Officially, the Norwood Chamber of Commerce now will be known as the Norwood Chamber of Commerce. Chamber President William C. Phipps made reference to the new name in remarks during the meeting last night at Airport. The change in title attests to the chamber’s diverse growth in membership, chamber Executive Secretary Robert H. Cook told the gathering. More than 25 percent of the chamber membership comes from outside the town of Norwood, Cook said in explaining why he backed the change in the organization’s name. Just recently, he received confirmation from the state secretary of state’s office the chamber’s new incorporation papers had been accepted.
With a net gain of 14 new members during the past chamber year which ended May 31, chamber membership now stands at 320 and draws from more than 20 cities and towns, Cook reported. Statistically, 30 new memberships were offset by 16 membership losses of various kinds caused by three resignations, three deaths, four businesses relocating out of the Norwood area and six discontinued for failure to keep up dues, Cook noted. About 100 chamber members and guests attended the dinner meeting and business meeting held in the Wiggins Airways aircraft showroom.
Guest speaker James H. Shane updated the chamber on his Park Place industrial park now under development in the old Norwood Arena site off Route 1. Shane has evidently achieved success with his family-owned business, Appendage, Inc., makers of the Faded Glory clothing, now located on University Avenue. Now, he reported, the industrial park has been “overwhelmingly successful” with all but an acre or so of the 73-acre site “totally committed” as of this week, only 18 months from the park plan’s inception.
Among proud graduates in the class of 1978 at Colby College in Maine last month was a highly successful young Norwood business executive named James H. Shane. A bachelor’s degree for Shane, unlike for many college graduates, is not the key to his success. At 33, Shane is president of the Faded Glory clothing company with annual sales running into the tens of millions of dollars. Right now, Shane under a family realty trust is developing a 21-lot industrial park off Route 1. Bigger degree and better company space to replace present tight quarters on University Avenue was a consideration.
Last night, Shane was guest speaker at the annual meeting of the Norwood Chamber of Commerce. Chamber President William C. Phipps remarked on the seemingly inverse sequence of Shane’s life from business success to the college classroom. Later, Shane said achieving the liberal arts degree concentrating on administrative science and biology, was something he just had to do. It meant carrying a full course credit load this past year, he said, which couldn’t have been easy. Besides his business, Shane has a wife and two children and a home in Wayland. “It was just something left in my life unfinished,” he remarked.
At least 14 park buildings will be under construction or at completion this year, Shane said. He expects to break ground for new Faded Glory headquarters of about 140,000 square feet this month, he added. When completed with 21 buildings, the park will contain a total of 834,000 square feet of building space worth $12 million and return $500,000 in taxes to the town, Shane continued. The one snag in the smooth planning has been what he described as an “arbitrary decision” by state bureaucracy to deny him a sewer tie-in permit. The experience, he remarked, has been “very discouraging, very frustrating to come so far, so fast and then get hit” with a bureaucratic block.
The state Department of Environmental Quality Engineering (DEQE) issued a tentative denial, one he interprets as amounting to state pressure on the town to deal with problems of surface and ground water entering the town sewer system, Shane explained. With town officials on his side, Shane said he expects a conditional permit for Park Place to tie into the town sewers within two weeks. In a separate comment Rep. Gregory W. Sullivan, D-Norwood, said the DEQE is going to demand stringent provisions for elimination of any potential drainage problems because of worries Park Place will exacerbate the existing problem of an overburdened sewer system.
In answering questions, Shane said he is looking at possible locations in Norwood for a Faded Glory factory outlet store. Park Place zoning, he noted, would allow such a store at the Faded Glory’s proposed warehouse-office quarters only two days a month. Regarding Route 1 traffic now and once Park Place is fully occupied, Shane said full traffic lights are needed at the entrance across from the Factory Mutual building. But, so far, state planning has been for a jug handle just south at Morse Street although construction could not be expected for perhaps five years, he explained. Shane’s membership application was accepted by the chamber.
In other business, chamber first Vice President A. Robert Kerr presented retiring president Phipps a mounted gavel for his leadership during his one-year term. In a bylaw change, the chamber president, customarily elected during the annual meeting, will be elected this year in a corporate-like procedure by the 13 chamber directors at their own meeting tomorrow night. In other business, the chamber adopted resolutions in memory of architect Harry Korslund and in insuranceman and former selectman Thomas J. Foley, both members who died this past year. Stephen Woelfel of the Thomas J. Foley Insurance Co. was awarded the chamber trophy for his low gross score of 82 during the scholarship golf tournament held at Walpole Country Club last Thursday. Wiggins Airways President Joseph Garside was presented a pen and pencil desk set in appreciation of offering airport premises for chamber functions.
Original Article: The Patriot Ledger
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