RI schools, libraries qualify for special funds
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has qualified for $2,145,000 under a special agreement which makes them eligible for up to a 90 percent discount on purchases of Internet access, e-mail and similar services for schools and libraries. Under separate agreements the Barrington and East Providence school districts will receive $18,360 and $18,900 respectively for the same sorts of services. Sen. Jack Reed, who urged school and library officials to apply for the program, announced the most recent awards. It is the eight in the series of so-called E-rate funding. He was part of a bipartisan Senate group that appealed successfully to the FCC for full funding of the $2.5 billion program. The fund was developed under the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The program is administered by the Schools and Libraries Division of the Universal Service Administrative Company.
Newport Creamery buys Mass. chain
MIDDLETOWN – Newport Creamery has bought the Bergson’s Ice Cream chain of eight restaurants, seven of them in the Boston suburban area, and the eighth, which operate under the Pinecroft Dairy name, near Worcester. Terms of the purchase were not disclosed. The purchase does not include Bergson’s 1790 House a restaurant in Westboro, according to the announcement. Robert E. Swain, who bought the Newport chain last March, said that the Bergson’s chain would bear the Newport Creamery name after the stores are renovated. Newport Creamery operates 32 family restaurants in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut, a well as a wholesale business throughout New England and the New York area. Newport Creamery was founded here in 1928. Bergson’s was founded in 1962.
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EDC to get $2 million for Ladd Center development
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Commerce will $2 million to the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation for destruction of old buildings at the Ladd Center in Exeter and construction of an infrastructure for redevelopment of the site as a technology park. Announcement of the award came from the office of U.S. Rep. Robert Weygand. The site was selected in January as the location for the state’s first Job Corps Center. The grant comes from Commerce’s Economic Adjustment Program. The Job Corps offers people between the ages of 16 and 24 the opportunity to obtain a high school diploma as well as specific job skills. The average Job Corps participant stays in the program for seven months and pledges during that time not to drink or take drugs. Failure to live up to their pledges leads to dismissal.
Judge rules for Ross-Simons in Baccarat case
PROVIDENCE – Ross-Simons gained an injunction prohibiting Baccarat, the French crystal maker from refusing to sell its product to the Rhode Island company because of objections to its discount pricing. Judge Ronald R. Lagueux announced he would issue a permanent injunction against Baccarat in its Rhode Island business activities. Judge Lagueux’ ruling stems from a 1992 agreement between the parties that resolved a similar dispute. The ruling, however, does not apply to Ross-Simons stores in Atlanta and Raleigh, N.C., which were incorporated after the 1992 agreement.
State’s credit rating upgraded
PROVIDENCE – Moody’s Investor’s Service has upgraded the state’s credit rating from A1 to Aa3, it was announced by General Treasurer Paul J. Tavares and Gov. Lincoln Almond. On Aug. 19 Governor Almond, Tavares and Stephen J. McAllister, state budget officer led a team of state officials who met with Moody’s representatives. The meeting was in anticipation of a $63,120,000 bond issue that the state is scheduled to issue on Sept. 14. It is the first time since 1992 that all three ratings agencies have given the state a double a rating. The other agencies are Standard & Poor’s and Fitch IBCA. The announcement said that Fleet Securities’ Maureen Gurghigian, the state’s financial adviser, noted that financial markets had already reacted favorably to Rhode Island’s improved fiscal status.
Ad campaign lures one small software firm to RI
BRISTOL — Rhode Island economic officials hope that Rob Breslin is the beginning of a Mass exodus. Last month, the state began a targeted $110,000 ad campaign to lure Massachusetts Internet companies to the Ocean State. Breslin will be the first to relocate as a direct result of the pitch, moving his five-employee Cambridge, Mass., company to Bristol, The Wall Street Journal reported. As befits the head of an Internet start-up company, Breslin initially was enticed by Rhode Island’s Web site, mass-exodus.com. One day last month, Breslin walked out of the train station in Cambridge’s Kendall Square, a hotbed of high-tech companies, and a man wearing a mass-exodus.com T-shirt handed him a flier bearing the Web site address with a catchy logo. Intrigued, the president of his online sailing-equipment company, SailFirst.com, walked into his office and typed in the Web address on his computer. What he saw triggered an idea he hadn’t considered before: Moving his company 60 miles south.
