Business & Tech

Chamber President: Middletown Suffers Loss with Transit Head's Death

Cheeseman gave time as a chairman of the chamber's Central Business Bureau and was a member of the board of directors.

Last week I was saddened to hear of the passing of a great man and leader in Middlesex County: .

Tom was a friend to me and I always considered him to be a tremendously dedicated person to this county. He did an outstanding job of leading and brought the organization to where it is today, having forged many partnerships with other community organizations.

He selflessly gave his time as a chairman of the chamber’s Central Business Bureau as well as leading the chamber as a member of our board of directors.

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Tom also received one of the most prestigious awards one can earn when he was named as the recipient of the state’s Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Leadership Award in 2007.  Middlesex County and the state of Connecticut will truly miss his great contributions and we all will miss his friendship and unconditional support.

Thanks again to Rece Davis of ESPN for a great breakfast meeting last Monday. Rece really engaged our crowd with honest, detailed answers to questions and colorful description of his colleagues at the network.

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He was truly impressed with our crowd and I hope that this is the beginning of a tradition of welcoming ESPN personalities to our chamber breakfast meetings.

Last year at this time, we in Middlesex County were in the midst of a harsh winter that included unrelenting snowfall. We saw a —collapse because of the weight it was forced to bear from those many blistering snowfalls.  We saw emergency responders from throughout the county come together to mitigate this disaster and assist the several businesses that were affected because of it: , Mike’s Barbershop, Middletown Framing and Oddfellow’s Playhouse.

There is quite an opposite picture in 2012. For starters, there is virtually no sign of any significant snowfall and spring-like temperatures have become common during the winter months. 

More importantly, the businesses that were negatively impacted from the collapse of 505 Main Street are thriving in their new, albeit temporary, locations. The construction of the brand new building at 505 Main remains on schedule and businesses will move back in there within one year.

This is an example of Guilmartin, DiPiro & Sokolowski making a decision to build and expand on their Main Street site; we are very proud of them.

Another big meeting on the schedule is next week at our monthly member breakfast meeting with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal at the Crowne Plaza on Feb. 13. The breakfast will be immediately followed by a much-anticipated seminar entitled How to Recover When Disaster Strikes – An Energy Forum from 9:15-11:30 a.m., sponsored by Murtha Cullina Attorneys at Law. 

This energy forum is an excellent opportunity for manufacturers, skilled nursing facilities, grocers, mall owners, office building managers, municipal officials, engineers installers and businesses—both small and large—to hear from experts on how best to prepare and recover from an extended power outage or emergency because of a natural event or disaster.

A panel of experts will highlight the steps required to keep your business running with a minimal loss of productivity and staff down time.   

The panel will focus on: the importance of preparing a disaster plan for your office or facility prior to an emergency and the steps you can take to mitigate risk; the factors to consider when installing and designing backup energy systems at your facility, complex or building, including an overview of the different technologies; and rethinking the existing use of your backup systems to maximize reliability and efficiencies amongst other topics.

This is a very important seminar because it is an opportunity for us to be proactive in our own situation because it is not a question of if, but when will the next weather-related disaster occur.

This week, a group that is attracting new members at an exponential rate—the chamber’s Young Professionals’ Alliance—will take a field trip to Hartford to take in a Hartford Whale hockey game tonight.  The tickets were provided by the Whale and Aetna, and this event is sure to be a hit with 40 guests registered. Prior to the game, the group plans to meet at Coach’s Sports Bar and Grill for a networking reception. 

If you are an up-and-coming business person, this group is the place to be in to meet some of the county’s top business talent

Finally, congratulations to Timeless Trendz in Middletown for its grand opening celebration that it held on Friday. Owner Kim Bertucio has done a great job in getting her business model off of the ground and I wish her much success in the future.  During challenging economic times, consignment stores are utilized more and more; this business really fulfills a need in our area.

For information, contact Matt Fraulino at (860) 347-6924 or mfraulino@middlesexchamber.com.

 

 

 

 


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