KINGSTON – With a target date of completion set for spring 2003, work is proceeding on the stripping down and reconstruction of Ballentine Hall, the home of the College of Business Administration at the University of Rhode Island. The project was delayed for about four months so that the building could serve as a temporary home for the faculty and staff of the Chafee Social Science Center, which was closed Dec. 23, 2000 because of elevated levels of PCBs.
The last faculty and staff members moved out of Ballentine and into Chafee in November after the lower floors of that building were cleared of contamination. Ballentine was built in 1967. It is being stripped to its frame and floor slabs. That process is expected to be completed this month said Raymond Carroll, project manager for the university. Reinforcement of the steelwork in the original structure will be the next phase of the project, Carroll said, followed by work on the atrium, and finally the granite exterior. Steelwork on the framework of the new wing has been completed, Carroll reported.
<div class=”headline”>Grants to improve facilities for care at Women & Infants</div>
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PROVIDENCE – A combination of recent grants will improve the facilities for inpatient care at Women & Infants Hospital. The grants, $500,000 from the Prince Charitable Trusts, $300,000 from the Champlin Foundations, and $200,000 from the Fannie E. Rippel Foundation, will be used to improve fourth floor facilities where gynecological and oncological (cancer) patients are cared for. Among the improvements will be the Elizabeth Read (Tina) Frost Healing Garden, in memory of a trustee and friend of the hospital. The garden will be in a space with more windows and natural light, filled with plants, comfortable furnishings and other amenities designed to provide a quiet respite, especially for cancer patients.
<div class=”headline”>Legislators’ bill seeks free ride over the Sakonnet</div>
PROVIDENCE – Facing a Department of Transportation plan to use tolls to finance its proposed bridge to replace the 50-year-old and oft-repaired span which carries Route 24 across the Sakonnet River, state legislators are filing companion bills in the House and Senate that would prohibit any tolls for a new or repaired bridge at the site. Rep. Raymond E. Gallison Jr. (D-Dist. 91) of Bristol and Sen. Walter S. Felag Jr. (D-Dist.46) of Bristol, Portsmouth and Warren are filing the companion bills. The Sakonnet River Bridge was built in the mid-1950s of steel truss design linking Tiverton and Portsmouth. DOT officials say it carries an average of 40,000 vehicles daily. It was built to replace another steel bridge that had been severely damaged by Hurricane Carol in 1954. That bridge, also of steel construction, was built in 1905, but was called the “Stone Bridge” in memory of a masonry bridge which preceded it.
Rep. Gallison said, “We acknowledge that replacing the Sakonnet Bridge is a costly project, but that alone is not a justifiable reason to charge a toll. Should we expect to pay a toll every time we travel through an intersection reconstructed by DOT, or across every underpass, repaired by the department.”
Senator Felag added his objections to the proposed toll: “A toll bridge is not only inconvenient, I believe it is excessive since our state residents and especially those commuting to or from Aquidneck Island already pay significant state taxes to support road and bridge repair and maintenance.”
Since the last toll on the Mt. Hope Bridge, linking Bristol and Portsmouth, was collected on May 1, 1998, the only bridge in the state that requires the payment of a toll is the Pell-Newport Bridge linking Newport and Jamestown.
<div class=”headline”>GTECH agrees to Kentucky lottery extension </div>
WEST GREENWICH – GTECH Corp. announced that it had signed a five-year contract extension with the Kentucky Lottery Corporation to provide online lottery products and services. Subject to approval by the Government Contract Review Committee, the contract extension would take effect June 28, 2003 and continue through June 27, 2008. Under the contract terms, GTECH would supply, install and maintain 175 GVT Extra terminals for retailers, 300 Express Point terminals and 300 Starlight II messaging systems.
<div class=”headline”>Guild Music workers getting more benefits</div>
WESTERLY – The U.S. Department of Labor announced that it was extending unemployment benefits to about 80 workers who lost their jobs at Guild Music Co., when the plant closed last month. Fender Musical Instruments Corp. in Scottsdale, Ariz., parent company of Guild Music, announced that it was moving its guitar making production to Corona, Calif. The extended benefits to the Westerly workers comes through the Trade Adjustment Assistance fund.
(Compiled from news reports and releases, print and electronic.)
