Washington Trust pledges $500,000 to hospital campaign
WESTERLY – The Washington Trust Company and The Westerly Hospital announced jointly that the Washington Trust Charitable Foundation has pledged $500,000 to Campaign 2000+, the capital campaign for the 75 year old hospital. The pledge from the bank, which is celebrating its 200th anniversary, is the largest ever received by the hospital, the announcement reported. In a tribute to his wife who had died at home in 1918 of complications from appendicitis, Washington Trust President Charles Perry donated a portion of his family’s farm and led a fund-raising campaign for establishment of the Westerly Hospital, which opened in 1925. He then became president of the hospital’s board of trustees. The current campaign is being chaired by Joseph J. Kirby, retired chairman and chief executive officer of Washington Trust Bank.
EPA grants to eight R.I. cities and towns announced
Gov. Lincoln Almond has announced PROVIDENCE – The distribution of $668,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency to eight Rhode Island cities and towns. The grants will be for such projects as onsite wastewater management, stormwater management and watershed restoration. The cities and towns receiving the grants and the amounts each will receive follow: Cranston, three grants totaling $153,500; Cumberland, $25,000; Providence, $161,762; Smithfield, $66,000; Tiverton, $63,600; Warren, two grants totaling $154,000; Warwick, $25,000 and West Warwick, $20,000.
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R.I Foundation awards $300,000 to Trinity
PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island Foundation has announced a $300,000 grant to the Trinity Repertory Company for capital improvements at its Citizens Theater at the planned Pell Chafee Performance Center on Empire Street. Trinity is preparing to convert a former bank building about half a block from its location on Washington Street into another location for the performing arts. The building was donated to the theater company by Citizens Bank. It had not been used as a bank for a number of years.
Amica gets customer satisfaction award
LINCOLN – Amica Mutual Insurance Company has been awarded the highest ranking in J.D. Powers and Associates Inaugural National Auto Insurance Customer Satisfaction Study. Amica, founded in Providence in 1907 is the nation’s oldest mutual insurer of automobiles. Its headquarters are now here in Lincoln. The company employs 3,000 in 41 offices throughout the country. The J.D. Power and Associates Inaugural National Auto Insurance Customer Satisfaction Study gave Amica a score of 909 out of 1,000, noting the company’s excellence in service, billing and handling of claims.
Southern Union completes purchase of Providence Energy
PROVIDENCE – Providence Energy is now owned by Southern Union Co. of Austin, Texas. Southern announced that it had completed the purchase a week after it announced it had completed its purchase of Valley Gas and Bristol & Warren Gas Co. Providence Energy is the parent of Providence Gas, North Attleboro Gas and the Fall River Gas Co.
Johnson & Wales to expand in Denver
PROVIDENCE – Johnson & Wales University, which opened its first campus in Denver, Colorado, early in September, announced that it had exercised an option to buy an additional 13 acres of Denver University’s Park Hill Campus. Denver University announced that it would move its law school to its main campus in the city where it will consolidate all of its programs. J&W opened its doors here with 325 students, 245 of them in the culinary program, and 80 studying business. The university expects the enrollment to grow to 1,800 by 2006.
Time Warner got 500,000 Hasbro warrants
WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) — A Time Warner Inc. affiliate received warrants to purchase 500,000 shares of Hasbro Inc. common stock as partial payment for the licensing rights to products based on the popular Harry Potter children’s books. Hasbro, the world’s second largest toy maker, received a contract from Warner Bros. in February to make trading cards, electronic games, and candy based on characters in the first two Harry Potter books, written by J.K. Rowling. The two companies didn’t disclose the terms of the agreement. However, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Hasbro disclosed that Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner, received warrants to purchase the 500,000 Hasbro shares as partial payment. The filing didn’t disclose the price at which the warrants entitle Warner Bros. to purchase the stock. Hasbro, based in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, said the license entitles it to also use characters from two Harry Potter movies that Warner Bros. plans to develop. Time Warner can exercise the warrants when the first of these movies is released in the U.S. The release is scheduled for the latter part of next year, according to the filing. Mattel Inc., the world’s largest toy maker, won the bidding war to make toys — as opposed to cards and electronic games — based on the book series, which has been published in at least 115 countries and 28 language
(Compiled from news reports and releases, print and electronic.)
