Welcome to Holyokebiz.com.  As the editor and publisher of this publication, I am committed to building a foundation and platform for Holyoke Community Development.  The goal of Holyokebiz.com is to provide resources and content that enrich the lives of local people, including resources for local businesses, clubs, educators, artists, and other community organizations and events. Holyokebiz.com is about the business of our lives.  Holyoke Business News seeks to cover what's going on in Holyoke, specifically, and also anything else related to the local interest in general.

Such a goal is no easy task, and requires the input and participation of any and all interested parties.  As editor, I welcome any and all feedback and commentary, as well as link submissions, press releases, story ideas, and items of interest.  This publication seeks to be a reflection of the community and a portal for Holyoke success.  Please feel free to get involved. 

I am a local business owner motivated by a love of Holyoke and a desire to see this City grow in positive and healthy ways.  Of course, I am self-motivated as well. My "day job" is Powell Custom Renovations.  I am a licensed construction supervisor, and experienced contractor.  I have physically repaired and improved the City of Holyoke in some small ways through the renovation and restoration of half-a-dozen properties here in the city.  It really feels good to breath life back into these historic homes.  I want to do more.

My roots are in the newspapers and in Holyoke. When I was a boy, I delivered the Transcript Telegram for a local route in Granby, hauling that heavy bag round by bike for 10 miles a day.   Later  I would go to Holyoke Catholic where I graduated with a love for Holyoke and, thanks to some wonderful English teachers, an interest in writing.  I went on to college and graduated from UMass with a degree in political science, but by then I had had enough of writing (--although I did spend one very gratifying semester while at HCC working as a reporter for the Holyoke Sun ).  So I pursued my other love: construction and building.  (You see, my nature lies somewhere between my mother's father: a Public Relations Chief well-versed in words and my fathers father, a hands-on Professional Carpenter.)

So I put writing aside for a while, and set out to build, apprenticed with my future father-in-law, (Mike Barbaro, an Italian immigrant, master builder and Tile Man), built houses, remodeled and tiled for the next few years.  I went on to get my GC license and began to work on homes in the Holyoke area.  Now, after a few years more, I can no longer subdue my first interest, and have decided to meld the two into one.  So in as simple a way as I can put it, this is how Holyoke Business News was born.

I hope we can all enjoy Holyoke's continued rejuvenation together.

Thank you and please submit something of interest to you. 

Sincerely,

Michael M. Powell

Contact editor@holyokebiz.com   

                                                                                                                        NAVIGATE HOME