CAPTION: Richard M. Primose, a Beacon Hill resident and president of Palladion Services, LLC.

Richard M. Primrose learned the importance of teamwork as a starting offensive lineman for the Yale University football team. He was an integral part of three Ivy League championship teams.
Primrose graduated from Yale in 1983 with a degree in Economics and received his MBA Degree from Harvard in 1991.
A Beacon Hill resident, Primrose, 46, started Palladion Services, LLC 11 years ago from scratch and today the business, headquartered on High Street in Boston, employs 500 people and has the highest customer and employer retention rates in its market in the city.
Primrose said Palladion has earned its reputation and its business “by establishing a track record, of keeping our promises, and really exceeding our customers’ expectations in terms of service quality.”
“We conduct our business the old fashioned way,” said Primrose. “We’re close to our customers and we work very hard at servicing our accounts. What we really sell is trustworthiness and responsibility. Our customers entrust us with keys to buildings that are worth millions of dollars.”
Palladion began as a security company and Primrose faced the issue of how could he differentiate an intangible in an intensely competitive market
“We sell an intangible [services], not something you can touch,” said Primrose. “One of the ways we were able to distinguish our business was by establishing a rigorous selection process in terms of background screening and the processes job candidates go through before becoming employed with our company.
“I found it produced a better quality candidate – the very best in our labor pool and our market,” said Primrose.
Primrose said he approached one of his first clients and offered to do more than a traditional, one-dimensional security provider. The client, who owned a residential building in Cambridge, asked Primrose if his company could provide concierge services as well.
“That was nine years ago,” said Primrose. “Today, the concierge side of our business is our fastest growing market segment. We have the largest market share of the high-end residential market in Boston. And it’s a direct outgrowth of our service philosophy. We’ve been able to capitalize on the growth in the area’s high-end residential market because we were the first company that positioned ourselves as a concierge provider.”
Among the properties where Palladion provides concierge services is a 220-unit luxury condominium building on Beacon Hill and other downtown luxury properties. All told, Palladion provides services at 55 buildings, half with security services in high-rise, high-end commercial buildings, and the other half with full concierge services in high-end residential buildings.
Primrose grew up in Everett and graduated from Everett High School in 1979. His mother, Theresa, was the secretary to three different Everett superintendents of schools for 25 years.
“I’m very big on public education,” said Primrose. “I think Everett High gave me a great education. My mother is a remarkable woman who stressed education to my brother and me.”
After graduating from Yale, he worked for Bank of New England for six years, first as an analyst and later in commercial real estate. While studying for his MBA at Harvard, he took a highly competitive internship for Disney Development Corp. in Orlando. He was offered a job from Disney to help build a hotel at EuroDisney Land in France but turned it down to take a position in a security services business [Guardsmark] in Boston, where he became the executive vice president and chief operating officer overseeing 11,000 employees and more than 200 offices.
He wrote a business plan for Palladion in 1996. “I saw an opportunity in Boston because I felt the term “security services” was a bit of an oxymoron in that there more security and less service in the industry so I thought a locally owned company that really focused on service at some of Boston’s non-iconic buildings could do well and that was our target market,” said Primrose.
Through Primrose’s hard work and aided by an excellent management team that includes 16-year business associates and friends, Patrick Knight, vice president, and Paul Chicarello, senior manager, Palladion has built an impeccable reputation in the security and concierge business in Boston. Knight holds undergraduate and MBA degrees from Syracuse University while Chicarello holds undergraduate and MBA degrees from Harvard.
“We learned the business the same way and they’re two of the most dedicated people I’ve ever met and they’re both exceptionally talented,” said Primrose.
Knight credits Primrose for his exemplary leadership and his ability to motivate his employees on a daily basis.
“I think Rick’s leadership qualities are what motivates all of us and gives us direction,” said Knight. “When I came on board, there were 15 employees and now there are 500. Rick’s strength is that he knows every single employee that works here. He’s very focused and very driven. He demands excellence all the time. There is no room for mediocrity.”
Reflecting on his business career, Primrose said his athletic background helped set the foundation to his success.
“I was an offensive lineman in college and you fight for inches, and this is a business that you build one hour at a time,” said Primrose. “Brick by brick, you build this business. I love what I’m doing because we earn our way and we are able to positively impact people’s lives. We have a positive impact on our employees. We keep our promises to our customers and I think it’s the noblest way to make one’s livelihood.”

CAPTION: Participants are seen during a June session of Ultimate Boot Camp.

There are those of us – you know who you are – who go into hibernation mode in the winter. We acquire an additional layer of fat through a combination of too much comfort food and too little exercise, and we hide out in bulk sweaters until the spring. Then, there are those of us who are out on Boston Common at 6 a.m. in the middle of February, doing sprints and presses and push ups. These are the participants in Ultimate Bootcamp’s Outdoor Winter Bootcamp, a six-week intensive full-body workout program. A session is beginning Feb. 25, and co-founder Peter Lavelle says it is not a crazy idea to be exercising outside in the middle of a New England winter.
“Our participants are hard core – but they also soon realize they actually don’t have to be,” he says. “Within 10 minutes, you’re all warmed up. You just have to wear the right clothing.”
And, he says, Ultimate Bootcamp participants find they have a good time getting in shape – even when the temperature is barely in the double digits.
“We are the opposite of a military-style exercise bootcamp,” Lavelle says. We try to make it fun for everyone by being encouraging and motivating.”
Lavelle and his business partner, Jill Tomich, founded Ultimate Bootcamp in the summer of 2003 because of their shared passion that fitness can be fun. Both have extensive backgrounds in fitness, and they wanted to branch out beyond the typical gym setting to offer a unique exercise option. Their initial Ultimate Bootcamp location was in Watertown, and Lavelle says about eight people showed up. Since then, six additional locations have been added – including Boston Common in the spring of 2004 – and hundreds of area residents have gone through the Bootcamp.
“The Boston Common location is arguable the most popular,” Lavelle says. “There was a demand for a downtown location, and Boston Common is very accessible. It also has every material you could possibly want – hills, monuments to run up down the steps, and benches for presses.”
A typical workout will include a warm up jog, partner exercises, core work, push ups, lunges and squats. Participants can be seen working their triceps using park benches or sprinting from Charles St. up the hill to the State House. The Boston Common location also has more visibility than any other, and the sessions can sometimes have an audience.
“We have a lot of foot traffic, and we get a lot of reactions. For one, people like us being there, especially at 6 a.m. People feel a little safer,” he said. “And second, people get energized. Whether it’s a cold or a rainy day, people are out there exercising, and onlookers get energized.”
In fact, many of those who sign up do so because they saw a session and got inspired to join. Lavelle says that participants are of all ages and all abilities, but there do tend to be more women then men in the program.
“We don’t gear the program to any one person specifically,” he says. “Everyone can get something out of it.”
And that something is results. According to surveys of past participants, 94 percent say that after completing one session they have more energy and have improved overall tone, and 77 percent say they lost weight. Lavelle says the success comes from the program’s total-body approach.
“We don’t just address any one component of fitness – there are three: cardio, muscle training and nutrition,” he says. “You’re always moving, always sweating. And people actually look forward to the sessions – they do.”

Bootcamp Basics is Feb. 18 – 21 on Boston Common from 6 – 7 a.m.
The six-week Outdoor Winter Bootcamp begins Feb. 25 on Boston Common and is held three times a week from 6 – 7 a.m.
Visit www.ultimatebootcamp.com for more information.

The Patriot’s last minute loss in Super Bowl XLII sent tremors of heartbreak throughout the city of Boston, but there may have been an unintended and unforeseen upside to the Pats failed persuit of perfection: a relatively calm post game scene outside bars and clubs in the district.
According to Captain Bernard O’Rourke of District 1-A, Sunday night saw none of the unruly mob scenes, vandalism, or violence that have characterized the past two Patriots Super Bowl celebrations.
“It was quiet,” said O’Rourke at a community advisory meeting last week. “There were almost no problems whatsoever.”
O’Rourke said police did receive one report of an altercation at a downtown bar, but the situation was quickly handled by a large number of responding officers.
“They were there within 50 seconds,” he said.
The calm downtown was mirrored city wide, even in often volatile Kenmore Square. “By all accounts, everyone just filtered out and went home.”
In 2004, after the Patriots defeated the Carolina Panthers, there was unrest citywide, including riots at Northeastern that left one student dead, as well as fires and overturned cars in several parts of the city. In some areas, firefighters had to use hoses to disperse crowds. Similar lawlessness was seen during the Red Sox 2004 playoff run and World Series victory, during which one Emerson College student was accidentally killed.
Since then, however, police have been much more successful at restraining rowdy and potentially dangerous revelers. A Super Bowl victory in 2005 and another World Series triumph last year saw markedly fewer problems.
This year may have been the quietest post game scene yet: no doubt in large part because of the deflating final score.
In other police news, crime in January remained fairly consistent overall with last year, with 346 incidents district wide as opposed to 343 for the same period in 2007.
Looking more closely at the numbers reveals both positives and negative. Auto thefts were down considerably throughout the district. More locally, larcenies were down in Beacon Hill by over 40% (26 to 16).
However, assaults remained problematic, particularly downtown and the financial district, where boozy patrons at local clubs and bars continue to pose a danger to police and their fellow citizens.
“It’s insanity,” said O’Rourke of the number of assaults that result from drunkenness. “The overserving in the clubs is a problem.”
O’Rourke said that it was critical that bar and club owners understand when to cut off patrons who are visibly drunk. There were 12 incidents of assault between the financial district and government center alone, almost double the same number in those neighborhoods last year.

Webelos from Beacon Hill Pack 74 held their annual ski trip on February 1-3.
Pictured at the top of the terrain park at the Sugarbush Resort in Warren
Vermont are Stephen Quigley (Fairfield Street), John Eaton (Chestnut Street), Reed Winter (Charles River Square), Jack Saylor (West Cedar Street), Ethan and Andrew Winter (Charles River Square), Jack and Bob Ditomassi (Beacon Street), Brian and Colin Zick (Sentry Hill Place). Missing from the picture: Vova Quigley and photographer John Saylor.
Webelos Pack 74 is looking for 4th grade boys to join the group. Interested parents should contact Stephen Quigley at stephen.quigley2@verizon.net.

Veteran developer John Ryan is trying to revive a twenty year old plan to move Suffolk University completely out of Beacon Hill and relocate it downtown, a move which he believes would be equally beneficial for the neighborhood and the university.
“Once they see how much money it would save them, they would be crazy not to,” said Ryan of his plan.
His proposal, first drawn up in 1988, calls for Suffolk University to take over the Hurley-Lindemann building in the Government Center area. Currently owned and used by the state for administrative offices, Ryan said that the state offices could be moved to Reedville.
However, no Suffolk University officials seemed interested in the plan, and no representatives from the state returned calls seeking comment.
The proposal is not one that the university plans to consider, indicated John Nucci, Suffolk’s Vice President of Community Relations, who said that the University has no plans to alter or abandon expansion projects already in progress, including 20 Somerset Street on Beacon Hill and the Modern Theater complex downtown.
Ryan also sent his plan to the Beacon Hill Civic Association, but the BHCA does not plan to take up the proposal.
According to Ryan, when the plan was first proposed in 1988, it fell through because there was no appropriate location to move the state’s administrative offices. He says his idea of using a site in Reedville for this purpose solves that problem. However, no one from the state expressed interest in the proposal, and calls from the Times turned up no intention to consider Ryan’s plan.
Suffolk’s plan for 20 Somerset Street is to house the New England School of Art and Design, currently located in the Back Bay. In recent weeks, residents and members of the BHCA have expressed some trepidation about the proposal. Suffolk has responded by offering a pledge of future non-expansion in Beacon Hill. Suffolk filed its Institution Master Plan Notification Form in January and is currently waiting on a scoping determination from the Boston Redevelopment Authority that will take into account public comment on the project.

CAPTION: Caroline MacGillivray and her mother, Leslie Lucchina, of Mt. Vernon Street stand next to the scroll-style tree guard their family sponsored.

Beacon Hill’s beautiful tree-lined streets just wouldn’t look the same if they weren’t, well tree-lined. Now it is much easier, and more economical, for individuals and groups to install tree guards for protection. Last August, the Beacon Hill Civic Association (BHCA) developed a new system that greatly simplified the process for installing these guards, and the Beacon Hill Architectural Association approved three tree guard designs. Since then, the first 16 of the new guards have been installed, and the BHCA is fielding requests for many more.
“We wanted to find a way to make it easier and less expensive to protect our beautiful trees,” says Linda Cox, chair of the BHCA tree committee and initiator of the new system.
Previously, residents who wanted to install a tree guard would have to file an application with the architectural association and then await a public hearing for ultimate approval of the design. Now, the BHCA has streamlined the process. Residents begin by receiving approval from the BHCA for the location of the desired tree guard by filling out an application and sending in a photo of the tree pit. The BHCA reviews all applications monthly. Once the approval is granted, residents can pick one of three endorsed styles, fill out final paperwork and send in the payment.
“We had heard that people were frustrated by the process of looking for a tree guard, getting approvals, and by the cost,” Cox says.
The price of the guards ranges from $325 to $400, which reflects a group discount that the BHCA receives. Cox says this cost is less than half of what it would be without the discount.
Carol Lundquist of the River House Condominium was one of the first to have the new tree guards installed, and she says the whole process was easy and satisfying.
“When our two tree guards were installed earlier this month, they are beautiful, well worth the money, and should do an excellent job protecting our new trees from the vicissitudes of city life,” she says. “We could not be more pleased and are extremely grateful to the BHCA for its work in making this improvement possible.”
Cox says that tree guards are important because they protect trees from dogs and other animals, litter, and the elements. Since November of 2006, of 30 new trees that have been planted on Beacon Hill, two have been lost because they were not adequately protected.
“We’re especially concerned about the newly planted trees, because they are particularly vulnerable,” Cox says.
Cox says the BHCA will also assist neighbors who are interested in mounting a group effort to fundraise for multiple tree guards to be installed on their street. A street-specific fund for Pinckney Street has been successful, and 10 tree guards are set to be installed on Irving Street within the next few months after residents there banded together. There are more than 800 trees on Beacon Hill, and Cox is hopeful that this program will ensure the protection of many of them.
For information on sponsoring a tree guard or setting up a street-specific tree fund, contact the BHCA office, 617-227-1922.

CAPTION: Phillips Street (in front of Phillips Street Park)October 20, 2007(right after a visit by the Green Machine).

In 2007, the City of Boston benefited from a remarkably successful street sweeping program. A major reason was Boston Public Works Chief Dennis Royer’s decision to use third-party towing contractors to remove cars parked illegally, making way for the street sweepers. The street sweeper is as effective as ten people, and it is only effective when it can reach the curb. Maximum enforcement of posted street sweeping signs—including as much towing as possible—is strongly supported by the Beacon Hill Civic Association, and the BHCA applauds Chief Royer’s efforts.
Ahead of the Civic Association’s Fall Clean-Up Day in October, City Hall let the organizers post “No Parking” signs on a few neighborhood blocks so that cars would move on the day of the cleanup. The Public Works Department brought out a special street cleaner—called the “Green Machine”—to target these streets. This creative program led to several spotless stretches of street on the north slope of the hill.
Unfortunately, the posted street sweeping program stops on December 1 each year, and we are suffering from the consequences of the program’s success. Now that it is nearing the end of February, the trash piling up on our streets is noticeable. The BHCA and its Clean Beacon Hill Committee are working creatively with the city to find new ways to keep the streets clean.
But our attempts will pale in comparison to the effect of the posted street sweeping program. For this reason, the BHCA is supportive of year-round street sweeping and is investigating its feasibility.
Implementing year-round street sweeping will not be easy. The city has limited resources; the same Public Works employees who drive the street sweepers during the warmer months also plow our streets during snowstorms and replace potholes during winter. It will cost more to extend the program to year round, and someone will have to pay for it.
Plus, while the street sweeping program is effective, it’s not necessarily popular. No one enjoys the aggravation of waking up early to move one’s car, or worse yet, discovering that his or her car has been towed. Chief Royer, other city agencies, and the BHCA staff have heard complaints from residents who believe the towing places an unnecessary burden on residents.
In addition, moving to year-round street sweeping will require a carefully created policy. Practically speaking, the new policy will need to account for street sweeping efficacy when snow is on the sides of the street. The policy will also need to provide guidance in situations where other issues require public works department time—pothole replacement should take precedent over sweeping, for example.
The BHCA believes that it is worth it to overcome these challenges. Every time you move your car this winter and see disgusting debris trapped between it and the curb, think about the impact a clean sweep would have. The program will also help snow plowing. If cars are moved in compliance with the posted street sweeping signs, snow plows could more easily clear streets on snow-filled mornings.
The BHCA stands ready to work with the city to implement a lengthened street-sweeping timeframe. We are very encouraged by Chief Royer’s policy this previous summer on street towing: It clearly demonstrates his commitment to creative approaches to keep our streets clean. Given the benefits of an effective street sweeping program, which we all witnessed in 2007, we believe year-round sweeping is appropriate and necessary.


ROSS LEVANTO, a Myrtle Street resident, is the vice president of neighborhood affairs for the Beacon Hill Civic Association and is the former chairman of the BHCA Clean Beacon Hill Committee.