Nine percent of Holyoke businesses are owned by Latinos, but the city and community groups hope to foster that number to 25 percent in three years with the help of a three-year, $250,000 grant facilitated by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Holyoke learned Wednesday that it is one of six Massachusetts cities to win grants in theWorking Cities Challenge and the only Western Massachusetts city to be awarded funding through the competitive grant program.

 

"Lets say you come into city hall or the chamber and you want to start a bakery," said Kathleen Anderson, president of the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce and part of the team that secured the grant. "That's a lot of capital. But what if there is a commercial kitchen where you could rent time and do some baking to get started? What other kinds of resources, what other kinds of expertise, are available?"

 

The group, called the Holyoke SPARK Initiative for Stimulating Potential, Accessing Resource Knowledge, includes the chamber, the city, the Holyoke Public Library, CareerPoint one-stop career center and business lender Common Capital

Anderson and Marcos Marrero, director of planning and economic development, which is a job Anderson once held, said details are still in the works. But the group will hire a staff person to pull it all together.

 

The goal is also to tie members of the downtown Holyoke community into the Innovation District the city is creating around the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center, Mayor Alex B. Morse said.

"Its a very competitive process," Morse said, recalling the many visits Boston Fed officials made to Holyoke. "We could tell throughout the process that they were very impressed with our proposal."

 

Other winners were Lawrence, Fitchburg, Chelsea, Somerville and Salem. Springfield and Chicopee applied, but were not awarded grants.

But not getting a grant doesn't mean a city didn't benefit from the program, said Prabal Chakrabarti, vice president of regional and community outreach department, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The entire application process was meant to get city governments, nonprofit groups, businesses and other civic organizations "pulling together on a collaborative project."

 

Such collaborations have helped other post-industrial cities flourish, Chakrabarti said.

"What the Fed research found was, in looking at small to medium-sized cities over the long term and around the country, these cities, the ones who won, have been through the wringer in the last year working as teams," he said. "The common factor was leadership toward a common vision with a sense of where the community is going and metrics and accountability.

 

"The grants are only a part of this," he said . "There are no losers." Chakrabarti said Springfield's entry, which involved improving health and job readiness while bringing a full-line supermarket to the Mason Square neighborhood, might move forward with funding from another source.  The grant money doesn't come from the Federal Reserve, Chakrabarti said. Instead, it comes from the state, the Mass Competitive Partnership, which is a consortium of large employers including MassMutual Financial Group, and a partnership of large philanthropies.

 

By ALEX LYMAN

HOLYOKE - The Holyoke St. Patrick's Committee awarded the George O'Connell Award to a committee member who proudly refers to himself as a 

"Holyoke-er."

 

Fred Glidden was presented with the prestigious award on Sunday.

"Having been a member for so long, I am certainly honored to receive the award," said Glidden. "I used to think my time had passed, but they never cease to surprise us with their choices."

The George O'Connell Award is presented to a longstanding member of the Holyoke St. Patrick's committee who has made substantial contributions to the parade and committee through fundraising. The winner is voted on by past winners of the O'Connell Award.

Glidden is a past president of the committee, has led the raffle committee, helped various committees in their own fundraising efforts, and works with companies to raise money each year to support the parade.

"The amount of money we generate is substantial. The parade and St. Patrick's Day itself is a homecoming for us. Our committee is so family oriented, and it's what makes us unique," Glidden explained.

Glidden said he looks back fondly on his efforts and participation, and looks forward to another exciting parade season.

Dark Dining Room House Concert Series Features Winterpills with Opener Luray Dark Dining Room brings the warmth and coziness of your living room to the stage at Wistariahurst. Performing at the opening show, Winterpills bring their melancholic male-female harmonies to the museum for a night of folk and chamber pop. Opening the show is Washington, DC-based Luray, creating banjo-inspired indie folk with warm vocals and lush instrumentation. While no dinner is served, there will be light refreshments provided by Tony Jones Catering and a cash bar.

Doors open at 7 pm for all shows.

Using genealogical records and primary resources genealogist Sara Campbell will prepare a sketch of an Irish immigrant family in Civil War-era Holyoke.

Costs:

Join the Munich Haus in Chicopee  and Zoe's Fish House in Hadley, as they each host a grand buffet dinner while Greenfield-based comedy troupe, Comical Mystery Tour, performs "Monopoly for Murder".

Cost

January 24th-25th