Audubon Society gets $200,000 for education center
SMITHFIELD – The Audubon Society of Rhode Island has been awarded $200,000 by the Kresge Foundation for construction of its environmental education center in Bristol. Award of the money depends on the Audubon Society’s raising $690,481(the balance remaining) for the project by Sept. 1. Both the Champlin Foundation and the Rhode Island foundation have made $150,000 contributions to the project for which ground was broken in February. Completion is scheduled for next spring. The education center’s interactive exhibits will include a fabricated, life-sized 35-foot whale that visitors can walk into; a tide pool touch tank, reflecting Narragansett Bay’s tide cycle; night life in a cornfield, and several dioramas. The site includes woodlands, meadows, fresh and saltwater marshes, and seashore, where many species of birds, mammals and plants exist. The refuge extends from Route 114 in Bristol to Narragansett Bay.
Group agrees to pay U.S. for ‘overpayments’
PROVIDENCE – Property Advisory Group, Inc. has agreed to pay the United States $422,305 to make up for the $197,305 in overpayments that the Department of Housing and Urban Development reported having made to the company. The payments were made by HUD to PAG for services allegedly provided under contract by that company to eight Rhode Island housing projects. U.S. Attorney Margaret E. Curran announced the agreement as part of the U.S. Attorney’s Affirmative Civil Enforcement program. PAG was identified in the settlement as the general partner in seven of the eight projects and the management agent for all eight. According to the attorney general’s report, a contact with PAG between 1994 and 1997 called for HUD to reimburse PAG for actual expenses. However, the U.S. Attorney reported, PAG sought reimbursement for budgeted amounts, which resulted in “substantial and unwarranted overpayments” by HUD to PAG. Although the U.S. Attorney’s office asserts that the overpayments were the result of false claims that violated the False Claims Act, PAG insists that it did not violate the law, but that its claims were based on insufficient or inaccurate guidance from HUD. The repayment by PAG is to be made over five years.
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Brown & Sharpe buys into China venture
NORTH KINGSTOWN — Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Co. has announced it would become a 60 percent shareholder with Qingdao Qianshao Precision Machinery Corp. and Indivers B.V. of the Netherlands in a company that will design, make and sell local and imported coordinate measuring machines in China. The existing company will be renamed Brown & Sharpe/Qiansao, according to the report in the Providence Journal.
Textron gives URI $300,000 for Ballentine Hall
KINGSTON – Textron, Inc. has announced a $300,000 gift to the University of Rhode Island for reconstruction of Ballentine Hall, site of the school’s College of Business Administration. The contribution is earmarked for the Shareholders Campaign for private gifts to raise $5.6 million for the project. Textron’s contribution raises the level of gifts received so far to $3.5 million for the Shareholders Campaign. The project, when completed, will add 10,000 square feet to the building, a new exterior and redesigned classrooms. Ballentine Hall was built in 1967. In response to it contribution, URI will name the entrance to reconstructed building, Textron Plaza. It will face the campus quadrangle.
Gilbane chosen to manage WWII memorial
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Gilbane Building Co. of Providence has been chosen by the General Services Administration to manage construction of the new National World War II Memorial to be built on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It will be located at the east end of the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall, between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. Friedrich St. Florian of Providence is the design architect for the project. A national campaign to raise $100 million for the project is under way.
$100,000 donated to RIC jewelry center
CRANSTON – Swarovski Crystal Components Ltd. has donated $100,000 to the Rhode Island College/Manufacturing Jewelers & Suppliers of America Education and Training Partnership. The donation is intended to support interactive training seminars from the facility to educational and manufacturing centers across the country.
Senate committee to study tax rate link to jobs
PROVIDENCE – A Select Senate Committee has been formed in the state Senate to examine the relationship between the state’s marginal personal income tax rate and investment and job creation in Rhode Island. Senate Majority Leader Paul S. Kelly, D-Burrillville, North Smithfield, Woonsocket, announced the formation of the committee. Several businessmen in the state have been advocating a reduction in the personal income tax rate to make the state more competitive with Massachusetts. In making their arguments on behalf of those taxpayers earning more than $200,000 a year, the advocates of the tax reduction have claimed that the reduction will result in 7,500 new jobs in the state. Opponents of the tax proposal have maintained that there is no clear link between tax reduction and job creation.
GTECH gets lottery contract in Africa
WEST GREENWICH – GTECH Corp. announced it has gained its first on-line lottery contract in Africa by reaching agreement with the Moroccan national lottery company. GTECH announced it would provide products and services to Morocco for the on-line operation of lottery and sports betting games. The company also announced that it had a contact to provide on-line gaming equipment and services for Teseo S.r.l., a subsidiary of Italy’s largest sports betting supplier, SNAI S. p. A.
