An advocate for small businesses

AIMING FOR REVOLUTION: Gaspee Business Network steering committee members, clockwise from left, John Niewiecki, Mike Stenhouse, Mike J. Collins, Walter McLaughlin and Tony Reposo meet at Brewed Awakenings in Warwick in April. / PBN PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS
AIMING FOR REVOLUTION: Gaspee Business Network steering committee members, clockwise from left, John Niewiecki, Mike Stenhouse, Mike J. Collins, Walter McLaughlin and Tony Reposo meet at Brewed Awakenings in Warwick in April. / PBN PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS

With a nod to Rhode Island colonists who in 1772 stormed and burned the British ship HMS Gaspee, a new nonprofit advocating for small-business needs is calling itself the Gaspee Business Network.

“We needed an organization that effectively can go to the Statehouse and tell them what we need,” said Mike J. Collins, president of the organization’s steering committee.

Collins says the group is currently working on building its membership and hopes to accumulate 5,000 businesses, which he says would create an influential network. The group’s plan is to focus on what’s important to small businesses, including curbing taxes and high energy costs, along with other regulatory issues.

Eventually, Collins added, the group would like to have a full-time lobbyist working in the Statehouse to focus solely on Gaspee-membership issues.

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“Everyone is worried about bringing businesses here, but they’re not coming,” he said. “Why not take care of the businesses that are here?” •

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