. It was created to serve as a tool for community economic empowerment, and development toward regional self-reliance, according to its website. That idea doesn’t fit with digital currencies, where banks and other traditional financial institutions are often bypassed or completely left out of the process. “This is extremely innovative because it’s built a multipayment system on the blockchain but working with our local banks,” said Witt, who believes the system for BerkShares’ digital app could be
PHOTOS BY BEN GARVER
Above: Maddie Alsdorf rings up a customer at the Berkshire Food Co-Op in Great Barrington. The market was one of the first businesses to use the new digital BerkShares. Left: The BerkShares digital app can transfer funds between phones and businesses. used as a model for other currencies. It took awhile for BerkShares to hit on the right formula for its digital app. In the beginning, engineers were interested in a different model. “We had been approached by multiple crypto engineers who said we can build a digital BerkShares for you, but they were expecting to leap over the banks, in other words to exclude the local banks and make it a for-profit initiative,” Witt said. “BerkShares is a nonprofit. We feel currency should be a tool that serves a local community, not one that extracts profit for others. “One of our conditions is that (the system) would work with our local banks,” Witt said. “The second condition was that the esthetics that we so carefully built into the paper currency featuring our local heroes through the artwork of local artists and highlighting some of our key natural resources be maintained, and
that the nonprofit ethos that we had constructed be maintained. And that it would remain limited to the Berkshires, so that it wouldn’t be an app that mobile traders could come on.” Enter Fennie Wang, the founder and CEO of Humanity Cash, which is based in the New York City borough of Queens. Wang, who has worked as a lawyer with securities and regulatory agencies, came on board after a friend who works as the director of innovation for the International Red Cross told her what Witt was trying to accomplish. “He had suggested that we reach out to the Schumacher Center,” said Wang, who is originally from San Diego. “What I really liked about the BerkShares model, and this kind of speaks to its values, is that even with the paper version they were working with the banks to hold the underlying dollar reserve so it was a onefor-one match local currency.
“It was a regulatory sound model,” she said, “if we could just lift that model into a digital framework.” Instead of having a customer walk into a bank with federal dollars, Wang said the idea would be to create a “digital analog” where a bank account would serve as the tracking mechanism. “From that point forward, you’re making peer-to-peer transactions with the digital tokens,” she said. “It really functions as a form of digital cash.” “The banks we’re a very, very important part of the equation,” she said. There are pros and cons to digital currencies. On the plus side, transactions are faster, there are no fees, and there’s protection against fraud. But the downsides include assets that are prone to volatility because digital currencies are not backed by a central bank, and not overseen by a regulatory agency. CURRENCY, Page 13
August 2022
Berkshire Business Journal
13
Currency FROM PAGE 12
Central Bank digital currencies are regulated and are issued by a country’s central bank. Virtual currents are unregulated, controlled by the developer or a founding group consisting of stakeholders that were involved in the process, according to investopedia.com. Based on her experience in the field, Wang said digital currency creators don’t believe in either banks or regulatory agencies. “They think that the Federal Reserve is corrupt; that the dollar is terrible,” Wang said. “There’s a huge ideological bent. The whole point of crypto is to create this alternative money that is better than the Federal Reserve and the national banking system. “I think the other part of it is we don’t want to work with banks because we don’t know how to work with the regulatory (procedures) that a bank requires you to verify with,” she said. “So crypto is kind of like this free-for-all where you can do anything you want there. “I think that viewpoint is very pie in the sky and naive,” she said. Humanity Cash began working on the system last year when it began sketching the designs for the app. Coding took place last fall, Wang said, and it was released at the end of March. The system that Humanity Cash built for BerkShares digital app was not based on any existing models. “We built the core functionalities from scratch,” Wang said. “We kind of mapped those actions, we took user feedback, and that informed the design, the user experience and also the backend functionalities.” And Humanity Cash is still tinkering with it. “Nothing’s ever finished,” Wang said. “That’s the whole joke in software that you’re never done. You constantly have to meet the needs of your users.” BerkShares Inc. may be a nonprofit, and its users believe in the program’s values, but the digital version till has to function in a competitive marketplace.
PHOTOS BY BEN GARVER
Left: A cash register at the Berkshire Food Co-Op shows the option of using BerkShares for transactions. Above: A sign advertises digital BerkShares. “BerkShares may operate as a nonprofit but BerkShares as a tool has to compete against commercial operators,” Wang said. “We’re competing against Pay Pal, all these multibillion dollar tech companies. Values do get you somewhere, but you still have to be able to compete in terms of basic use requirements so it’s always a work in progress to figure out how to improve. What’s the guerilla tactic that allows us to create and fulfill the core basic needs but add to the competitive advantages to what they’re building.” BerkShares digital app has been popular so far. According to the Schumacher Center, 70 area Berkshire businesses have accepted BerkShares digital app since the rollout began. Multiple vendors at the Great Barrington Farmers Market are using it. “I don’t think we were surprised at the response,” said Jared Spears, the Schumacher Center’s director of communications and resources. “The center is is providing outreach to businesses that are interested in using the digital app. “We were starting from a pretty strong base,” Spears said. “More businesses have been accepting our paper currency.” The Berkshire Co-op Market in Great Barrington worked with both Wang and
LEEB A N K .C O M
|
businesses about the advantages of using the digital app. Chuck Leach, the president of Lee Bank, said he’s happy that his bank decided to back the program. “I think, candidly, people here were a little nervous that I was interested in exploring this because crypto carries a bit of a stigma,” Leach said. “I viewed it as a way to make the Berkshires work better.” The bank wouldn’t have gotten involved in the project if Wang hadn’t been there. “She’s so smart and savvy that when she got involved I got a lot of confidence that the bank would be protected and that this is a way to continue along the path of supporting the Berkshires,” Leach said.” I think internally it’s hard for us as a small bank to take on new projects and initiatives. We have to pick our spots a little bit, Obviously, cryptocurrency comes with some controversy.” Getting involved in the project was “really sort a very low risk foray into the world of digital currency,” he said. Leach is also glad that the BerkShares program was able to enter the field while maintaining its values. “They did pull it off,” he said. “It’s pretty genius actually.”
Spears to troubleshoot the digital app and roll it out in the store. “It has been a great experience for us. We always accepted the paper BerkShares, but now that it’s gone digital it’s been a smooth ride,” said Hayley Ranolde, the market’s customer service manager. “I think it’s going so well because everything has gone digital,” Ranolde said. “It’s taking away that first stop that people have to take to go to the bank and transition from paper cash to paper BerkShares. So it’s really easy for people to do it from their smartphones.” It may be easy to use BerkShares’ digital app, but Helfand believes more information is needed to make it more popular, particularly among those who aren’t digitally inclined. “What I see as the challenge are people that aren’t digital natives as opposed to 20-year-old’s who can do this in their sleep,” said Helfand, who holds an MBA in marketing, works with the Community Development Corporation of South Berkshire, and helped found an entrepreneurs forum. She believes BerkShares should implement an information campaign, possibly including a webinar, to teach local
STRONG BR ANCHES, DEEP ROOTS
|
������������
groundbreaking news AT
S O U T H S T R E E T, P I T T S F I E L D
new branch
coming to pittsfield Spring/Summer 2023
14
Berkshire Business Journal
August 2022 Topher Sabot of Cricket Creek Farm in Williamstown milks his herd of dairy cows in April 2020.
Berkshire Voices
Now is the time to watch for scams PITTSFIELD — As home inventory
Be suspicious of
fell during COVID-19 and buyoffers that seems ers struggled to find property, real estate scams were also on too good to be true, the rise. The five most common real or from hucksters estate and mortgage scams are as follows: escrow wire fraud; making claims that Sandra J. predatory lending; false forecloCarroll can’t possibility be sure relief; fake for-sale listings; Real estate and rental scams and bait-andguaranteed. switch movers. Homeowners and potential buyers must reMassachusetts Real Estate Bar Associmain vigilant and be cautious of offers ation. that sound too good to be true. All three of those sources have Here are some warning signs of strong legal vetting for the laws of Masscams and unfavorable loan terms: sachusetts and protect the rights of all • When it sounds too easy: Be wary parties. In Berkshire County, contracts of offers that include “guaranteed loan have significant input and approval approval,” “guaranteed sale or resale” from our local, legal community. When or “no income verification loan” reusing a contract that isn’t a standard gardless of borrower’s current employagreement or has additional language ment, credit history and assets. from the boilerplate, always have your • Large future costs: High-risk, adjustable-rate mortgages where payment legal counsel check the contract to make sure your rights are adequately rises significantly after a “teaser rate” protected. period that doesn’t match variable Prospective buyers and sellers are income flow or held assets. also cautioned to never act on wiring • Unethical document management: instructions or take any financial action Ethical lenders, attorneys or brokers without a verbal discussion with your will never ask you to sign a blank docagent and/or attorney. Email accounts ument or a document dated before the are routinely hacked, and fraudulent date you sign. Having trusted housing professionals messages — and now texts — are sent is incredibly important. Disclosures are to unsuspecting parties to a transaction that contains false instructions yet accumade by all reputable lenders, lawyers rate closing details. It is imperative that and Realtors every step of the way. you have an understanding with your Buyers should be aware that as interest rates climb and the mortgage products agent and attorney that you will only change, it is important to know the make financial moves with a verbal conterms of your mortgage today, in five firmation received when you initiate a years and in 20 years. Lenders routinecall to the phone number in your address ly verify employment, income, and debt book not one contained in a message. and talk in detail about the costs and Here’s another red flag: If you find life cycle of the loan. Alternatively, if a home or rental for sale on Craigslist, an existing homeowner is struggling but see no lawn signs, the price is too or unable to meet current loan obligood to be true and you’re not dealing gations, working with local housing with an agent that you can verify. Local experts can help develop proactive professionals in all parts of the real solutions before payments are missed estate transaction work to help your or foreclosure is a possibility. housing dreams come true, and that inHome sellers should also be careful cludes introductions, disclosures about when entering into agreements to list who they work for and how they get their home for sale. During COVID-19, paid and what they will do to help you new scams and questionable business in the transaction if hired. Be suspipractices have emerged that take adcious of offers that seems too good to be vantage of a homeowner’s trust when true, or from hucksters making claims looking to determine home worth or that can’t possibility be guaranteed. to list their home for sale. A great way All housing professionals want to to avoid any scams in this manner is to do everything they can to make sure verify that the firm you are choosing to you can find the home of your dreams, work with is in located and licensed in afford to stay in your home and help the state. A helpful tip is to verify agreeyou avoid any potential scams. ments presented for your consideration are generated by the Berkshire County Sandra J. Carroll is the chief executive officer of Board of Realtors, the Massachusetts the Berkshire County Board of Realtors Inc., and the Berkshire County Multiple Listing Service. Association of Realtors or the
FILE PHOTO
Help local dairy farms to keep things running By Sarah Gardner It’s morning at Cricket Creek Farm in Williamstown, and the dairy farm is bustling with activity. One worker scrubs the milk room, another hauls a wheelbarrow with buckets of whey for the pigs, and the cheesemaker pulls up. With 35 Jersey and Brown Swiss cows, the farm is a local treasure: people bring their kids and guests to see the fetching doe-eyed cows and free-range pigs while soaking up the beauty of the rolling pastures and expansive view of Mount Greylock. But the bustling farm belies a hard truth. Farming is not an easy way to make a living. “It’s often a struggle,” says Topher Sabot, the 46-year-old owner of Cricket Creek Farm. “I see myself as a steward of the land and strive to produce high quality food, but community support is essential to keep me going.” Making ends meet is even tougher this year for the 17 Berkshire family farms that supply Massachusetts with milk. Labor is in short supply and inflation is skyrocketing. “With the price of all three inputs up — feed, fuel and fertilizer — it’s a constant financial struggle. There’s no footing,” says Wally Chenail of Chenail Brothers Dairy in Williamstown, which has been in operation since 1913. The current economic conditions are forcing some farmers to go out of business and sell their land, and home developers and the solar industry are banging on the barn door. A recent New York Times article, “How ‘Fairy Tale’ Farms are Ruining Hudson Valley Agriculture,” sounds an alarm for the Berkshire farming region, too, jeopardizing family farms and the possibilities for next-generation farmers. Second-home buyers are snapping up land for rural estates. Farm prices have spiked 62 percent since the pandemic began and farmers can’t compete. While some newcomers are open to leasing the property for agricultural purposes, they tend to prefer the look of storybook farms over the sights, smells and sounds of a commercial operation. Farms are losing leases and agriculture is suffering. In Massachusetts, more than 500 farmers are seeking farmland.
Losing farms is bad news for climate change and regional food security. Massachusetts is more self-sufficient for dairy products than any other food, and Berkshire County is the top dairy producer in the state. Dairy farms manage most of the county’s grasslands. A typical dairy owns 250 acres and manages several hundred acres more that they lease from landowners. Cricket Creek and other area dairy farms use intensive rotational grazing methods that regenerate the land and soil. Perennial pasturelands sequester carbon and are resilient to droughts, extreme heat and flooding. This summer, let’s remember the daily efforts of our local dairy farmers and support our region’s dairy tradition so we can keep it real, local and beautiful here in the Berkshires and leave the fairy tale farms to the storybooks. Eat an ice cream cone. Buy local cheese and dairy products at farm stands and stores. Most milk sold here is from cows in our region, and milk is a protein-rich affordable local food (unlike alternatives made from soy, oat and almonds). Ensure your town has enacted the right-to-farm bylaw that protects farmers’ rights to engage in farming practices, even if they occasionally produce noise or smells. If you own farmland, even a few acres, consider leasing it to a farmer. There’s a farmland shortage and hundreds of new farmers are seeking land in Massachusetts. Encourage your local land trust to protect farms and working lands to ensure the Berkshires have farms in the future. Visit farmland.org/ berkshire-farm-futures for a list of farm conservation and land access resources. Visit a dairy farm; many are open to the public. Befriend your local farmers. As the number of farms dwindles, farmers can feel isolated, and they appreciate the support of their neighbors. Of course, you will also have a chance to be greeted by a doe-eyed calf who is guaranteed to make you smile. Sarah Gardner is a member of the Massachusetts Dairy Sustainability Task Force and the Berkshire Farm Futures project.
A huge thank you to the MassHire Berkshire Workforce Board summer program sponsors:
Thanks to your support, 12 high school students are participating in enriching, paid work experiences in the Berkshires this summer.
Pictured Left to Right: Paige at the Berkshire Museum, North County Youth Works Work Readiness Training
August 2022
Berkshire Business Journal
15
There is no better time to jump on board its seventh year of publication, is available as a downloadable ery nonprofit is in need of addiPDF. Berkshire United Way has tional board members. partnered with Greylock FedWhen the Nonprofit Center eral Credit Union to launch an of the Berkshires last surveyed online volunteer center. Brenda 60 nonprofits in 2018, 80 percent Petell, the director of volunwere looking for between one teer engagement at Berkshire and three new members, while Liana United Way, says volunteering some nonprofits desired four or Toscanini for an organization or serving more. Most were seeking volNonprofit on a committee is often a path to unteers with fundraising skills, Notes board service. followed by those with personal For the uninitiated, NPC’s connections, financial means new “Intro to Board Service” and the willingness to “roll up video series (available on the NPC webone’s sleeves.” site) explains the roles, responsibilities The need was described as relatively and expectations of board members and urgent. Ninety percent of those suroffers tips on understanding finance veyed were interested in a “speed-datand fundraising. Funded by the Berking” style type of event to meet board shire Film and Media Collaborative, prospects. While half of the responand Massachusetts Service Alliance/ dents described their boards as diverse Americorps MA Volunteer Generation in terms of age and gender, only 3 perFund, the short videos provide enough cent claimed to have a racially diverse information to encourage people to say board. “yes” to board service. Fast forward to 2022 and well into the Board trainings and volunteer fairs pandemic, and the Nonprofit Center of will return in the fall as well. In 2019, the Berkshires continues to field calls the Nonprofit Center of the Berkfrom nonprofits looking for either more shires joined Age-Friendly Berkshires, board members, younger board memBerkshire United Way and the Osher bers, more diverse members, or those Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire with specific expertise in finance and fundraising — understandable given the Community College for a pilot volunteer fair that was, by all accounts, wildchallenges nonprofits have faced during ly successful. For the curious, a 10-secCOVID, including loss of program and ond video clip of the fair that shows the event revenue. feverish level of excitement generated The NPC was founded on the concept by over 150 people eager to get involved of leveraging community assets, including volunteers, to help nonprofits thrive. can be found at npcberkshires.org/volunteer-fairs/. Encouraging volunteerism and board Following more than two years of service remains at the top of our list COVID-related challenges, many nonof priorities. It’s taken several years to profits may be looking to refresh and build the resources our nonprofit sector grow their boards. needs to connect to those who want to “Boards are tired,” says consultant help. Andy Robinson, who also chairs a The good news is, there are more nonprofit board in Vermont. “After two resources than ever for nonprofits and years of COVID adjustments and adapwould-be board members. The Nonproftations, they want predictability. it Center’s Giving Back guide, now in
GREAT BARRINGTON — Almost ev-
There is no question that online board meetings are a positive development for nonprofits. They make it easier to attract new board members, including second- home owners who would be able to attend Zoom meetings during the week from their primary residences. Many nonprofits will go forward with a hybrid board meeting model that combines the convenience of online meetings with occasional in-person sessions. “The emerging leadership skill is comfort with ambiguity,” he adds, “and the ability to support others in embracing that ambiguity, because things will be unpredictable for a while.” NPC’s own board of directors met monthly via Zoom throughout the crisis. In many ways, it is an exhilarating time to be a board member, working as a team to creatively problem-solve, using every skill in the board basket to address challenges, and drawing on the passion for the mission to ensure the survival of the organization during chaotic times. There is no question that online board meetings are a positive development for nonprofits. They make it easier to attract new board members, including second- home owners who would be able to attend Zoom meetings during the week from their primary residences. Many nonprofits will go forward with a hybrid board meeting model that combines the convenience of online meetings with occasional in-person sessions. COVID also brought new people to the area, some of whom stayed and are now looking to become more involved in their adopted community. That’s good news for Berkshire nonprofits that can tap into this fresh blood. Pittsfield resident John Lewis, CEO of R3set Enterprises, moved to the Berkshires in 2018 with a formidable skill set in
storytelling, nonprofit work, entrepreneurship, innovation and collaboration. When he observed a need for more Black voices and faces at the table, he jumped into the community conversation and ended up serving on multiple advisory boards. He hopes that groups solicit more involvement from the Black community, with a focus on gaining different skills and perspectives, rather than token representation. Another source for new board members may rest in the next generation of community leaders. Abigail Allard, the development and communications manager at Gladys Allen Brigham Community Center in Pittsfield recently completed 1Berkshires’ Berkshire Leadership Program. She admits that her initial attempts to join boards were met with skepticism. But she passed along this tip for other millennials: “The greatest gift you can give people is your time, being active with organizations you have a passion for, networking at their events and sharing your skills where needed. That is the best way to serve your community and then the opportunities to join boards will present themselves to you.” There is no better time to either build or join a board. Liana Toscanini is the executive director of the Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires.
THANK YOU! It’s Our Customers That Are Simply Amazing
Property Management
The area’s premier real estate management & development company
We manage everything real estate! • • • • •
Condominiums Home Owner’s Associations Commercial Property Single Family Homes Multifamily complexes
413.663.8677
www.moresiandassociates.com North Adams, MA
6
YEARS IN A ROW
!
We’re your one stop shop for all your home improvement needs! Windows • Siding Additions • Remodeling Custom Build • Roofs Decks • Flooring Kitchens chens • Baths
CON BE S T
T R AC T O R
MHIS Proudly Supports M
25 PITTSFIELD ROAD, ROUTE 7 & 20, LENOX, MA 01240 • (413) 442-3001 TAKE A VIRTUAL TOUR OF OUR SHOWROOM AT: WWW.MORRISONSHOMEIMPROVEMENT.COM
16
Berkshire Business Journal
August 2022
Trying to remain open to technology PITTSFIELD — I’m not a techie in
Living in the past can be nice sometimes but it’s also too
the pure sense of the word. I know my way around the easy. And, living in the “This is the way we’ve always done digital world, but I’m far from it” mode is counterproductive and a cop-out. an expert and don’t completely inhabit it. I’m not totally best way to deal with these you learn. You fall off your bike a lot all-in professionally because challenges is to remain open before you learn how to ride it the the internet didn’t exist when Tony to them, not to dismiss, run right way. You always need to rememI started in this business. BeDobrowolski or hide from them. Yes, it can lieve it or not, we used typeber that. Commentary be frustrating. Writing this writers at my college newsLook, you’re going to hit the wrong column a second time was paper. No, I don’t still pound button sometimes. Maybe doing so definitely no fun. out stories the old fashioned will send you into a program that you But it’s better than the alternaway, but I’m still learning the ins and don’t understand with no road map tive. Living in the past can be nice outs of this baffling, frustrating and for how you got there and no direcsometimes but it’s also too easy. And, ever-changing technology. tions on how to get out. Sometimes living in the “This is the way we’ve So frustrating that I actually forgot you feel like you’ve ventured into always done it” mode is counterproto save the original version of this one of those distant galaxies that you ductive and a cop-out. column when I was writing it and used to see on “Star Trek.” But that’s There are a lot of traditionalists had to do it all over again. part of the process. in the newspaper business, people I’m quite a contrast to my mostly Luckily, most of my colleagues are who view the fundamentals as if very younger colleagues who have much younger than me and know they were the 10 commandments and been plugged in since birth. Somewhat they’re doing. Don’t feel emMoses had brought them down from times I think they see me as some barrassed if you have to ask them for the mountain. In the movies, the Ten ancient relic from a distant age help. I’ve done it several times. Commandments are etched in stone, when dinosaurs roamed the earth The flip side to all this is the exhilbut the fundamentals of the newspaand horses were the primary mode aration you experience when you disper business, or any other profession, cover something new. Case in point: of transportation. If I told them I’d shouldn’t be. I’ve worked with people interviewed Custer I think they’d I recently tried to reach someone by at many different places over the believe me. phone and email for a story I was years who adhered to these tenets Here’s an example of the differworking on but had no luck. I was as if they were gospel. A lot of them ence. When I first started in this about to repeat the same scenario a aren’t in the business anymore. business over 30 years ago we looked second time, when suddenly it hit me Sure change is difficult, espein the phone book to find the inforthat I might have better luck sending cially in the world we live in now mation of the people that we were a text. I did and got an almost immewhere technology has made change trying to contact. Not that long ago, diate response. a constant. It can be difficult to one of my 20-something colleagues When I told my younger colleagues adapt. Based on personal experience, was looking for somebody’s phone about what I did I felt the way Ben number and asked me for help. “Look sometimes you go into it kicking and Franklin must have felt when he disin the book,” I said, forgetting who I screaming. “I just learned this, now I covered electricity. They just smiled was talking to. have to do that?” often goes through and went back to their cellphones. “What book?” was the response. my head whenever another change So call me a techie in training. Pow! The age and technology gap happens at The Eagle, or when I do Given the world we inhabit and the had just hit me right between the something like lose the first version circumstances I work in, I’ll take it. eyes. of this column. So times change. What else is new. Sometimes you panic when you Tony Dobrowolski is the editor of Berkshire That’s the way it always has been make a mistake. But you have to keep Business Journal and has been The and always will be. There’s nothing trying. It may sound corny, even Berkshire Eagle’s main business writer wrong with that. I’ve found that the cliche, but making mistakes is how since 2008.
Restaurant space for lease Exciting opportunity in franchise hotel located in an iconic building in Pittsfield, MA’s Downtown Arts District. Walking distance from performing arts venues, Amtrak station, shops, local businesses. In-demand location for meeting space and special events - corporate, social and weddings. Hotel features 10,000 SF of event space; opportunity includes on-site catering exclusivity. Turn-key, full equipped 2,000 SF kitchen. Recently renovated 120 seat dining room and bar. Gas, electric, water and wifi included. Franchise support.
Call, text or email for more information: John P Christopher CHA 315-569-1227 cell Johnpchristopher@gmail.com
August 2022
Berkshire Business Journal
17
The reimagination of work PITTSFIELD — Soaring temperathe idea of full employment tures, vacations, beaches, swimusually implies everyone in the ming pools, and outdoor barbecountry is working. However, cues mark summertime. Here even in a fully employed, robust are some fun facts about the dog economy, there will always be a days of summer: certain number of people who • Watermelon is summer’s have given up looking for work, most popular vegetable. It is who are between jobs or whose Heather part of the cucumber, pumpkin, skills are temporarily not needBoulger and squash family. The average ed. It does mean that job seekers Inside the Job American eats 15 pounds of wacan be more selective with their Market termelon a year and these juicy job search, and that if employees favorites are 92 percent water. are not happy at their current • July is National Ice Cream Month. employer, they may jump to other opporMore Americans buy ice cream in July tunities. It also means that it is difficult than any other month. to find candidates and is forcing employ• August is the busiest month for travel ers to rethink their approach to hiring. and tourism, which employs more than Companies everywhere, in every in8,000 people in the Berkshires. dustry, are concerned about labor shortThese fun summer facts have nothing ages, but we are at a historically low to do with the workforce, but we could all unemployment rate. We keep hearing use some light-hearted fun. These past “no one wants to work anymore” from few years have been challenging; long local recruiters. According to a report lines, short tempers, delays, cancellafrom Ankura, a consulting group based tions, grief, overworked, overwhelmed in Washington D.C., the labor participaand short-staffed. It’s easy to understand tion rate has been declining for 20 years why people are short-tempered and and the pandemic just heightened the angry. impact. However, the road to recovery will But they claim it’s a demographic be a long one, and the best workforce issue with not enough people entering advice that I would give right now is to the workforce to replace those who are be kind and respectful. At home, at the leaving. Birth rates are down, marriage workplace, and in the community. Just rates are lower, people are retiring early, be kind and more patient as everyone the opioid crisis has impacted the workis trying their best to grasp the changes force, and more young people are living over the past few years. at home without an urgency to work. The U.S. jobs report in July had I’m not an economist, but there are many analysts and policymakers once 2,000 less people in the Berkshire labor again asking whether the nation is at force than in 2020, with the majority of full employment. The Bureau of Labor those in the age 55-and-over category Statistics reported in June that the U.S. indicating that many baby boomers unemployment rate was 3.6 percent, with opted for early retirement. Even among notable job gains in professional and those who have jobs, people are rethinkbusiness services, leisure and hospitality, ing their options. Front-line workers, like and health care. medical staff, mental health workers, The overall labor force participation and educators are reporting high levels rate decreased from 63.7 percent in 2012 of burnout, causing some to seek a new to 61.6 percent this year. There are 1.8 career path. jobs available for every job seeker. In The last two years have transformed Berkshire County, the unemployment the working world, causing many orgarate in June was 4.1 percent with 60,277 nizations to reimagine and redefine new residents in the labor force and 2,450 norms and workforce strategies. Execuunemployed. tives are revisiting their workspace and To the average person on Main Street, their working models. With a growth
LEE — A recent poll conducted by
MassINC found that among all the vexing issues facing our country — gun control, drug addiction, climate change and immigration — residents of Massachusetts remain most concerned about the economy and jobs, inflation, housing costs and taxes. Of the 1,002 poll respondents, 16 percent Patricia named the economy and Begrowicz jobs as the single biggest The View issue facing state govfrom AIM ernment in Massachusetts, while 15 percent listed inflation and the cost of living. Housing costs and taxes each received 10 percent. COVID-19, which has dominated the public concerns for two years, and is still with us, placed fifth with 7 percent. It’s no wonder that the economy is at the top of list for Massachusetts residents amid soaring inflation, financial-market instability and supply-chain disruptions. The emphasis on economic issues resonates with me on two levels. First as the co-owner and president of a manufacturing business in the Berkshires, Onyx Specialty Papers in Lee; and second, as the newly elected chair of the board of directors of the statewide business association, Associated Industries of Massachusetts. For 107 years, AIM’s member companies, which now number 3,500, have been engaged in a unique collaborative enterprise to create economic opportunity and prosperity for the people of Massachusetts.
mindset and an emphasis on learning, it’s possible to make the most of this opportunity to rethink the future. As part of our recent local Berkshire recruiting efforts to help companies fill their job openings, MassHire convened with 750 companies over the past year to identify their recruitment and retention needs and strategies. The results found that “a low number of applicants” was the biggest problem when it comes to filling open jobs. Findings showed that 78 percent of HR professionals have experienced difficulty recruiting candidates for full-time positions, compared to 50 percent reported three years ago. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics supports these findings because the unemployment rate has been decreasing, the number of job openings has been increasing, creating huge talent shortages for companies in many different fields. Here’s the silver lining. The pandemic has provided an inflection point for business leaders to consider how to cultivate employee creativity, productivity and satisfaction. Some have introduced “wellness days” to help employees work through their mental and physical health; some companies are revisiting their benefit packages; some companies are hosting staff outings (and ice cream socials), while others are implementing more staff development and training. These gestures have generated real appreciation by employees, and by trying new things, we are continuously learning what works and what doesn’t when it comes to giving people more autonomy over their professional lives. Tight labor market has forced employers to offer training, reach out to new populations of workers, and accept applications from workers they might not have before considered which ultimately is expanding and up-skilling the labor pool as a whole as a result. Including those who were formerly incarcerated, younger workers, refugee and immigrant workers, and retirees who want to come back to work. Some companies are providing on-site education and accommodations like flexible schedules too.
Striving for a better future
... for all
A good-paying job is foundational to an individual’s well being and security. As a business owner, it is a point of pride for me to be able to offer someone a goodpaying job, with a strong benefit package, that provides that individual with the means to support a family and build a better life. Job growth is also core to community building, which is particularly important in the Berkshires where we have struggled with declining population for years. Strong local businesses with good jobs to offer not only help to retain our local workforce, but also help to attract new members to our community. There are many negative forces weighing on businesses these days including skyrocketing energy costs, rising input costs, supply chain disruptions, and major shifts in work force dynamics (from work schedule to work location to compensation expectations). During this tumultuous time, it is particularly important that the impact of changes in public policy and taxation on the state’s job creators be considered carefully. I have been actively engaged with AIM since becoming a business owner
13 years ago. AIM supports Massachusetts’ businesses through advocacy, community and services. The association does everything from interacting with elected officials on issues that effect the economy to providing hands-on human resources assistance to companies struggling to navigate the complex regulatory environment in which businesses like mine operate. My election as chair of AIM’s board of directors marks the first time since 1953 that a business leader from Berkshire County has led the statewide association. But the organization I now lead bears little resemblance to the one that the last Berkshire County chair, Robert Sprague of Sprague Electric in North Adams, led from 1951 to 1953. Begin with the fact that the organization is far more diverse than the one that has been run for most of a century by older, white men in starched collars. AIM takes seriously its responsibility to represent the full variety of businesses and business people that make up the Massachusetts economy. Two of the three officers of the association are women, the staff is mostly
The road to recovery will be a long one, and the best workforce advice that I would give right now is to be kind and respectful. At home, at the workplace, and in the community. Just be kind and more patient as everyone is trying their best to grasp the changes over the past few years. The Berkshire MassHire system has many training options to help employers, job seekers, youth and career changers with their needs. Employers can post their job opportunities at no cost and participate in both in-person and virtual job fairs and matching programs to find workers. Job seekers, career changers and youth can access a variety of nocost training programs in health care, manufacturing, technology, CDL licensure, and many more to gain the skills necessary for reemployment. Youth can access a variety of year-round programs to gain work readiness skills and obtain their first job. The overall expectation is for hiring to pick up as the economy continues to recover. This big reimagination — for companies and workers — is going to take some time to sort out, but may lead to some wonderful new opportunities. It’s more important than ever to be positive, patient and pro-active. Visit us at MassHireBerkshireCC.com to help find your next opportunity. And definitely enjoy some watermelon and ice cream this summer. Now, let’s get to work. Heather Boulger is the executive director of the MassHire Berkshire Workforce Board in Pittsfield.
female and a quarter of the members of the board of directors are people of color. A community once dominated by manufacturers is now a vibrant mashup of companies ranging from biotechnology giants to corner grocery stores, from country inns in the Berkshires to Main Street retailers on Cape Cod. That commitment to inclusivity reaches beyond mere numbers. Last year, AIM launched an initiative called Pink Slip to encourage employers to adopt policies to stem the exodus of women and other caregivers from the work force during the pandemic. The association has also established a marketplace called AIM Business Connect to link companies owned by Black and brown people with businesses seeking to diversify their supplier spend. All of these developments reflect an increasingly broad view among employers of the economic value they provide and their importance to the dreams and aspirations of our fellow citizens. AIM and I believe that business can be a positive force for change in helping create a better, more prosperous world. We fiercely advocate for positive public policy change that creates economic opportunity. We empower businesses with the information, tools and resources needed to successfully navigate a fastpaced, complex business world. We foster connections, networks, and the flow of ideas between people and businesses. Our objective is simple: To ensure Massachusetts businesses, jobs, and economy thrive today and tomorrow, for a brighter future for all. Patricia Begrowicz is chair of the board of directors of Associated Industries of Massachusetts.
18
Berkshire Business Journal
August 2022
Local roots of innovation are being reborn 2007, President George W. Bush awarded Armand Feigenbaum a National Medal PITTSFIELD — A few weeks ago, Dimitri of Technology and Innovation. Ponomareff was at the Berkshire InnoTQM allows an organization to vation Center speaking at an event for holistically improve its operations and educators. outcomes by focusing on quality Ponomareff, the founder and in two dimensions. It’s called Notes from CEO of Kanban Zone, is a coach, “building the right thing” — in the BIC project manager, and facilitaother words, creating relevant, tor who specializes in helping high-quality products and serorganizations improve using Agile and vices and focusing on “building things Lean strategies for manufacturing. Over right” or applying steady focus on qualithe last 15 years, he has coached and ty and minimizing costly rework. provided custom services for clients such To achieve those outcomes via TQM, as American Express, Bank of America, companies pursue a deep knowledge of Morgan Stanley and the Mayo Clinic. their customers and the reasons their In his years helping organizations customers are buying their product or implement Agile and Lean systems, service. “Delighting the customer” by Ponomareff told us that he has always understanding the functional, social and started with the story of Total Quality emotional aspects of a service or product Management and the collaboration behas become a central pillar of modern tween the U.S. and Japan to improve the product development. Beyond a close way that cars are built. relationship with customers, firms work What he learned when he visited he to identify hidden waste in their processBIC — which absolutely floored him — es and then turn the resulting savings is that the Berkshires is quite literally into improving their product or service the birthplace of TQM. He was ecstatic, to better satisfy customers. This creates described our opportunity as “unique” a positive feedback loop. By preventing and urged us to “appreciate the ground errors in production and distribution of we were standing on.” their service or product, TQM organizaPonomareff promised to work with the tions have been able to save 20 percent to BIC and BIC stakeholders to continue, 40 percent of their total capacity. what he called, a “historic journey of TQM changes the environment inside organizational quality.” an organization because it stresses acSo how is the history of TQM rooted in countability for quality across the firm: Berkshire County? quality is everybody’s job. Management’s As Ponomareff referenced, in the job is to ensure that quality is underdecades after World War II, Japan faced stood as a shared responsibility and that a mighty challenge in reconstructing its it is actively managed and visible at the economy. Determined to rebuild their highest levels of management. industries on a foundation of product The practice has evolved since it was quality and customer satisfaction, founded by the Feigenbaums in the 1950s. Japanese officials invited certain U.S. It’s been drawn into many other well-rebusiness leaders who were known as the spected business practices, including the “gurus” of quality. The most prominent $15 billion world of “business agility” to visit were W. Edwards Deming, Joseph that Ponomareff lives in. Juran, and the late quality control expert Agile is an umbrella term for a set of Armand “Val” Feigenbaum of Pittsfield. practices and work patterns that allow Using methods like Total Quality businesses to adapt to rapidly changManagement, which was created here in ing environments. Agile methods Pittsfield by Feigenbaum and his brothstress a cycle of learning, analyzing er, Donald, Japan eventually became a and adapting that first became promglobal economic superpower, a leader in inent in the software industry and quality electronics and manufacturing. have now been applied in many of the The Feigenbaums identified a few core fastest growing companies on earth, principles and practices in TQM that including Tesla, Spotify, and many have had an enormous influence on the parts of the military. Agile methods development of manufacturing across emphasize active and frequent collabthe globe. These principles are as much orative problem solving within teams a philosophy as a recipe for success instead of the traditional top-down/ and have been applied in many induscommand and control approach that tries. The Feigenbaums’ work has been was common before the arrival of translated into over 20 languages. In digital technologies. By Ben Sosne and Simon Holzapfel
FILE PHOTO
Armand Feigenbaum, a philanthopist and Pittsfield native, with his brother Donald developed the concept of Total Quality Management. Whether they define themselves as an “agile” organization or not, most BIC member companies embrace some Agile methodologies. Many are eager to build awareness on their own teams and expand adoption. A NEW APPEARANCE FOR EDUCATION IN THE BERKSHIRES As we work with our regional employers, we obviously hear about the need for technical skills. That said, nearly every employer who mentions technical skills is also quick to point to a host of other skills that are equally or perhaps even more important — the ability to work as an effective team member, the ability to communicate with colleagues, the ability to iterate to solve a problem, the ability to self-start, the ability to adapt to new roles, etc. With this feedback in mind, the BIC has partnered with several organizations — including the BU Agile Innovation Lab, Teal Education Partners, and L-EAF.org — that specialize in helping people and organizations learn and adopt TQM and Agile methods. We’ve been particularly inspired by efforts to expose students to these principles and frameworks. At the event where Ponomareff
ADAMS Lynn A. Del Negro, personal rep. of the Estate of Elizabeth A. Kestyn, sold property at 86 Orchard St, Adams, to Rex Wayne Martin, $340,000. Bruce William, Theresa, Jeffrey Bruce, and Lisa Ann Mendel sold property at 10-12 Valley St., Adams, to Austin Jeffrey Mendel, $150,000.
LLC, $320,000.
Maple Grove Properties LLC, $62,000.
David B. and Jill Ann Johnson sold property at 33 Spring St., Adams, to Steven W. and Kristen L. Fellmann, $360,000.
Eric F. Raschdorf sold property at 15-17 Crotteau St., Adams, to Kellie L. Lahey and Nicholas R. Raschdorf, $150,000.
Town of Adams sold property at East Road, Adams, to John Zelazo, $5,000.
Rebecca S. Koppet sold property at 31 Bellevue Ave., Adams, to Benjamin Engle, $85,000.
Town of Adams sold property at 2 First St., Adams, to Thomas Abate, $5,000. Town of Adams sold property at 40 Commercial St., Adams, to Guy Cariddi, $5,000.
Ruth J. Robert sold property at 0 North Summer St., Adams, to Thomas F. and Tammy A. Boudreau, $120,000.
Town of Adams sold property at 25 Spring St., Adams, to Berkshire Gateway Investment Properties LLC, $30,000.
Lisa A. Mendel sold property at 22 Jordan St., Adams, to Vincent R. Martel, $159,900.
Town of Adams sold property at 17 Spring St., Adams, to Thomas Abate, $5,000.
Wayne Arnold sold property at 8 Albert St., Adams, to James W. Rose, $217,000.
Town of Adams sold property at 25 Columbia St., Adams, to Tim Real Estate LLC, $12,000.
Jean C. Law sold property at 5 Grandview Terrace, Adams, to Patrick Lyndon and Lauren Corr, $285,000.
Town of Adams sold property at 43 East Hoosac St., Adams, to Dennis and Cynthia Fletcher, $5,000.
Jing Tan sold property at Quality Street, Adams, to John Duquette Jr., $20,000.
Town of Adams sold property at 71, 77 and 79 Central St., Adams, to Alexandra Management LLC, $23,000.
East Hoosac Properties LLC sold property at 12-14 East Hoosac St., Adams, to PLP Property Investments
James F. and Melissa M. Charron sold property at 5 Baskin Lane, Adams, to
Simon Holzapfel is the co-founder and CHRO at Teal Education Partners and the former President and head of school at The Darrow School in New Lebanon, NY. Ben Sosne is the executive director of the Berkshire Innovation Center.
Alford Homestead Garden & Studio LLC sold property at 12 North Egremont Road, Alford, to Douglas Roger Tighe & Katherine Jane Tighe, trustees of Tighe Living Trust, $1,400,000.
Real estate listings Real estate transactions in Berkshire County from June 6 through July 1:
spoke, we heard from two high school teachers that have fully incorporated Agile methodologies into their classrooms and have students leading cohesive teams through project-based learning initiatives. They described their students as more engaged, more confident and more likely to embrace leadership roles. We believe that by introducing younger people to these newer, more adaptive ways of working earlier in their development, we can help create pools of talent that are at the forefront of business growth and innovation. We are starting modestly, by incorporating aspects into our technology demo days, our internships, and our BETA program, and by hosting events like the one described above, but our hope is that we can inspire and work with our regional academic partners to introduce the core concepts to students throughout the Berkshires before they hit the job market. If the county creates a big enough concentration of Agile-enabled young people entering the workforce, we will not only seed the businesses eager to grow with TQM inspired minds, we can also create a magnet that will attract the attention of companies eager to find that talent they need to fuel their next venture. High growth businesses will sprout and prosper where the talent lies. What inspired Ponomareff, and what inspires us, is that this dream of building a pipeline of Agile-enabled workforce is so perfectly suited for the Berkshires. Just as Cooperstown, N.Y. is considered to be the birthplace of baseball and Memphis is the birthplace of rock and roll, the Berkshires is the birthplace of Total Quality Management and the transformational business practices that have derived from it. There is a value in telling that story, to our businesses, to our workforce, to our students, to those considering starting new businesses here, and to those like Ponomareff who look at the Berkshires differently after learning our history. We should collectively embrace this story to become known as a talent hothouse with history, with educational programs and pipeline of talent that is highly distinctive and essential to the world organizations face today.
Nicholas C. Lincoln sold property at 63 Valley St., Adams, to Marcus Sanchez, $249,900. Le Thi Chau sold property at 20 Leonard St., Adams, to Gerald M. Sprague and Tina M. Devens, $266,000. Whiteacre Properties LLC sold property at 64 Summer St., Adams, to Trevor W. Crombie, $83,000. Brenda L. and Haley R. Palumbo sold property at 39 Willow St., Adams, to Ricky Paul Polidoro, $155,500. McAndrews-King Buick GMC Inc. sold property at Gould Road, Adams, to Town of Adams, $100,000. ALFORD Annette Lilly, trustee of Annette Lilly Trust Agreement of May 8, 1997, sold property at 201 Green River Road, Alford, to Kevin M. Heery and Melissa A. Heery, $875,000.
property at Sunflower Court, Becket, to Aridia Ciprian Burke, $8,425. Paul H. Lamoureux sold property at Sunflower Court, Becket, to Sterling Land Development LLC, $1,150.89.
BECKET John Kozinski and Jeanette Thomas sold property at 3425 Main St., Becket, to Margot Morrison-Lee and Bruce Lockhart Morrison, $350,000.
CHESHIRE Robert P. and Walda M. Giallongo sold property at Notch Road, Cheshire, to Hayley H. Simard, $5,000.
Ashley Susan Bond sold property at 50 Beach Road, Becket, to Witold Decowski and Marzena Decowska, $86,000.
Jose F. Goncalves and Vincent Leydet sold property at 108 Depot St., Cheshire, to Stefan Christian and Sara Davis, $318,000.
Mary S. Trudeau sold property at Lady of the Lake Court, Becket, to Armand P. Gaudreau, $2,000.
Sling LLC sold property at Jenks Road, Cheshire, to Alan T. Morin and Margaret Round, $74,900.
Mark L. Bye, trustee of the Patricia D. Lester 2012 RVT, sold property at 3521 Jacobs Ladder Road, Becket, to Jay L. and Yuliya A. Baver, $265,000.
Trent P. and Carrie J. Gaylord sold property at 53 Depot St., Cheshire, to Dustin J. Kline and Jennifer M. Coody, $324,900.
Eugene and Ruth Fine sold property at 77 Iroquois Ave., Becket, to Alan J. Weinstein and Julie R. Levinson, trustees of the Weinstein/Levinson RVT, $513,000.
Edmund R. St. John IV sold property at 37 Main St., Cheshire, to Amanda Jean and Bradley Austin Cook, $345,000.
Robert C. Smith sold property at Deer Run, Becket, to Crystal Miller, $35,000. Joseph C. and Caroline Bianca sold property at King Richard Drive, Becket, to Berkshire Hills Health Inc., $60,000. Sterling Land Development LLC sold
CLARKSBURG Lily M. Kuzia, trustee of the Lily M. Kuzia RVT 2013 Trust, sold property at 637 North Eagle St., Clarksburg, to Eric S. Krauss, $350,000. V. Peter and Dawn A. Vadnais sold property at Middle Road, Clarksburg, to Logan C. Dommke, $35,000. REAL ESTATE, Page 19
August 2022
Real estate
Berkshire Business Journal
19
FROM PAGE 18
Tal Sheynfeld and Donna Sheynfeld sold property at 13 Burning Tree Road, Great Barrington, to Ilana Kleiner Krishnamurti, $1,200,000.
Jeanne R. Supranowicz, sold property at 26 Prospect St., Lanesborough, to Zachary P. and Tara L. Norton, $200,000.
DALTON Adam J. Sefchick sold property at 117 Ashuelot St., Dalton, to Joshua J. Goodrich, $180,000.
Andrew L. and Jodi A. Bloom sold property at 355 New Lenox Road, Lenox, to Kathryn Erin Payne and Jo Ann Marie Santangelo, $375,000.
Brenda A. Behan sold property at 33 Hillside Ave., Great Barrington, to Richard H. Gregg and Linda F. Smothers, $495,000.
Stephen J. and Beth M. Psutka sold property at 580 South Main St., Unit 6, Building 2, Lanesborough, to Donna M. Hayes, $130,500.
Donald S. Adam Jr. and Beverly A. Adam sold property at 667 East St., Lenox, to James F. and Heather J. Perlmutter, $820,000.
Paul L. Plouffe Jr. and Denielle M. Knysh sold property at 151-153 West Housatonic St., Dalton, to Claudio N. Siguencia and Cesar Ariosto Zura Guallpa, $255,000.
Spire Dance LLC sold property at 3 Lake Buel Road, Great Barrington, to 103 Lake Buel LLC, $625,000.
Peter T. and Naomi C. Crellin sold property at Silver Street, Lanesborough, to Daniel Abate and Christopher G. Purvis, $120,000.
Linda D. Sullivan and Michael E. Duval, trustees of the Mary L. Duval Testamentary Trust, sold property at 40 Tucker St., Lenox, to John M. and Judith A. Duval, $253,000.
19 Mill RE LLC sold property at 19 Mill St., Dalton, to Terence R. and Timothy J. Kerans, $192,500. Stephanie C. Caporale sold property at 83 Flansburg Ave., Dalton, to Carl Desrochers, $229,500.
Chris Williams LLC sold property at 671 Stockbridge Road, Great Barrington, to Greenway Holdings LLC, $200,000. CZEN Zone LLC sold property at 14 Kirk St., Great Barrington, to Erica Jaffe, $445,000.
Ian S. and Tiffany L. Roberts sold property at 177 Narragansett Ave., Lanesborough, to Kristen O’Connor, $750,000. LEE Nathan T. Buratto sold property at 545 Chapel St., Lee, to Mary Colleen Cahilly, $420,000.
Margaret E. McCabe sold property at 488 East Housatonic St., Unit 7, Dalton, to Susan E. McMahon, $198,000.
Langdon L. Holloway, individually, and Gerald Gennario, as trustees of Family Trust created under Article VI of the Last Will & Testament of Mark W. Holloway, sold property at 22 East Mountain Road, Great Barrington, to Emily L. Taylor and Mark A. Taylor II, $1,195,000.
Julie M. Howson, personal rep. of the Estate of Joseph T. Howson, sold property at 76 Judith Drive, Dalton, to Tenelle Ciempa, $215,500.
Nigel C. Hinds and Katherine L. Hinds sold property at 75 Taconic Ave., Great Barrington, to Nancy K. Harrod and Edward W. Pickering, $840,000.
Deborah Totillo sold property at 215 Dalton Division Road, Dalton, to Daniel C. Brooks, $250,000.
Troy Bond sold property at 83 Grove St., Great Barrington, to Elizabeth Foley and Charles Foley, $465,000.
James Hertz and Bronwyn Jean Casey sold property at 114 Housatonic St., Lee, to Min Khaing and Mahnin Yu Khaing, $470,000.
Jean Ruth Glover sold property at 488 East Housatonic St., Unit 9, Dalton, to Stephen Charles McLaughlin and Catherine Mary Webb, $226,833.
Tracy O. Crawford and Craig A. Crawford sold property at 14 Berkshire Circle, Great Barrington, to Susan Hunt, $710,000.
Veronica Miller, individually, and James Rose, trustee of the James Rose RVT, sold property at 880 East St., Unit C, Lee, to Veronica Miller, $140,000.
Stephen J. and Theresa M. Batanglo sold property at 63 Oak St. Extension, Dalton, to Susan M. Curro, $280,000.
David French sold property at 40 Welcome St., Great Barrington, to Andrew Beedy and Rachel Dworkin, $500,000.
Jon M. Mattis sold property at 13 Stockbridge Ave., Dalton, to Brianna Emma-Jean Trumbull, $190,000.
Thomas Kiley & Caitlin Helfrich sold property at 57 Pine St., Great Barrington, to Mark Lloyd Brunner, $475,000.
Abbey E. Keith sold property at 40 Saint James Ave., Lee, to Mark H. and Annmarie M. McCormick-Goodhart, $345,000.
Kay Hall sold property at 170 Cleveland Road, Dalton, to 170 Cleveland Road LLC, $95,600.
Connor J. and Kira A. Smith sold property at 69 Beverly St., Dalton, to Joel C. Smith and Susan M. Carty-Smith, $265,000. EGREMONT David Spungen and Aliana Spungen sold property at 0 Shun Toll Road, Egremont, to David Posner as trustee of Shun Toll Nominee Trust, $20,000. Christopher P. Lee & Adele L. Lee sold property at 14 McGee Road, Egremont, to Kendra Smallwood & Tristan Greene, $135,000. Katherine Jane Tighe sold property at 0 & 4 Boice Road, Egremont, to Janet Korins & Joseph H. Kaufman, trustees of Riverside Property Nominee Trust, $254,900. Douglas Roger Tighe & Katherine Jane Tighe, trustees of Tighe Living Trust, sold property at 8 Boice Road, Egremont, to Janet Korins & Joseph H. Kaufman, trustees of Monmouth Property Nominee Trust, $2,294,100. Caroline M. Hanley & David T. Lisowski sold property at 274 Hillsdale Road, Egremont, to David I. Morowitz & Julie A. Morowitz, $905,000.
Gillian Gorman Rabin sold property at 30 Elm Court, Great Barrington, to Longest Road LLC, $400,000. Jaime B. Bravo & Rosina Garofalo Bravo sold property at 27 Wyantenuck St., Great Barrington, to Jill A. Weinberg, $366,000.
Paul P. Dugal sold property at 231 Central Shaft Road, Florida, to Natalie E. Emery and Mark K. Jackson Jr., $183,000. GREAT BARRINGTON Lawrence Bronstein and Nancy Bronstein sold property at 15 Mahaiwe St., Great Barrington, to Space GB LLC, $385,000.
Robert and Pauline Tierney sold property at 30 Circular Ave., Lee, to William Clinton Bartlett Jr., $350,000.
Patricia Marley Connolly sold property at 880 East St., Unit C, Lee, to Bruce and Susan Creditor, $434,900.
Michael J. McDonald and Mary A. O’Neil sold property at Corey Road, Hancock, to Howard Greenspan, $110,000. HINSDALE Steven R. Della Giustina, individually and as personal rep. of the Estate of Richard G. Della Giustina, and Vincent Gino, Tina Marie and Paul R. Della Giustina sold property at Franklin Road, Hinsdale, to Richard R. and Paula J. LaLonde, $12,000.
Kimberley A. Wendling, formerly known as Kimberley Brennan, sold property at New Windsor Road, Hinsdale, to Kim M. Zurawik, $40,000.
David A. and Leon J. Sucharzewski Jr. sold property at 231 River Road, Florida, to Sheila Kelliher and Lee Comstock, $235,000.
Patrice C. Melluzzo, trustee of the Richard J. Melluzzo 2016 RVT, sold property at 236 Main St. and 18 School St., Lee, to Rentoor LLC, $545,000.
HANCOCK Adrian Morina and Doriana Molle sold property at Jericho Road, Unit D, Building 102, Hancock, to Kirk G. Turner and Navid Madani, $280,000.
William Pappa sold property at Bliss Road, Florida, to Rachel Rudman, $140,000.
Town of Florida sold property at North County Road, Florida, to Hargun Bharj, $700.
Jasmine K. Ryan sold property at 635 Laurel St., Lee, to Sweetgrass Laurel Street LLC, $690,000.
Thomas E. Touponce and Rebecca M. Touponce, formerly known as Rebecca M. Donovan, sold property at 30 Lana Ave., Lee, to Thomas Ryan II and Sarah Courtney Butterick, $400,000.
Kimberly A. Wendling, formerly known as Kimberly Brennan, sold property at Watson Road, Hinsdale, to Lucian Stone, $55,000.
Town of Florida sold property at Church Road, Florida, to Hargun Bharj, $17,500.
Kathleen M. Daoust sold property at 165 Highfield Drive, Lee, to Nathan T. Buratto and Elizabeth Lee Buratto, $375,000.
David Saez & Ketty Saez sold property at 80 Taconic Ave., Great Barrington, to Annie Okerstrom-Lang & Craig Okerstrom-Lang, $550,000.
FLORIDA Margaret Rose Van Peterson sold property at Moores Road, Florida, to Anthony Demaio, $8,000.
Linda M. Burdick sold property at 0 Mohawk Trail, Florida, to Erika K. Smith, $34,900.
Open Door Church of Lee, Mass., Inc. sold property at 271 Prospect St., Lee, to Janet Kalas, $30,000.
Sandeep and Sadhvi Verma sold property at 460 East St., Lee, to Edwin A. Mizhquiri and Ana L. Quizhpi, $349,000. LENOX Neal A. Maxymillian sold property at 11 Westminster Road, Lenox, to Siobhan Enoch, $995,000. Bruce R. Finn sold property at 31 Bentrup Court, Lenox, to Lauren Pellegino and Annemarie Wood, $850,000. Rhonda S. Kessler, trustee of the Revocable Trust of Rhonda S. Kessler, sold property at 12 Meadow Lane, Unit 12, Lenox, to Susan Bergen Schultz, $280,000. Lenox Landings Barrington Brook Holdings LLC sold property at 9 Golf View Drive, Lenox, to Fun Guy LLC, $1,025,000.
U.S. Bank, NA, trustee, sold property at 17-19 Main St., Hinsdale, to Thais Kano and Jonathan Da Cunha, $91,000.
Ellyn Kusmin sold property at 2 Yokun Brook Drive, Unit 2, Lenox, to Sander Rabin and Nina Yvonne Esaki, $600,000.
Diane Alverio Melley sold property at 91 Henry Drive, Hinsdale, to Chad E. and Maureen C. Ezzell, $593,000.
Catherine A. Doherty sold property at 22 West St., Lenox, to Kara E. Coggin and Eugene S. Stumpf, $677,000.
LANESBOROUGH Brian M. and Susan M. Phelps sold property at 22 North Mountain Road, Lanesborough, to Kollin F. Allard and Danielle N. Allard, $550,000. Robert F. and Kathleen M. Gingras sold property at Porter Mountain Road, Lanesborough, to Roger W. Gavin III and Michelle M. Gingras, $65,000. Ellies Holdings LLC sold property at 56 Baker St, Lanesborough, to Jordan Bailey Polun and Abbey Nicoll Senft, $260,000. Susan Supranowicz, personal rep. of
Mark E. and Marcia M. Dallmeyer sold property at 24 Orchard St., Lenox, to Steven M. Seltzer, $235,000. Gwendolyn Adam and Sharon L. Alpert sold property at 232 Kemble St., Lenox, to Seth W. Lipkin and Rebecca L. Robak, $1,180,000. Svetkav LLC sold property at 3 Morgan Manor, Unit 2, Lenox, to Roderic J. and Pamela J. McLaren, $293,100. Ruthann Fish, trustee of the Ruthann Fish 2015 RVT and the Herbert G. Fish 2015 RVT, sold property at 18 Yokun Ave., Lenox, to Gregg Todd Pasternack and Deborah Beth Skydell, $489,000.
MONTEREY Channing T. Mendelsohn sold property at 454 Main Road, Monterey, to Carol Lew and James D. Logan Jr., $115,200. David D. DuBow Estate sold property at Broderick Road, Monterey, to Michael Montgomery, $31,260. John P. Kistler and Jane L. Kistler sold property at 14 Bidwell Road, Monterey, to Robert E. Harper and Deborah L. Goldman, as trustees of Harper Goldman Living Trust, $2,750,000. David M. Feinberg Estate sold property at 50 Hupi Road, Monterey, to Nicholas Louis Terzo, trustee of 50 Hupi Road Nominee Trust, $290,000. Richard E. Andersen & Patricia Anne Woods sold property at 76 Cronk Road, Monterey, to David Erickson, $90,000. Judith Kaprelian sold property off Royal Hemlock Road, Monterey, to Thomas Curtin, John Neil Curtin Jr. & Peter Curtin Jr., $15,000. Karen Selsky sold property at 7 Heron Pond Park, Monterey, to Gregory P. Farnham & Michael T. Zerbel, $710,000. Peter Franck & Kathleen Triem sold property at 36 Elephant Rock Road, Monterey, to Sheldon Sloan & Julie A. Sloan, trustees of Revocable Trust Agreement of Sheldon Sloan & Julie Sloan, $1,750,000. MOUNT WASHINGTON Frances D. Koczera sold property at 301 West St., Mount Washington, to Scott A. Miller and Daunne Miller, $878,000. Scott A. Miller & Daunne M. Miller sold property at 225 East St., Mount Washington, to John Cotter & Kathryn Cotter, $451,000.
Platinum Group Holdings LLC sold property at 211 Houghton St., North Adams, to Mohamed Kargbo, $40,000. James H. Maxymillian sold property at Massachusetts Avenue and River Street Extension, North Adams, to Blackinton Backwoods LLC, $26,900. Mark F. Champagne sold property at 16 Fairgrounds Ave., North Adams, to Nathan M. Champagne, $150,000. Nuuvin Investments LLC sold property at 70 West Main St., North Adams, to 70 West Main St. Inc., $50,000. Steven Weiss, receiver for Very Good Properties LLC, sold property at 55 Union St., North Adams, to A&R Berkshire LLC, $205,000. Carl L. Oman and Debra J. Pendell sold property at 243 Union St., Unit 209, North Adams, to Anne S. and Robert E. Rutland Jr., $299,000. Frank A. LaFrazia sold property at 39-41 Harris St., North Adams, to Heather and Deborah Houghtaling, $171,000. Elizabeth S. Saulnier sold property at 275 Kemp Ave., North Adams, to Eric L. Floriani, $125,000. Airaceli M. Murray sold property at 17 Goodrich St., North Adams, to Beverly Zaza, $279,900. James Pedro sold property at 29 Montgomery St., North Adams, to Vikrant V. Kudesia and Anne C.A. Mercurio, $50,000. Mary Jane Betti sold property at 225 Eagle St., North Adams, to Riley E. Howard and Jennifer Stevens, $234,000. OTIS Richard S. and Diane B. Bliven sold property at 76 Louden Bethlehem Road, Otis, to John Krysko, $385,000. Kerry A. Burke, personal rep. of the Estate of Wendy Ann Rocke, sold property at 48 West Shore Road, Otis, to Lee Tavernia, $55,000. Roy W. and Mary E. Krueger sold property at 88 Towhee Trail, Otis, to Robert and Helen Schlossberg, $740,000. Josephine Costello sold property at Route 8, Otis, to Michael Carriveau, $63,000. Ronald W. and Lisa G. Crozier sold property at 34 New Hollywood Boulevard, Otis, to Catherine M. Hayes and Nelson E. Lantigua, $409,000.
NEW ASHFORD J.W. Kelly Family LLC sold property at 205 Mallory Road, New Ashford, to Samantha Catherine Inman, $242,500.
David E. and Janice A. Fedor, trustees of the David E. Fedor & Janice A. Fedor Trust, sold property at 53 Drive A, Otis, to Eric Jon Forish and Astrid Elke Forish, $1,350,000.
NEW MARLBOROUGH David S. Feldman and Jennifer Herman-Feldman sold property at 796 Hartsville New Marlborough Road, New Marlborough, to Long Meadow Art Residency Inc., $234.000.
Helene Y. Schwartzbach sold property at 21 Sunrise Court, Otis, to Lauren Zehner, $165,000.
David P. McShane and Karin L. Bonner sold property at 64 Canaan Valley Road, New Marlborough, to SFCVR LLC, $2,850,000. Andrea S. Wasserman, Marion M. Wasserman and Sarah Lindsay Wasserman sold property at 527 Cross Road to Canaan Valley Road, New Marlborough, to Vasily Strela and Irina Vainberg, $1,100,000. NORTH ADAMS Kollin F. Allard sold property at 110 Marion Ave., North Adams, to Alan Lau, $273,000. Pine Cobble Associates Inc. sold property at Massachusetts Avenue, North Adams, to Broder Blackinton LLC, $33,000. Barbara Breda-Bolte as trustee of the Breda FNT sold property at 134 Harris St., North Adams, to Lynne Breda, $200,000. West Main Holdings LLC sold property at 74-80 West Main St., North Adams, to Josephine Faijue, $160,000. Juliette Jones and Christian Brindel sold property at 8 Fuller St., North Adams, to Kelly S. Clark and Matthew S. Cook, $113,000. Kay L. Clement, personal rep. of Larry A. Kurowski, sold property at 78-82 Furnace St., North Adams, to Terence K. Quinn and Margaret W. Karanja, $90,000.
Peter A. Galeno and Laura Pascale sold property at Route 8, Otis, to Cheryl Bronstein, $45,000. Richard Utenis, trustee of the Clayton Family NT, sold property at 367 West Center Road, Otis, to Ronald W. and Lisa G. Crozier, $400,000. Ronald F. and Brian J. Koch sold property at 1004 Reservoir Road, Otis, to Michael and Stephanie Gatzounas, $205,000. Laurie F. Mackinnon sold property at Route 8, Otis, to Mary B. Cross and Richard F. Manning, $75,900. Michael P. Lacalamita sold property at 485 Ed Jones Road, Otis, to Gail M. Natoli, $600,000. Catharine E. Marek sold property at 85 Gibbs Road, Otis, to John R. Walsh, $70,000. Stephen S. and Sara E. Kurcias sold property at 27 Fawn Court, Otis, to Sheldon I. and Amy W. Sticker, trustees of the Stricker Family Trust Agreement, $610,000. PERU Paul E. Wilcox Sr. and Alison L. Wilcox sold property at 21 Kreutzer Road, Peru, to Devin and Samantha Vaccaro, $314,000. Carolyn Rostkowski sold property at Lafayette Drive, Peru, to Michael Graham and Shanna Curley-Graham, $48,000. REAL ESTATE, Page 20
20
Real estate FROM PAGE 19
Robin A. DePinto and Mark Stanton sold property at 20 South Road Extension, Peru, to Bruce L. and Lisa A. Vachon, $50,000. PITTSFIELD Marc C. Amaral sold property at 9-11 Fasce Place, Pittsfield, to Juan Carlos Gonzalez Prieto, $229,000. John V. Gibbs IV sold property at 118 Oak Hill Road, Pittsfield, to Michelle and Peter Hill, $365,000. Kenneth T. Brown and Melinda J. Brown, formerly known as Melinda J. Tainter, sold property at 56 Rockland Drive, Pittsfield, to Jonathan J. Navarro, $300,000. Brandon and James Coppola sold property at 43 Allendale Road, Pittsfield, to Catherine Darling, trustee of the James and Catherine Darling Revocable FT, $297,000. Clark T. and Abigail D. Mathews sold property at 53 Waverly St., Pittsfield, to Zachary S. Browne, $335,000. Brian J. Hoffman sold property at 80 Hollister St., Pittsfield, to Juan Carlos Columna Xochipa and Candelaria Gonazalez Romero, $220,000. Kevin R. Boino sold property at 78 Marlboro Drive, Pittsfield, to Huckleberry and John Paul Elling, $307,500. James W. Ford sold property at 265 Springside Ave., Pittsfield, to Vincent de Paul Badolo, $185,000. Joseph E. Mucinski sold property at 12 Morin St., Pittsfield, to Diana C. Cajamarca, aka Diana C. Cajamarca-Huiracocha, $260,000. Golden Bear Resources LP sold property at Charles Street, Pittsfield, to Scott Johnson and Cecelia Pena-Sisto, $65,000. Toni Rapier, trustee of the Rapier Family NT, sold property at 45-47 Reed St., Pittsfield, to Herald Properties LLC, $160,000. Jena M. Williamson sold property at 51 Belvidere Ave., Pittsfield, to Kara Nietupski and Zachary Kellogg, $239,163. Elana M. Maruk, formerly known as Elana M. Delusky, sold property at 164 Maple Grove Drive, Pittsfield, to Drew C. Wojtkowski, $269,900. Stephen T. Meczywor sold property at 134 Cole Ave., Pittsfield, to Marc T. Levesque, $295,000. James M. Nichols and Judith M. Tierney sold property at 156 Montgomery Ave. Extension, Pittsfield, to Matthew P. Bondini, $270,000. Jaclyn Alibozek, personal rep. of the Estate of Paul S. Smegal, sold property at 129 Imperial Ave., Pittsfield, to Zoila Calderon Bermeo and Washington Valero Barzola, $270,000. Nicholas C. Horton sold property at 266 Cheshire Road, Pittsfield, to Amber M. and Joshua J. Fulcher, $225,000. Devin P. Vaccaro sold property at 31 Newell St., Pittsfield, to Christine E. Lee and Aretha C. Whitehead, $250,000. Mark H. and Greta M. Valuski, executors of the Estate of Thomas C. Valuski, sold property at 193 Lenox Ave., Pittsfield, to Chelsea A. Gaya, $245,000. Debra Ann DiGirolamo sold property at 46 Berkley St., Pittsfield, to Alexis Brophy and Danny J. LaDouceur Jr., $225,900. Todd and Colleen Wich sold property at 137-139 Lincoln St., Pittsfield, to Doris Toledo Cardozo, $184,000. Lee Bank and Brodie Digennaro sold property at 86 Daytona Ave., Pittsfield, to TMR Realty LLC, $140,000. Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency and Jill M. Lampro sold property at 79 Ontario St., Pittsfield, to Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency, $185,000. Lisa Das sold property at 26 Tamie Way, Pittsfield, to Noel and Shelby Miner, $650,000. Ryan P. Davine sold property at 163 Maple Grove Drive, Pittsfield, to Paul A. and Marianne Vallee, $265,000.
Berkshire Business Journal Angelica Furtado sold property at 211, 213 and 217 Francis Ave., Pittsfield, to Ajtorres Company LLC, $382,000. Andrew G. and Sarah G. Perenick sold property at 19-21 Abbott St., Pittsfield, to Efrain Diego, $232,000. Mathew Tretola sold property at 45 Terrace Ave., Pittsfield, to Kristopher Conrad Pointon and Joan Frances McAfee, $127,500. Centennial Realty Holdings LLC sold property at 716-718 North St., 5, 7 & 15 Burbank St., 303-305 First St., Pittsfield, to Berkshire Medical Center Inc., $245,000. Jeremy R. and Natalie R. Weeks sold property at 10 Santa Maria St., Pittsfield, to Luis Alberto Zhagnay Cela and Maria Guaman Caguana, $171,400. Cynthia A. Johnson and Jane L. Guinther, trustees of the Charles L. Sammons 1992 RVT and the Naoma R. Sammons 1992 RVT, sold property at 56 Flintstone Drive, Pittsfield, to Margaret A. Samsel, $410,000. Ian A. Asklipious sold property at 29 Church St., Pittsfield, to Angel Espinoza-Jimenez, $153,061. Catherine Mary Hayes, formerly known as Catherine M. Stechmann, sold property at 76 Preston Ave., Pittsfield, to Shaun Kennedy, $281,000. Jeannine Huey sold property at 24 Crystal St., Pittsfield, to Ashley Wilcox, $242,000. Yess LLC sold property at 1196-1198 North St., Pittsfield, to Brian T. Szpyrka, $215,000. Holly Rogers, personal rep. of the Estate of Patricia A. Drawec, sold property at 35 Paula Ave., Pittsfield, to Audrey Barbour, $230,000. John and Deidre Scapin sold property at 342 Peck’s Road, Pittsfield, to Carlos Arturo and Manosalva Serna, $185,000. John C. Morelli sold property at 97 Sampson Parkway, Pittsfield, to Alexander P. Durant IV and Blanca R. Durant, $295,000. Gary C. and Deborah L. Holden sold property at 37-39 Dewey Ave., Pittsfield, to Carlos Chavez Osorio and Shiara Estefany Quispe Seminario, $222,000. Hieu Le and Thoa Kim Huynh sold property at 50 Meadow Ridge Drive, Pittsfield, to David B. and Grace M. Diggs, $885,000.
Joy C. Costi, $45,000. Olga Y. Terechina sold property at 49 Churchill Crest, Unit 49, Pittsfield, to Jogeshwar Singh, $225,000. Bespoke Capital LLC sold property at 1307 North St., Pittsfield, to Julia Hope Fees, $286,000. Stephen and Laura Spence sold property at 36 South Merriam St., Pittsfield, to Sarah M. Spence, $210,000. Joshua M. Cutler sold property at 92 Northumberland Road, Pittsfield, to Heather A. Kelley, $300,000. Crystal Street Properties LLC sold property at 42 Crystal St., Pittsfield, to LND Investments LLC, $68,000. Jean M. and Henry J. Bush III sold property at 20 Clarendon St., Pittsfield, to Ashley M. Bellio, $123,450. Michael F. Wessel sold property at 82 Elaine Drive, Pittsfield, to Jeremy E. Ring-Hecht and Kelsey Hecht, formerly known as Kelsey Hook, $259,000. Trinity Ventures LLC sold property at 23-25 New Hampshire Ave., Pittsfield, to Nolan Smith Fernandez and Fanny Paola Correa Gomez, $239,900. Robert M. and Nadine N. Lloyd sold property at 152 Linden St., Pittsfield, to Duta Real Estate LLC, $162,500. Matthew Fiero and Kristen Nadeau sold property at 50 Kellie Drive, Pittsfield, to Paul Supranowicz, $125,000. Mary J. Dupuis sold property at 268 Linden St., Pittsfield, to Bianca Toledo, $150,000. Mary G. Spina, personal rep. of the Estate of Charles D. Gilson Jr., sold property at 122 Allengate Ave., Pittsfield, to Judith A. Polucci and Lori M. Stanton, $122,000. Thomas A. and Theresa L. Bordeau sold property at 597 Hancock Road, Pittsfield, to Ryan P. Davine, $319,000. Ronald and Patricia Gallo sold property at 141 Appleton Ave., Unit 3, Pittsfield, to Dana M. and Dylan Dermody, $169,000. Ellies Holdings LLC sold property at 15 Brooks Ave., Pittsfield, to Lori and David L. Hinckley, $250,000. Thomas A. Marley Sr., personal rep. of the Estate of Thomas A. Marley Jr., sold property at 557 Crane Ave., Pittsfield, to Ernest Cobbold, $342,000. RCK Realty LLC sold property at 81 Dartmouth St., Unit 106, Pittsfield, to Adam and Cindy Rodick, $160,000.
Brad M. and Jennifer E. Doerle sold property at 25 Gravesleigh Terrace, Pittsfield, to John William and Rachel DeWolf, $699,000.
56 Charles Street LLC sold property at 56 Charles St., Pittsfield, to Leanna Lynn Schilling, $225,000.
David R. Cianflone sold property at 35 William St., Pittsfield, to Brad M. and Jennifer E. Doerle, $340,000.
RICHMOND Rachel L. and Franz P. Rose sold property at 851 East Road, Richmond and Lenox, to Todd Seeber and Sarah Telford, $540,000.
Lisa A. Crocker sold property at 11 Giovina Drive, Pittsfield, to Andrew C. and Courtney G. Meisberger, $615,500. PC Fourth Street LLC sold property at 24-46 Fourth St., Pittsfield, to Residences at Fourth Street LLC, $925,000.
Arnold Piacentini sold property at 78 Scace Brook Road, Richmond, to Josette Oriana Barenholtz-Schorr and Adam Jeremy Schorr, $758,000.
Cheshire Green LLC sold property at 375-177 West St., Pittsfield, to Poppolis LLC, $140,000.
Scott D. Reynolds sold property at 1969 State Road, Richmond, to Patrick M. and Anna O’Donnell, $390,000.
Hinsdale Block LLC sold property at 370 Peck’s Road, Pittsfield, to Q-Mad LLC, $275,000.
Robert A. Vigodda, trustee of the 257 Cone Hill Road RT, sold property at 257 Cone Hill Road, Richmond, to Douglas H. Ayotte, $370,000.
LoanCare LLC and Darryl Hamel sold property at 26 Spring St., Pittsfield, to Federal National Mortgage Association, $84,499.08. William Cruz sold property at 86-88 Hawthorne Ave., Pittsfield, to Emilienne Djeunzou Koria, $300,000. James Eugene Burnick sold property at 9 Chestnut St., Pittsfield, to Lisa Duda, $95,000. Stephen E. Cohen sold property at 47 Adam St., Pittsfield, to Sedonia A. Parris, $115,000. Ellies Holdings LLC sold property at 251 Dalton Ave., Pittsfield, to Daniel Pagan, $265,000. Dustin R., Allison M., Herman and Gayle D. Rotenberg sold property at 35 Tamarack Road, Pittsfield, to Faina Vendeland, $350,000. Barile East Street LLC sold property at 762 East St., Pittsfield, to Louis A. and
SANDISFIELD Virginia R. Fiddelke sold property at Dodd Road, Sandisfield, to Lucid Forest LLC, $315,000. Helene Y. Schwartzbach sold property at 21 Sunrise Court, Sandisfield, to Lauren Zehner, $165,000. Jed C. Albert, as trustee of Gladys Albert Irrevocable Trust, sold property at Sandy Brook Turnpike, Sandisfield, to John J. Scapin Jr. and Deidre A. Scapin, $40,000. Maria Oliver sold property at 109 Sandy Brook Turnpike, Sandisfield, to Matthew R. Sermini Sr. and Matthew R. Sermini Jr., $259,000. Stephen S. Kurcias & Sara E. Kurcias sold property at 27 Fawn Court, Sandisfield, to Sheldon I. Stricker & Amy W. Stricker, trustees of Stricker Family Trust Agreement, $610,000.
August 2022 Richardson Dilworth III & Martha E. Lucy sold property at 132 Sandy Brook Turnpike, Sandisfield, to Trinity LLC, $117,500. Peter John Scrobe & Diane Ellen Scrobe, trustees of Scrobe Family Revocable Declaration of Trust sold property at 0 West St., Sandisfield, to Richard R. West, $45,000. Frank A. Consolati, personal representative of the Estate of Carol T. Campetti; Richard T. Campetti, Dominic B. Campetti, Susan C. Murray, Bonnie Ann Harbour, and Karen E. Anderson sold property at 3 Sandisfield Road, Sandisfield, to Rebeca Wolf, $725,000. SAVOY Sara Borden and Michael D. Mansfield sold property at 85 Chapel Road, Savoy, to John Benjamin Trimarchi, $181,000. SHEFFIELD Rhonda W. Katz sold property at 106 & 0 Blair Lane and 0 Hemlock Ave., Sheffield, to Elizabeth Spalding and Tyler A. Spofford, $499,000. Benjamin Banks-Dobson sold property at 248 Hulett Hill Road, Sheffield, to Min Ji Lee and Andrew Yang, $695,000. Bryan Nadine Hogan sold property at 1872 South Undermountain Road, Sheffield, to Britta Schellenberg, $650,000. Hulbert L. Scott and Christine Scott, as trustees of Scott Family Nominee Trust, sold property at 59 Main St., Sheffield, to Benjamin Banks-Dobson and Nalise Dobson, $790,000. Brad A. Thomson sold property at 118 Clayton Road, Sheffield, to Manuel Jesus Guallpa Yauri, $400,000. Mary F. Courtney and Alfred G. Morrier sold property at 272 Clayton Road, Sheffield, to Town Crest Property Group LLC, $125,000. STOCKBRIDGE Erik and Robin E. Kirby sold property at 19 Hawthorne St., Unit 10, Stockbridge, to Jerry Bernay, trustee of the Jerry Bernay Declaration of Trust, $550,000.
WEST STOCKBRIDGE Christopher P. Lee and Adele L. Lee sold property at 11 Old Great Barrington Road, West Stockbridge, to Bernard David Attal, $278,000. Mildred D. Pieropan sold property at 66 High St., West Stockbridge, to Aimee Jenna and William Jenna III, $355,000. Longest Road LLC sold property at 7 Hotel St., West Stockbridge, to Cheryl Ann Beattie, $335,000. Brian R. Young, trustee of Kathleen M. Young Revocable Trust, sold property at 36 Lenox Road, West Stockbridge, to John Albert Giacoia, $430,000. James F. Gilligan & Carol A. Gilligan sold property at 12 Red Rock Road , West Stockbridge, to Joseph A. Cincotta & Barbara J. Cincotta, trustees of 12 Red Rock Road Nominee Trust, $1,700,000. WILLIAMSTOWN Elisabeth C. Goodman, trustee of the Goodman FRT, sold property at 51 Cluett Drive, Williamstown, to Robin P. and Lucas A. Mandjes, $530,000. Carmella J. Scarselletta sold property at 40-44 Mill St., Williamstown, to Nelson A. and Daysi S. Guevara, $125,000. Allen R. and Jane M. Jezouit sold property at 175 Longview Terrace, Williamstown, to Caroline Young Brooke and Alexander J. Englert, $615,000. Steinerfilm Inc. sold property at 189 Stratton Road, Unit 3 J4, Williamstown, to S4 Captal LLC, $179,900. Steven F. and Elisa M. Shoreman, trustees of the Steven F. Shoreman Trust, sold property at 91 Cole Ave., Williamstown, to Benjamin Svenson, $605,000. The Presidents and Trustees of Williams College sold property at 495 Pine Cobble Road, Williamstown, to Kelsey L. and Daniel A. Gura, $473,807. Kristen S. Thompson sold property at 964 Simonds Road, Williamstown, to James and Elyse Christensen, $341,500. Ann M. Hitchcock sold property at 73 Candlewood Drive, Williamstown, to Beechacre 3 LLC, $270,000.
Rob and Deborah Levesque sold property at Interlaken Road, Stockbridge, to Lynn Caponera, $242,000.
Daniel Spaulding sold property at 718 Henderson Road, Williamstown, to Tyler J. Swicker, $210,000.
Finance of America Reverse LLC and Patrick G. Rock, trustee of the Carlota F. Roman Living Trust, sold property at 68 Interlaken Road, Stockbridge, to T-Laken LLC, $375,000.
Chef’s Hat Restaurant LLC sold property at 905 Simonds Road, Williamstown, to Lawrence Real Estate Associates LLC, $165,000.
Ellen Shapiro sold property at 1 Lahey Crossroad, Stockbridge, to Robert V. Vigoda, trustee of 1 Lahey Crossroad RT, $2,645,000. Milgred D. Pieropan sold property at 66 High St., Stockbridge, to William Jenna III and Aimee Jenna, $355,000. Joseph B. and Mary J. Forfa sold property at 15 West Stockbridge Road, Stockbridge, to Kelly A. and Ricci M. Allessio, $430,000. Richard A. Epstein sold property at 57 Main St., Unit 3, Stockbridge, to Constance Gustke, $368,000. TYRINGHAM Margaret Cutter Harding and Thomas Hempstead Harding, executors of John Mason Harding, sold property at Off George Cannon Road, Tyringham, to Richard C. Ryan and James Sharkey, $32,000. John R. Fawcett and R. Hawley Truax, trustees of the Fernside Shaker NT, sold property off Jerusalem Road and Brace Road, Tyringham, to Commonwealth of Mass. Conservation & Recreation, $390,000. WASHINGTON Christopher M. Johnson sold property at Lovers Lane Road, Washington, to Marion H. Rutledge, $75,000. Christopher M. Johnson sold property at Lovers Lane Road, Washington, to Lydia Budianto, $197,000. James Edward Gop Jr. sold property at Middlefield Road, Washington, to Andrew Prescott, $55,000.
Jeffrey S. Rodman sold property at 1435 Oblong Road, Williamstown, to Jawad and Colette Carmen Haider, $2,445,000. Thomas W. Meiklejohn and Lynn M. Hall sold property at 72 Benlise Drive, Williamstown, to Shannon and Dennis Rebelo Jr., co-trustees of the Rebelo LT, $414,000. Carmella Scarselletta sold property at 48-52 Arnold St., Williamstown, to ENL LLC, $180,000. Mary-Jane W. Sprague sold property at 175 Bee Hill Road, Williamstown, to Gregory Peter and Moira Allison Loten, $1,300,000. WINDSOR Gloria E. Soltes sold property at 90 Windsor Pond Road, Windsor, to Turner E. Soltes, $500,000. Timothy R. Wells sold property at Access Road No. 3, Windsor, to Patrick and Barbara Cariddi, $2,500. Rolf Karl and Joanne Kloter Singleton sold property at 1149 Shaw Road, Windsor, to Gregory and Kristina Almquist Pattison, $370,000. FT — Family Trust LLC — Limited Partnership LT — Life Trust NT — Nominee Trust RET — Real Estate Trust RT — Realty Trust RVT — Revocable Trust The real estate transactions are provided by the Middle Berkshire, North Berkshire and South Berkshire Registry of Deeds offices.
August 2022
Berkshire Business Journal
People in the Berkshires Dr. Stephen Wittenberg, of Stockbridge, has been honored by the Massachusetts Medical Society as the 2022 recipient of its Senior VolunWittenberg teer Physician of the Year Award. The award recognizes a senior member of the society who has shown a dedicated commitment to direct patient care volunteerism in Massachusetts and to sharing medical experience and expertise. Wittenberg, who has been a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society for 46 years, has been a volunteer at Volunteers In Medicine Berkshires in Great Barrington since 2011. He has seen more than 1,000 patients during his time with VIM. In addition to his volunteering at VIM, until the onset of COVID-19, Dr. Wittenberg continued in his position as a clinical professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine and as an attending cardiologist at Baystate Medical Center, Wittenberg was the recipient of the Outstanding Teaching Award from Baystate Medical Center, past president of the medical staff and member of the board of trustees and attending cardiologist at Baystate Medical Center, past president of the Heart Association of Western Massachusetts and an author of nearly two dozen scholarly articles in various medical journals. He is a graduate of the New York University School of Medicine and board-certified in internal medicine and cardiovascular disease. Tyler Farnsworth, a senior at Bard College of Simon’s Rock, has been awarded a Massachusetts Space
Grant Fellowship to conduct research with assistant professor in biology Amy Smith at the college this summer. The award Farnsworth places Simon’s Rock on the roster of the Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium, an affiliate of NASA and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which includes 18 fellow Massachusetts institutions including Williams College and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Simon’s Rock is the first early college to be included on the roster. Student researcher Farnsworth will partner with Smith remotely from his hometown of Stow on developing a project and analyzing their findings throughout the summer. The grant will support Farnsworth for 30 hours a week for 10 weeks to conduct this research along with Smith. Although they are in the beginning stages of developing their project, Farnsworth has already completed his first semester of his senior thesis, which is focused on the origin of eukaryotic life and cell biology. At the conclusion of the summer’s research, Smith and Farnsworth will submit a final report of their research findings to NASA.
Harris
AnnMarie Harris, a longtime staffer in the Berkshire Athenaeum’s local history department, has received the Mass History Alliance’s STAR
Award for exemplary service. The Mass History Alliance, which recognizes excellence in local and public history in Massachusetts, designates the award to specifically honor a long-term commitment, outstanding work with concrete results, exemplary innovation, local leadership for change, and contributions to equity and justice. Harris, who has been a full-time staff member since 2003, received the award at the organization’s conference last month. During her tenure, Harris has become a strong partner of the Berkshire Family History Association, including welcoming many volunteers and over 80,000 rolls of microfilm during the library’s integration of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration Archives. Diane M. Austin was recently elected president of the board of directors of the Bidwell House Museum replacing Rob Hoogs, who had served in that position since 2010. Hoogs worked with former Director Martha Daily on a land history and mapping project in 2007 before joining the board of directors in 2008. During his tenure, Hoogs guided the Museum through a Capital Campaign; a multi-year renovation and preservation project that included a new roof and an accessible entrance; the creation of the Native American Interpretive Trail on the grounds; an expansion in Museum programming online and into the off-season; and the completion of a Conservation Restriction on 180 acres of the property in 2021. Austin, who joined the board in 2017, spent 25 years as the vice president of students affairs at Lasell College in Newton before retiring in 2019. She has been a part-time resident of the Berkshires for almost 40 years. Carol Allman-Morton has been named director of the Osher Lifelong
21 Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College. An ordained minister, Allman-Morton had most Allman-Morton recently served as director of alumni engagement at Amherst College, where she had been employed for more than 10 years with progressively responsible positions, and worked closely with the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion overseeing an operating budget of nearly $1 million. She had previously served as assistant director of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Brandeis University in Waltham. Allman-Morton was ordained at the Unitarian Universalist Meeting of South Berkshire in Housatonic. Allman-Morton holds a bachelor of arts degree in sociology from Brandeis University and a master of divinity from Andover Newton Theological School. A native of Wakefield, she currently lives in Montgomery. Real estate salesperson Leslie Glenn Chesloff, of William Pitt — Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty’s Great Chesloff Barrington brokerage, has been ranked in the 2022 REAL Trends list of “America’s Best” real estate professionals. REAL Trends, one of the most trusted sources of news, analysis and information in residential real estate, partnered with real estate training company Tom Ferry International to release this year’s ranking of top performing agents in each state. Chesloff was honored in the
Berkshire Community Action Council is looking for VOLUNTEERS 2022 ELF/Warm Clothing Program in our Pittsfield Office BCAC’s “Warmth Boutique” is looking for volunteers. This Boutique is a longstanding dream of BCAC to create a space for parents to choose New coats, New boots, and New warm outfits for their kids, at NO COST. This store-style experience will help to ensure that items will fit and will meet the preferences of each child, while upholding the families’ dignity.
Volunteers will be working together from August through Mid December to prepare the boutique for a Fall 2022 opening and helping within the Elf/Warm Clothing “Warm Boutique” after opening. • Assist in receiving donations to BCAC’s Warm Clothing Program which serves over 2,000 Berkshire County children and provides them with a New Coat, New Boots, and New Warm Clothing. • Assist in Sorting All Warm Clothing by size to prepare for Labeling. • Assist in Labeling All Warm Clothing to be Packed. • Assist in Packing All Warm Clothing by size to be stored and ready for store. Interested in volunteering, contact Michelle Sylvester at 413-418-3675 or msylvester@bcacinc.org Skills Required: Must be able to lift 40 lbs. Have a cooperative attitude. RETAIL Experience a plus! Volunteers will be using an iPad to receive inventory and handheld scanners. BCAC will provide training on using the RETAIL SQUARE APP for iPad.
BCAC requires All volunteers to pass a CORI check and provide proof of COVID vaccination.
bcacinc.org | Telephone: (413) 445-4503 | Fax: (413) 447-7871 | 1531 East Street, Pittsfield, MA 01201
PEOPLE, Page 22
22
Berkshire Business Journal
People FROM PAGE 21
individuals by volume category. The ranking is based on performance in 2021. According to REAL Trends, agents named to the list represent the top 1.49 percent of all real estate professionals in the nation. Anne Goodwin, a biology professor at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, has received a Course of Distinction Award Goodwin from the Massachusetts College Online consortium. She was one of fewer than 30 recipients from state campuses across Massachusetts to be recognized at the 17th annual MCO Conference on eLearning, which was held virtually June 2. The Course of Distinction awards are given annually to recognize excellence in design and delivery of online and hybrid courses across multiple categories. Goodwin designed and taught Nutrition for Healthy Living as an asynchronous, fully online course. Goodwin is the second faculty member in MCLA’s biology department in the last three years to earn recognition in recent years for outstanding online course design. MCLA is one of 24 public state higher education institutions that belongs to the Massachusetts Massachusetts Colleges Online consortium.
Guido
Barbara Guido, the senior vice president of retail banking
at Adams Community Bank, recently graduated from the New England School for Financial Studies Graduate School of Banking Program, which was held at Babson College. The graduation ceremony took place at Babson’s Center for Executive Education in Wellesley. Sponsored by the Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont Bankers Associations, the program provides banking professionals with the tools to manage effectively in today’s changing financial ecosystem. The program is open to applicants who hold key leadership roles in a financial institution and demonstrate the ability to assume greater responsibility within their organization. Adams Community Bank counts many of its senior management team among New England School for Financial Studies graduates.
Hopsicker
Mike Hopsicker, the president and CEO of Ray Murray Inc. in Lee, has been elected treasurer of the National Propane Gas
Association. Hopsicker has been an NPGA board member and been involved in the organization’s committees since 1996. He has previously chaired the NPGA’s distributor section, convention committee and most recently the committee on government affairs. Hopsicker has been president and CEO of Ray Murray Inc. and minority owner since 2005. As part of a previously approved transition plan, Hopsicker became RMI’s majority owner in 2014, then purchased the company in 2021. RMI is one of the country’s largest distributors of propane gas equipment and appliances. Prior to joining RMI, Hospicker served as CEO of Agway Inc. and
spent eight years as the CEO of Agway Energy Products, one of the largest retail marketers of propane and fuel oil in the U.S. Karen Harrington has been promoted to director of retail operations, northern territory, and Mary Killeen Harrington to director of finance by Goodwill Industries of the Berkshires and Southern Vermont, which is based in Pittsfield. Harrington Killeen has been the manager of Goodwill’s retail store in Bennington, Vt. since 2015. She oversees operations at Goodwill’s store in North Adams and in Rutland, Vt. and is a member of the team that worked on the July reopening of Goodwill’s flagship store in Pittsfield. Prior to joining Goodwill, the Bennington native was employed at the Bennington Museum for 22 years, including 16 years as administrative assistant to the executive director, followed by six years as manager of the museum’s gift shop. Killeen, a native and resident of Pittsfield, joined Goodwill in 2020 as senior accountant. She holds a bachelor of science degree in business administration from Stonehill College. In her new role as director of finance, Killeen will oversee all the day-to-day financial aspects of Goodwill’s operations, as well as short- and long-term planning for the nonprofit organization. Killen previously worked at WCVBTV in Boston and in television pro-
August 2022 duction at Boston-based Metromedia Producers. She owned and operated The Bookshelf, a former second-hand book store in Pittsfield, for 20 years, and has served as an IndyCar Series timing and scoring official for eight years. Cliff Love has been promoted to program manager at Transitions, a daytime program for young adults with disabilities, by Berkshire Love County Arc. Transitions helps young adults transition from high school to adulthood with the goal of having them attain independence. Love has worked at Berkshire County Arc since 2005. He has previously served as an assistant program manager at Transitions, and as the director of a residential program in addition to other roles. Family advocate Chris Ferrari of Berkshire County Arc was recently inducted into the Special Olympics Massachusetts Ferrari Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2022 Ferrari is the first BCArc employee to receive this honor.
Nicola-Jefferson
BCArc’s Rachel Nicola-Jefferson was honored with the ANCOR Direct Support Professional of the Year Award for Massachusetts, chosen among
PEOPLE, Page 23
EXIT-STRATEGY EEXPERT XPERT Build your business to sell for more.
Allen Harris, CEO, CEPA
He wrote the book on getting more out of your hard work—then built a business to help you build yours. In less than 13 minutes, you can find out where your business stands—and where he can help you increase your value. 10001hours.com
August 2022
Berkshire Business Journal
A place for everyone Business Expo puts many resources in one place By Tony Dobrowolski DALTON — If you’re starting a small busi-
ness in the Berkshires it’s hard to know where to begin. There’s a plethora of agencies available to help budding entrepreneurs. But knowing the right one to approach can often be difficult. So what if all these agencies were in the same room at the same time? That would certainly make the journey easier. That’s the idea behind the upcoming Business Resource Expo set for Aug. 9 at the Stationery Factory in Dalton. As of mid-July, 28 organizations that support small businesses in Berkshire County had agreed to send representatives to this half-day event, and more were expected to attend. The event starts at 8:30 a.m. and will conclude by 1. It is free and open to the public, but pre-registration is required at bcbizexpo.com. Breakfast and lunch will be served. Three panel discussions led by regional economic experts will take place. A networking area will be available for conversations and meetings. “This is a confluence of a couple of different things coming from different directions,” said Deborah Gallant, the executive director of Entrepreneurship for All-Berkshire County of Pittsfield, which is coordinating the event. The three other collaborating agencies are 1Berkshire, the Pittsfield Economic Revitalization Corporation, and the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission. The Berkshire Eagle is the event’s media sponsor. “There’s an economic practitioner’s group that meets each quarter and one of the things that we’ve talked about is
The lineup
Greylock Federal Credit Union
The organizations participating in the Business Resource Expo, as of July 11:
Berkshire Bank
1Berkshire Pittsfield Economic Revitalization Corp.
Adams Community Bank CDC of Southern Berkshire Common Capital North Adams Chamber
Berkshire Innovation Center
Franklin County CDC
TD Bank
Downtown Pittsfield, Inc.
Mountain One
Schumacher Center for a New Economics
Mass Health Connector Massachusetts Small Business Development Center
Lever, Inc. Berkshire Community College
MassHire Berkshire Workforce Board Berkshire Agricultural Ventures Forge Berkshire Immigrant Center Mass Development Blackshires Berkshire Black Economic Council Aligned Workplace Center for Women & Enterprise
The Berkshire Eagle
that there are so many crisscrossing programs and opportunities so it’s hard for a small business to know where to go,” Gallant said. There’s no clarity within the community about what programs there are, who someone who wants to start a small business should talk to, and how to apply for any grants or assistance programs, Gallant said. “Now, that COVID is at least, hopefully, behind us, I think there’s this really big appetite for getting together,” she said. “All the pieces came together in pretty short order. “People really get the value of this and they can’t wait to meet with small-business owners and tell them about the programs they have. Attendees will be able to learn how to access technical assistance programs, and apply for either funding or grant programs and marketing initiatives or oth-
er advice or support. Existing business, would-be entrpreneurs and solo service providers and consultants are invited to attend. ‘It’s to let business owners and [prospective] business owners learn about wll the opportunities and programs and resources that are availabe to them all thougout the county,” she said. “It’s mostly not-for-profits and government agencies, but we’ll also have banks that want to talk about their small-business loans, CDCs (Community Development Corporations) and chambers of commerce.” The panel discussions will include: “Which Organization Can Help Me With What”? moderated by Ben Lamb of 1Berkshire; “Fueling Your Business: Where’s the Money?” moderated by Raymond Lanza-Weil of Common Capital; and “How Can I Find More Customers... What Marketing Works?,” moderated by Noah Cook-Dubin of Kanoa Consulting.
23
People FROM PAGE 22
300 nominees. She was presented the award at ANCOR’s three-day annual conference in Miami. Evan Collins has joined Lee Bank’s mortgage lending team, and is working out of the bank’s Pittsfield branch at 75 Collins North St. Collins, a lifelong Berkshire County resident who lives in Lenox, was previously employed as a sales associate at Piretti Real Estate and Stone House Properties. He has been involved in real estate sales in Berkshire County for seven years. Collins hold a business administration degree from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. An avid golfer, Collins enjoys woodworking and gardening, and volunteers as a coach for his two daughters’ basketball teams. Big Y Foods has promoted four employees who live in the Berkshires. Vito A. Guerino, of North Adams, has been promoted to night manager at Big Y’s North Adams store; Daniel J. Dufur, of Pittsfield, has been promoted to meat and seafood sales manager in the Pittsfield store; and Jonathan A. Hubbard, of Pittsfield, has been promoted to assistant store director in Great Barrington. Also, Ranaan K. Hartman, of Pittsfield, has been named district director at Big Y’s Springfield store. Based in Springfield, Big Y operates Berkshire markets in Great Barrington, Lee, North Adams and Pittsfield and gas/convenience store locations in Lee and Pittsfield.
24
Berkshire Business Journal
August 2022
townshipfour.com
Jed Thompson and Nathan Hanford Owners, Township Four
The Pittsfield Cooperative Bank + Township Four
Growing Together When Jed and Nathan wanted to grow their business, they needed a bank willing to be part of the grand design. Together, we worked out the financing – delivering the perfect arrangement of service and knowledge. If you have a new business idea you’d like to cultivate, contact us to set up an appointment. We’ll bring the flowers.
For help growing your financial future, contact us today at 413-447-7304.
Pittsfield • Dalton • Gt. Barrington pittsfieldcoop.com Member FDIC & DIF
Equal Housing Lender