North County

Several banks and a credit union with operations in to Central Massachusetts have been honored by the state's office of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) for lending to businesses during the 2014 federal fiscal year, the federal agency announced.

The head of the chamber of commerce in the New Bedford area will move north and take on the same role at the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce, its board of directors announced Monday morning.

Members of Westminster's board of health may have gotten more pushback than they expected when they proposed banning the sale of all tobacco products in the town. Last week, they dropped the plan.

Worcester city councilors next week are expected to hold their annual tax classification hearing, and the business community is again lobbying to shrink the gap between the residential and commercial/industrial rates. The council has done that in two of the last three years, and should do so again.

A business plan competition put on by Mount Wachusett Community College encourages entrepreneurs to develop their ideas and perhaps win a prize.

While the U.S. Senate narrowly defeated the proposed Keystone pipeline expansion from Canada to the Gulf Coast earlier this week, another pipeline project with local impact is still pending, and it's creating controversy for the Nashoba Valley Chamber of Commerce. Groton Selectman Joshua Degen's recent decision to cancel his chamber membership has led its CEO, Melissa Fetterhoff, to defend Houston-based energy giant Kinder Morgan Energy Partners' status as a chamber gold sponsor, a designation Degen said he could not stomach. He recently wrote to Fetterhoff, asking his membership be canceled, just one month after he joined the Devens-based chamber.

Fitchburg State University graduates who plan to pursue studies in osteopathic medicine will be able to take advantage of a program with a Pennsylvania school after the two institutions signed an agreement.

Despite the launch of new contracts for some of its products, Precision Optics of Gardner reported a net loss of more than $296,000 in its latest fiscal quarter, deeper than the $211,000 it lost in the same quarter last year.

Leominster officials this week approved a tax increment financing deal with plastics manufacturer Easy Pak. The privately held company plans an expansion that will add at least 15 new jobs.

In an ongoing fight over proposed staffing cuts, nurses at HealthAlliance Hospital in Leominster will picket Wednesday, according to the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), the union representing the nurses.