By Katy Braisted
Atlantic News , February 24, 2000
[The following article is courtesy of the Atlantic News ]
AT YOUR SERVICE -- The professional staff at Community Bank & Trust is ready to offer customers personalized service for all their banking needs. Pictured seated above are (from left) Nancy Fredericks, Pam Bishop, Tina Levasseur, Karen Glennon and Dottie Crowley. Standing behind them are (from left) Anne Murray, Dorothy Lapham, and Alison Janvrin. Other staff members include Donna McKeen, Janice Butler, and Joan Healey [Atlantic News Photo by Katy Braisted]
HAMPTON -- The Hampton branch of The Community Bank & Trust Company, headed by Tina Levasseur, Vice President and Branch manager, has served the Hampton area and its surrounding towns for just under three years. During this time the bank has built a strong and faithful clientele and has proven itself as a true community bank and a leader in the community. The bank has accomplished this through its commitment to professional, personal service and excellence.
Community Bank is a full-service bank that provides professional personal banking and a full range of products and services. These products and services include high yield CDs, the Master Money Debit Card, a 24-hour phone bank, and safe deposit boxes.
This wide range of products and services, coupled with professional, courteous, convenient service is what keeps Tina's customers coming back. One product specifically has proven enormously popular with the bank's customers: the Money Market Account. This type of account offers customers a form of high interest checking with a lower initial investment than is required with most time deposits. Another convenient service that has proven very successful and popular is the basic free checking that is offered to their senior citizen customers.
The bank is committed to the community and to providing professional, convenient service to its customers. An example of this is its decision to maintain the Christmas Club coupon book service. "Most banks have done away with the Christmas Club coupon book because it's not cost effective," says Levasseur. "We decided to continue to offer it as a convenience to our customers." Here, too, customers really appreciate it and take advantage of this offered service.
The bank offers residential and commercial real estate loans, commercial and consumer loans, as well as construction loans. Here, again, the focus is on convenience to the customer. CBTC can typically approve residential and commercial loan requests in less than a day. "We don't have to go through all the layers to get answers," says Levasseur. "You just can't do that at the big banks." It is this "quick-action response" with which Levasseur credits the bank's steady loan growth. Today, she and her staff service a loan portfolio of $13 million — a $4 million increase over last year.
Historically strong in the residential lending arena, the bank has recently joined the New Hampshire Realtors' Association and its affiliate committee. Levasseur hopes the association will enable the bank to better serve their clients' real estate needs while keeping the bank fully in tune with New Hampshire's real estate market and current trends in the marketplace.
Situated directly across from the Lane Memorial Library, at 117 Winnacunnet Road, Hampton, the bank lobby and drive-up are open Monday through Thursday, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; on Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and on Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to 12 Noon. The bank's ATM, which is located in the drive-up, is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.