Independent Banker - August 2022 - 50

WEATHERING THE STORM
On June 1, 2011, a tornado tore through
the small town of Monson, Mass., damaging
nearly every structure in its path. " It was just
devastating, " says Monson Savings Bank's
president and CEO Dan Moriarty. " Typically,
up here, we don't have tornadoes. We have
blizzards and all other sorts of storms, but
not tornadoes. "
Moriarty recalls his wife phoning him
from nearby Springfi eld, where she was
working, telling him to pick the kids up from
school and get to safety immediately. Twenty
minutes later, the tornado ripped through
downtown Monson, wreaking havoc.
He describes the atmosphere immediately
afterwards as eerie. " It was June 1, so
everything's typically green, " he says. " There
[are] a lot of trees, and it's just a beautiful
place. And then after the tornado hit, it was
just quiet. There were no animals or birds
chirping. There was nothing. "
Fortunately, the bank building itself wasn't
signifi cantly damaged. Trees and power lines
were down, so the team focused on getting a
generator so residents could access their cash,
and within 24 hours, they were back online.
" There were no other lights on Main Street at
night except like the Monson clock and the
ATM machine.
" Everybody just came together, " he
remembers. " All the people in town brought
their tractors and their bucket loaders and
chain saws. We had many volunteers, and
we had people donating money to help with
people that suff ered signifi cant damage. I
sat on the Monson Tornado Committee, and
we ended up distributing monies that we
received. Almost half a million dollars were
donated, and we were able to distribute all
that money pretty quickly to people that
needed it. So, it was a memorable historical
time, and I hope we never see it again. "
assets and three branches. Mann has been with the bank
since 1988, was president and CEO for 23 years, and was
appointed chairman in 2005. Looking back, he credits his
employees and customers with making his job very easy.
Of course, he says, there have been bumps in the road,
the most stressful in his tenure being the Great Recession
of 2008. " We had a bad examination, a bad state exam, "
he recalls. " And the examiner in charge forced us to charge
off a lot of real-estate secured loans. We knew that we
had strong collateral that was backing our loans that we
were forced to charge off , even though the values dropped
tremendously, but we were confi dent it would come back.
" We bit the bullet, " he adds, " we charged off the loans,
we paid the taxes on all of our non-performing real estate,
and over the next fi ve to seven years, we were able to sell
those properties, or refi nance them, and recover almost
all of our charge off s. And then some. So, we actually came
through it in great shape, but it was a stressful time. "
This September, Chelsea State Bank is celebrating its
milestone anniversary-and the German ancestry of many
of its founders and investors-with an Oktoberfest. It's
taking place in the parking lot of its Chelsea headquarters,
with bratwurst and knockwurst sausages, beer and a local
oompah band, the Jammin' Germans, providing the tunes.
Rising to challenges
Fast forward to 1922. The Ottoman Empire came to an
end, the Soviet Union was born and archaeologist Howard
Carter unearthed Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun's
At left, Mary Lee Penney, retired Chelsea State Bank executive vice
president and current Rotary president, is joined by fellow Rotary
members in preparing meals for Ronald McDonald House Charities.
50 Q ICBA Independent Banker Q August 2022
Independent Banker - August 2022

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