Category: Sarah Sparks
Recalibration Firm Earns New Quality Accredication
By Sarah Sparks
WASHINGTON – Precision Instruments of North Scituate has earned the first federal Quality Assurance Accreditation in the state. The certification clears the way for the two-person tool-calibration firm to start major expansion planning, but owner Charles Greska said he started working toward the certification not out of ambition but out of sheer necessity.
The accreditation gives a federal stamp of approval to Precision’s procedures for standardizing measuring tools for manufacturing such as automobiles, military equipment and surgical instruments.
Jeffrey Horlick of the National Institute for Standards and Technology, said the new accreditation, ISO-IEC 17025, became a requirement in January, and every manufacturer in controlled industries must prove that the firm that recalibrates its tools is accredited.
“We were under a lot of pressure to get it done before the next audit dates for our clients,” Greska said. “TMI in Lincoln said if we weren’t certified, we’d be out seven and a half weeks of work at $350 a day.”
Technical Materials Inc. of Lincoln, an automotive and communications parts supplier, is Greska’s biggest customer, but three other smaller accounts also asked Precision for certification.
“It’s just to assure that everyone working directly or indirectly with these businesses has the right accuracy,” Greska said. “Take the micrometer; it looks like a c-clamp, but it measures down to less than a thousandth of an inch. If you take one of your hairs, split it into three, then split one of those pieces into 10, that’s about the size we’re dealing with. The measuring tools have to be accurate.”
Fees and groundwork for the two-day audit required for the accreditation cost $15,000, and maintaining it will cost another $8,000 to $10,000 a year – no small change for a company that nets only $30,000 each year. But earning the certificate this July has helped Precision solidify its accounts with 25 Rhode Island and Massachusetts companies, including Alga Plastics, Inc. of Cranston and Copper+Brass Sales of Boston.
Greska, 61, and his wife, Shirley, bought Precision 10 years ago from his former boss, Robert McNaught, who had been running the company part-time. “When I bought the business I asked him [McNaught] whether I could make a living at it, and he said no. He was making about half what we do now.”
Greska bought a copy of the Rhode Island Directory of Manufacturers and went down the list, pitching to companies through calls and a brochure. Four years ago, he left a job as a quality control supervisor at Smith & Nephew to run Precision full-time. Now he hopes the new business will help the company expand, both in scope and in workers.
“Right now my wife and I are the only employees; I do all the calibration and repairs, and she does all the bookkeeping,” he said, “but I’m not going to start looking for more employees until we have the business to support them.” For now, Greska relies on occasional help from his son-in-law, Mathew Rackham, who lives in North Carolina.
The new accreditation may also allow Greska to expand into his second love: aviation. A pilot since age 15 and co-owner of a Hawk XP seaplane, Greska has remodeled planes in his spare time for years. The remodeling has been limited to specialty work, such as restorations for antique cloth-and-wood airplanes, but Greska hopes to convert his hobby into a new direction for his business.
“There’s a lot of business in the aviation industry, with FAA-certified mechanics who need my kind of work – 15 or 20 already around here,” he said, “and I know them. I learned to fly at North Central Airport in its infancy, and I was doing [mechanical] service work in exchange for my flying lessons.”
Mechanics at several local aviation repair shops have told Greska that they now send their tools out of state for regular recalibration. “We could do a service for them, because a guy doesn’t have to lose his tools for two weeks every time they get fixed,” he said.
Greska said he doubled the company’s income in 10 years, and he plans to triple Precision’s business in the next five, as well as training someone to take over the business when he retires. “That would be a good step forward,” he said.
President Bush Signs Legislation to Create Adams Memorial
By Sarah Sparks
WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush, the second son of a President to become one himself, signed legislation Monday creating a memorial to the first such presidential dynasty: second and sixth Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams.
The project will now go to the National Park Service's Fine Arts Commission and Memorial and Capitol Planning Commission which will make recommendations on the location and design of the memorial, a process which is expected to take years.
But the historians and lawmakers who worked to win passage of the legislation creating the memorial, have their own ideas of how to honor the Adams family.
David McCullough, the author of a recent best-selling biography of John Adams, said he favors a library and a small garden, perhaps near the Jefferson Memorial or the Library of Congress, which might display letters and historic documents from the Adams family to each other and to other historic figures of the time.
"It would be very different from the marble temples and obelisks of the other presidents," McCullough said. "My idea of heaven is a library in a small garden, and obviously the Adamses agreed, because there is one at their home in Quincy."
Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., co-sponsor of the House version of the bill authorizing the memorial, hopes the monument teaches the magnitude and sheer range of the Adamses' contributions. "At each stage of this - from committee hearings to debates on the House floor and on - members of Congress have actually learned history," said Steven Schwadron, Delahunt's chief of staff. "What we are clearly hoping for is that this can be yet another factor along with the biography to educate.á We hope this also is a real shot in the arm in terms of cultural tourism locally."
Rep. Tim Roemer, D-Ind., the bill's sponsor, said that he is "very excited and pleased" that the legislation has succeeded, and added that the memorial "needs to go in a prominent place in our nation's Capitol."
"This memorial recognizes the value of families, and this is not just a President, but a family that contributed so much to this country," Roemer said.
The Rev. Sheldon Bennett, minister of the United First Parish Church in Quincy, where the two presidents and their wives are buried, agreed that the family should be central to the monument's design. The legislation provides for the monument to include First Ladies Abigail Smith Adams and Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams. "It's about time that we honor the Adams family," he said.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said he was pleased that the legislation passed and said Adams "ranks with Washington and Jefferson as among the greatest of America's founders." The senator has not thought of specific designs, said spokesman Matt Ferraguto: "All he would love to see is a suitable place for the memorial that fits the community."
Roemer said the most important feature of the monument must be to educate the public about John Adams and his family. "One of the reasons John Adams has been overlooked is because one-term presidents early in American history were considered failures. His integrity, honesty and independence cost John Adams a second term," Roemer said, "but especially in times of crisis, we need to return to that kind of strength."
Patriotic Pins, Bracelets East Pressure for R.I. Jewelers
By Sarah Sparks
WASHINGTON - Lee Mogavero has found a charm to keep his jewelry business afloat in the sinking Rhode Island jewelry market - a bracelet featuring icons of New York City, including a yellow cab, an apple and the Statue of Liberty.The charm bracelet is featured in Bloomingdale's fall catalogue but the timing is pure serendipity. When his Providence-based Vero Industry produced the bracelet last May, Mogavero couldn't have predicted that in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, all things having to do with New York would suddenly become popular totems.
"I had forgotten about it. I never connected it," Mogavero said. After watching sales of regular jewelry decline for the past year and go off a cliff after Sept. 11, he was shocked when the $48 bracelets took off almost overnight. "We've sold 4,000 without any real promotion," he said. "Anything relative to New York is important at this time."
Sales of the New York charm bracelet and a $20 sterling silver cuff bracelet engraved with "United We Stand" that Mogavero produced after the attacks have helped see the company through perilous economic times. And his company is not the only one.
In the weeks following Sept. 11, the Manufacturing Jewelers & Suppliers of America, a national trade group based in Providence, was "flooded with calls" from jewelry and department stores wanting referrals to makers of patriotic jewelry, said Stasia Walmsley, a spokeswoman for the trade group. Referrals are still holding steady at about 10 calls a week, she said. "We have heard from our members that the increase in interest in patriotic jewelry has been tremendous."
Walmsley said that of the group's 260 Rhode Island members, 21 are manufacturing patriotic jewelry. Most are donating part of their patriotic jewelry sales to the Red Cross, the United Way's Sept. 11 Fund and other charities.
Rhode Island produces 25 percent of American jewelry and the industry employs 27,600 people in the state, but the softening economy and sinking consumer confidence have hurt the state's manufacturers and retailers. "Patriotic jewelry is giving the jewelry industry a little bit of an extra boost because many people may go to look for patriotic jewelry when they may not be looking for jewelry otherwise," Walmsley said.
Jane Breaknell, owner of J.H. Breaknell & Co., a custom jeweler in Newport, agreed. The silver and gold apple pins that came out just before the attacks have given the company a boost, she said, along with a silver angel holding a banner that reads, "Fear Not."
"Unless it's Christmas, we sell about six [angels] a month, but we sold about 75 from Sept. 15 through the end of October," Breaknell said.
The surge in patriotic jewelry sales has been all that's keeping some manufacturers afloat. The Rhode Island jewelry market, sinking over the past year, has been at a virtual standstill since September. Jewelers of America, another national trade group, said in its 2001 Cost of Doing Business survey, released in October, that the industry's overall growth rate slowed from 10.5 percent of median sales in 1999 to 3.3 percent in 2000. Independent and mid-range manufacturers had only 0.8 percent growth, and designer and custom jewelers saw sales decline by 4.5 percent from last year.
Joel Bazar, president of A.S. Manufacturing Inc. of Providence, which makes rhinestone jewelry, said he has moved 90 percent of his 30 employees into making patriotic jewelry - pins bearing flags, "USA." or red, white and blue hearts - as the rest of his market dried up during the past two months.
"This year we would have been down about 15 percent because of [the terrorist attacks]," he said. "It hasn't increased sales; it's replaced sales. Stores are taking their budgets and buying entirely flags instead of jewelry they would regularly buy."
It's the same story for Joel Bazar's cousin, Peter Bazar, vice president for Imperial-Deltah, a pearl jewelry manufacturer in Providence that also sells costume and fine gold flag brooches. Four of the company's 100 employees work on its patriotic jewelry full-time, and more may be added; Imperial-Deltah has a two-to-four-week backlog on orders.
"There is a shortage on everything related to this," Peter Bazar said. "We've sold 200,000 units in the past two months, and when we went to the retailers there were open orders for millions of pieces. We couldn't sell anything else."
Yet the patriotic jewelry boom, which has brought in $50,000 from costume flags and $100,000 from gold ones, has done little for the company beyond "keep people busy," Peter Bazar said. "Before Sept. 11, we were ahead of last year's September sales. After, we've dropped about $300,000 from last September to this. The chain stores just stopped their orders."
The company is still down almost 20 percent in sales. Patriotic jewelry "did not fill up the loss in business," he said. "$100,000 isn't even on the map for us."
Crystal jewelry manufacturer Swarovski of Cranston has seen perhaps the biggest boost in sales from its patriotic line. The company is manufacturing 6,000 patriotic pins each day, according to Swarovski spokeswoman Melissa Cardin, including a $95 flag pin and a $125 eagle pin that had already been part of the company's jewelry line and a $35 "Brave Hearts" pin honoring the police, firefighters and rescue workers killed at the World Trade Center.
"We had samples within a week [of the attacks], and we're continuously shipping and taking orders," Cardin said. "We have 600 employees company-wide dedicated to the "Brave Hearts" pin, just because it is a new item and there's an incredible demand."
Eighty percent of Swarovski's manufacturing resources have been committed to the patriotic line, which will expand late this month to include $8 crystal body temporary tattoos featuring patriotic themes, which Cardin said she expects to sell well. "People feel that they want to show their support even if they were not directly affected [by the attacks]," Cardin said.
Joel Bazar agreed. "This same thing happened about 10 years ago, with the Gulf War," he said. "It's a pretty broad base [of interest]."
A.S. Manufacturing's pins also have sold well so far at Lord & Taylor, Air Force base stores and outlets. A.S. Manufacturing expects to sell 15,000 to 25,000 pins by the end of the year for $1 or $2, giving 50 cents from each to the Red Cross.
Swarovski has donated $100,000 to the United Way Sept. 11 Fund and will give a "Brave Heart" pin to the families of each of the emergency workers who died during the Sept. 11 attacks. They have distributed about 400 so far, Cardin said.
And Mogavero said his company has just finished samples of a new pin commemorating the World Trade Center, which he plans to market through Federated Department Stores - parent company of Macy's as well as Bloomingdale's - and other retailers in time for the holiday season. Chaffee & Partners, a Providence graphic design firm, donated its work to help create the pin.
Mogavero said he is already seeing a good response to the pin. "Everyone wants to keep themselves and others reminded of this date," he said. "War is one thing, but we're letting the world know that we're united."
Kennedy Introduces Legislation For Border Security
By Sarah Sparks
WASHINGTON -Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass, citing an "urgent need to improve intelligence and technology capabilities," today [Thursday] introduced a bill to improve terrorist-tracking systems and cooperation between federal and law enforcement agencies.
Fifteen of the 19 terrorist-hijackers of Sept. 11 had entered the United States legally, using student or work visas, and federal agencies have been criticized for not sharing information that could have stopped them at the border.
Kennedy joined with Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., in introducing the Enhanced Border Security Act, designed to create a database of suspected terrorists to be shared by law enforcement and intelligence agencies, update passport tracking technology and improve border patrol. Kennedy said the bill is consistent with President George W. Bush's executive order on immigration, but it "clarifies cooperation between agencies and upgrading systems."
"The Senate took significant steps last week to improve immigration security by passing the anti-terrorism bill, but further action is needed," Kennedy said.
Sen. John R. Edwards, D-N.C., criticized the lack of communication among the law enforcement agencies. "It's clear on Sept. 11 we let our guard down," he said. "We need to know who the bad guys are."
Brownback said the bill also would reevaluate screening procedures both at U.S. entry points and departure gates abroad. Visitors with visas from countries known to sponsor terrorist activity would undergo a full background check before being allowed to enter the country.
The bill waives limitations on hiring full-time INS personnel and increases their pay. It also increases funding for terrorist-tracking technology by allowing the Department of State to raise fees on so-called "machine-readable passports," which have magnetic strips that hold information for immigration surveillance.
"The war on terrorism is in large part a war of information," Brownback said.
One of the potentially controversial aspects of the database provision is the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, which tracks those in the country on a student visa, requiring schools to keep tabs on whether students attend class regularly and remain enrolled.
The database was introduced under the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, but it came into use early this October in a dozen Boston-area universities. It has expanded to 25 universities, and the bill would mandate it nationwide. The bill may also restrict visas issued by schools. "There are 26,000 universities that can issue student visas," Kennedy said. "Clearly that's excessive."
Some university administrators have opposed the monitoring - and the $95 registration fee for each student, used to help finance the database. Several Massachusetts universities rank in the top 40 schools in the country for foreign enrollment: At Quincy College, foreign students make up 11 percent of the student body; at Harvard University in Cambridge, 20 percent of students are non-native, according to Open Doors, which provides statistics on foreign students.
Kennedy said the legislation would protect the rights of legal students and legal immigrants. "In carrying out these urgent responsibilities, we must do so in ways that live up to our history and heritage as a nation of immigrants," Kennedy said. "Immigrants aren't the problem; terrorists are the problem."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced a similar immigration-security bill in late September, which would require a six-month moratorium on the student visa program while tighter security procedures are developed. Jim Manley, spokesman for Kennedy, said he expects the two bills to be combined in conference.
House Approves First War Bonds Since WWII
By Sarah Sparks
WASHINGTON - Amid patriotic drum thumping from members, the House yesterday approved the first war bonds act since World War II. But the reaction from the business community has been much less enthusiastic.
U.S. Rep. John E. Sweeney, R-N.Y., who introduced the bill, argued on the House floor that war bonds would be "an ideal vehicle for Americans to support efforts to bring those responsible for these attacks to justice. They will provide the American people an important and tangible method to be part of the effort that will be ongoing and endearing."
Art. F. von der Linden, a certified financial planner for the Financial Planners Association of Massachusetts, agreed that "war bonds make a wonderful rallying point, but they take money out of the economy. The House got war bond fever, but I haven't heard any public hue and cry for them."
The bill, HR 3021, allows the Treasury Department to issue "Freedom Bonds," either by creating a new bond in its savings bond class or by renaming its EE Series savings bonds.
The bill also may allow the Treasury to earmark the resulting money to pay for anti-terrorism programs. Last month the Senate passed companion legislation as part of its Treasury appropriations, and the measure is going to conference.
War bonds were last sold during World War II, when they helped direct civilian patriotic feelings toward the war effort. The decorative bond sheets sold in America, Germany, the Soviet Union and other countries during that time are now sold as collectors' items with war memorabilia.
The bonds also helped to pay for defense and military spending and also kept a lid on inflation by pulling money from the economy, two things von der Linden says the Freedom Bonds will not do.
The United States was coming out of the Great Depression when the Treasury Department began advertising its World War II bonds. The government needed money to help pay for the war, von der Linden said. Now, with the government still operating under a surplus, "the system of government revenues is more sophisticated now than it was then," he said. "The government has a lot of ways to finance this war."
Pete Hollenbach, spokesman for the Treasury Department's Office of Public Debt, which produces bonds, said the department has not begun to plan design of the bond and has no estimate on how long it would take to produce the new bonds if they are approved.
Von der Linden said the war bonds would be a patriotic plus, but he thought they would harm the economy more than help it. "Look at the tax break," he said, "If everyone who got $300 turned around and stuck it into war bonds, it wouldn't have accomplished much."
Mass. Housing Market Weathering Economic Slump
By Sarah Sparks
WASHINGTON - Like most industries, housing has taken hits from the recent terrorist attacks and weakening consumer confidence. But if you are in the market for a house, don't expect home prices to drop anytime soon. Housing sales and construction are holding up better than expected, economists said at a National Home Builders Association panel here Tuesday.
"Yes, we are in a modest recession," said David W. Berson, vice president and chief economist for Fannie Mae, "but we are in the smallest housing downturn of any postwar downturn."
The housing market took a dip immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks. From the week of Sept. 6 to the week of Oct. 17, the Mortgage Bankers Association of America 's seasonally adjusted Mortgage Purchase Index was down 6 percent. Likewise, the National Association of Home Builders' Housing Market Index - derived from a survey of sales of single-family homes - dropped 14 percent from September to October.
On the other hand, the housing industry has been buoyed by inventory and mortgage rates hovering near 30-year lows.
"Homes are still appreciating at 3 to 5 percent" a year, said David M. Walsh, president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and owner of David M. Walsh Realtors in Weymouth. "They may go up more modestly than before but á there will always be people buying homes, regardless of the market."
For the third week of October, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.61 percent; the 15-year rate sunk to 6.09 percent; and the one-year adjustable-rate loan hit 5.26 percent, as the Federal Reserve encouraged wary buyers to head to weekend open houses again. Moreover, Berson, along with David F. Seiders, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders and David A. Lereah, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, predicted that the Fed would lower rates another quarter-point during each of its next two meetings.
"[Mortgage rates] have been one of the key cushions in the housing sector," Seiders said, adding that uncertainty in the stock market also has made banks invest more in the home loans and construction. "We have good reason to expect a rebound. By the second quarter next year we're looking for very strong activity."
Realtors have already returned to 95 percent of their pre-Sept. 11 business, Lereah said, though buyers seem to be going back to basics and high-end housing may take longer to recover.
Martin Edwards Jr., president-elect of the National Association of Realtors, said there is still a housing shortage in many areas that has helped keep home prices high regardless of the market. "The supply and demand mismatch will be national and long-lasting," Edwards said, "which will put upward pressure on housing prices for years to come."
That's good for homeowners, he said, but has put strains on those looking to buy a home. Walsh agreed, saying that in the tight market there have often been multiple offers on any given property. "Buyers have been put into that bottle of having to make an instant decision," he said.
Houses are staying on the market an average of three weeks, Walsh said, but he has seen a slight increase in houses in the Massachusetts market during the past month and thinks sales will be good in the long run.
"Buyers aren't in a situation where it's 'Oh my gosh, I have to grab my checkbook this second,'" he said. "It [the slowdown] has given them more time to look at what's out there."
Congress Releases $23 Million to Mass. LIHEAP Projects
By Sarah Sparks
WASHINGTON - Congress has released more than $23 million to Massachusetts from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to help the state's community action programs gear up in time for winter.
On Wednesday, Congress passed a measure releasing an $811.6 million advance fund to LIHEAP programs nationwide. "This is really a stop-gap measure so programs can get started," said Mark Wolfe, director of the National Energy Assistance Directors' Association.
The House and the Senate Appropriations Committee have approved $1.7 billion for LIHEAP in the fiscal year that began two weeks ago, plus $300 million in emergency funds, for a 21.4 percent increase from last year, Wolfe said.
LIHEAP provides emergency grants to offset heating costs for low-income residents. It is funded through the Health and Human Services Department's Administration for Children and Families. States (or tribal governments) makes payments to the eligible family or directly to the utility company to help pay the family's energy bills.
If the total LIHEAP funding is approved as expected, Massachusetts would receive upwards of $70 million, $12 million more than originally expected, according to Phil Hailer, communications director for the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development.
Hailer said the federal government has not yet distributed the $23 million to the state's community action programs, which help people apply for and receive the grants. Hailer said the state provided $90 million in LIHEAP aid to more than 133,000 households last winter, when temperatures were 7 percent colder than normal and heating prices sky-rocketed due to a heating oil shortage. "The biggest challenge was there was so much money [from additional emergency funds], we wanted to make sure everyone eligible got service," he said.
This winter may not be as costly, the Department of Energy reported this month. The Energy Information Administration's winter fuels outlook said inventories of key heating fuels such as natural gas are higher than they normally are at this time of year, and crude oil prices are lower. Moreover, electricity demand - and therefore cost - is expected to fall about 1 percent this winter.
Still, local programs across the state have already begun accepting aid requests for this winter, and Hailer said they would use the $23 million to begin processing them.
"We're in a glorious Indian Summer, so we've been fortunate so far," he said, "but of course it can turn on a dime, so we're ramped up and ready to go."
Congress Pushing Small Business Relief
By Sarah Sparks
WASHINGTON - Congress this month has moved to establish federal relief funds for small businesses shaken by the economic slowdown and the recent terrorist attacks.
"Small businesses in America are among the first to feel the pain when economic disaster strikes," said U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., in introducing the American Small Business Emergency Relief and Recovery Act, one of several small-business aid bills moving through Congress."But that also means that they are central to the re-birth of a strong and vibrant national economy."
Kerry's bill and its companion House legislation, sponsored by U.S. Reps. Don Manzullo, R-Ill. and Jim Moran, D-Va., would expand the Small Business Administration's loan and management counseling programs for small businesses affected by the Sept. 11 attacks and their aftermath.
Both bills would provide loans with a two-year zero-interest deferred payment and subsequent payments with interest of no more than 1 percent above the prime lending rate. They would also allow refinancing of existing loans. Any small business directly or indirectly harmed by the attacks would be eligible to apply for the loans from the time the bill is enacted until Sept. 10, 2002.
Eight House and 44 Senate members, including Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., have co-sponsored the bills. The Senate bill, S. 1499, has been placed on the legislative calendar for this month. The House bill, H.R. 3073, has been referred to the House Small Business Committee for review.
U.S. Rep. James R. Langevin, D-R.I., opposes H.R. 3073 because he feels it does not do enough to increase start-up programs, according to press secretary Michael Guilfoyle. He supports H.R. 3011, the Small Business Emergency Relief Act, which he says gives more aid to businesses outside the immediate disaster area.
The bill would fund loans through the Small Business Administration for property and personal damage, as well as "any economic injury" according to the bill's text. Interest on the loans could not exceed 4 percent per year.
"Small business will continue to be the backbone of the Rhode Island economy," Guilfoyle said.
Normand Deragon, spokesman for the R.I. district office of the Small Business Administration, agreed that small businesses are vital. According to the 2001 Small Business Administration profile, 96.8 percent of Rhode Island's 32,666 employing businesses are small, with 500 or fewer employees. Non-farm small businesses earned $1.8 billion in income last year.
"Anything Congress can do to help small business, we appreciate," Deragon said. "That's our purpose in life."
Emergency Fund Helps R.I. Businesses Cope
By Sarah Sparks
WASHINGTON - As small businesses in Rhode Island feel the fallout from last month's terrorist attacks and the continuing economic uncertainty, the state has started a half-million-dollar fund to help them keep their heads above water.
"Given the emergency nature of this, we had to do something quickly," said Tom Schumpert, executive director of Rhode Island Economic Development Corp. (RIEDC), which operates the fund. "Most small businesses are like you and me, they live on cash flow. When it dries up, you miss pay periods, and people don't get paid. This will bridge the cash flow gap for these companies."
The reasons for businesses' financial difficulties range from the ordinary - nervous customers, travel limitations - to the insidious, such as persecution of Middle Eastern business owners.
"Oh, yes, it's affecting us," said Deeb Tannous, owner of the Mineral Spring Avenue Getty gas station in North Providence. "People walk by and yell, 'This is an Arab station; don't gas up here!' " Tannous said. "I'm not an Arab; I've been in America nearly 22 years, since I was 19 years old."
Tannous, who is Lebanese, has been harassed and boycotted since the Sept. 11 attacks. "We have a flag in the window. Earlier this week a man going up the street said, 'Put more frigging flags in the station.' He was giving me the finger."
Tannous said his business is down by 500 gallons a day from its normal 3,200 gallons, even after lowering his price to $1.25 per regular gallon, the lowest on the street.
So far, Tannous and 10 other Rhode Island small business owners have received help from the RIEDC, in the form of both loans and organizational assistance by the group's financial advisers. The RIEDC started accepting applications a month ago, and about 40 businesses have so far applied for loans, Schumpert said, with most of the initial loans going to travel and tourist-related businesses.
Each company can apply for a loan of up -to $15,000, with interest rates 1 percent below the prime lending rate. For the first year, businesses are permitted to pay only the interest, but must pay the entire balance in the form of a balloon payment at the end of the 12 months. The fund is capable of providing 33 to 100 loans, depending on the size and number of loans requested.
Less than a third of the money from the emergency fund has been paid out, but Schumpert said the RIEDC is already planning the next phase of funding. "We've been in touch with the Rhode Island banking community to invite them to participate. · This was so sudden, we haven't had time to sit down with them yet," Schumpert said.
The RIEDC has also contacted the Economic Development Administration at the U.S. Commerce Department for possible federal assistance. Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., and Reps. Don Manzullo, R-Ill., and Jim Moran, D-Va., this month also introduced small business emergency relief legislation that could provide more money to small businesses.
To be eligible for one of the emergency fund loans, applicants must provide personal and business financial statements, personal and business tax returns, their most recent interim business financial statement, and proof of insurance for the business. The owner also must fill out a one-page application and give evidence of how the attacks have harmed the business.
Eric Weiner, owner of All Occasion Limousine in Providence, says his fleet's odometers should be proof enough. "October is usually a banner month for us, 45 to 47 trips a day, but now we're down to about 30 a day," said Weiner, who received a $15,000 loan.
All Occasion, which was built around shuttling business travelers to and from airports, saw a 60 percent drop in business in the three weeks after the terrorist attacks. It has crept back up about 20 percent during the past 15 days, Weiner said, but because there is still "a gaping hole" in the downtown Manhattan limousine market, "a lot of our business travelers just don't have any place to travel to," Weiner said.
Howard Reynolds, owner of Boulevard Travel in Pawtucket, agreed. Reynolds said his agency and the travel industry at large was already reeling from the economic slump and airlines' cutbacks on travel agent commissions before the Sept. 11 attacks.
"This was a triple slam for us," Reynolds said. Boulevard's business has been off 50 percent or more since the attacks, and the agency was pummeled by cancellations. "We've refunded over $80,000 since Sept. 11, and we're still refunding."
And Reynolds, who has owned Boulevard for 20 years, said the company has not gotten much of a breather to regroup. "We've been busy, but it's the wrong kind of busy, the non-profit kind," Reynolds said. "We're a service industry, and we had people stranded all over the world. We were getting calls from people we didn't even sell tickets to. We had tons of those calls."
Reynolds said most travel agencies cost about $15,000 per month to run, and the $15,000 loan from the RIEDC would help keep Boulevard running at normal levels. "Most businesses in tough times cut back on advertisements, which is the worst thing to do but also at times the practical thing to do. This [loan] means we won't have to make as many cuts."
For independent subcontractors like Brian Ray, the loan may literally keep him rolling. Ray, who works under a contract with Best Delivery at T.F. Green International Airport, delivers late or misplaced luggage from flights to their owners throughout New England, as far north as Maine and Vermont. Of about 20 delivery workers, he is one of four full-timers who depend on the deliveries for their living.
In a normal week, Ray would average about 40 deliveries. "Now I'm down to about 20 a week, if I'm lucky," Ray said.
Ray's $5,000 loan will go toward car repairs and household bills, he said. "I'm going to try to ride it out until Christmas. That's our busy season," he said. "If necessary I'll find something part-time to carry me through."
Weiner said his loan also would help the company keep up with car payments and pay its employees while he tries to remodel its business. Weiner has pushed up production of a client newsletter to generate interest, and instead of delivering travelers to airports he now caters to people who don't want to fly at all. The company has started offering long-distance drives to Montreal and Chicago, as well as the more-standard trips to New York, Philadelphia and Boston.
"We're putting together some day-trip shopping packages to New York or Boston, with nice dining or theater tickets included," Weiner said. The loan will be "enough to tide us over," Weiner said, but added, "There is such anxiety in the market right now. It is just starting to recover, and it's so volatile right now that it could very quickly fall apart again if anything else happens."
Reynolds seemed more optimistic. "The travel industry is no stranger to adversity," he said, citing the airplane crash in Lockerbie, Scotland, and bankruptcies at airlines such as Pan Am that have buffeted the industry in the past. "It's all part and parcel to the business, but it always comes back · It will come back, it's just going to take time."
Tannous, who received a $15,000 loan, said he hoped the xenophobic reactions would die down soon. "I took only enough [money] for a rainy day," he said. "I've had this business 15 years; you're not going to see the station closed. Some people have a brain, and we're doing everything we can to let people know it [the attack] has nothing to do with us."
The following businesses also received loans through RIEDC: Classic Coach Trailing, Inc. of East Greenwich received $15,000; Corporate Air, Inc. of Warwick received $15,000; MJ Enterprises of Johnson received $15,000; Vintage Knight Limo of Warwick received $15,000; Garden City Travel of Cranston received $15,000; Fred Ricci Tool Co. of Cranston received $15,000; and Middletown Cruise and Travel of Middletown received $10,000.
To apply for a loan through the RIEDC, contact Earl Queenan at 401-222-2601.
Necessity Breeds Inventive Travel Solutions for R.I. Businesses
By Sarah Sparks
WASHINGTON - It was just too soon. Three weeks had passed since terrorists hijacked two cross-country flights out of Logan Airport in Boston and used them to ram into the World Trade Center in New York. Pat Talin, vice president for Amica Insurance in Lincoln, was scheduled to make a routine visit to one of the company's branch offices on Oct. 1, but the date and the place were still too close for comfort.
"I had a ticket to Denver out of Logan, so I said, 'ooh, I think I'll wait,'" Talin said. "Now it's at the end of October. I'm not looking forward to getting on that plane, but I'll do it."
Officially the country is still on high alert after the Sept. 11 attacks and the U.S. counterstrike on Oct. 7, but Rhode Island companies and their employees are warily feeling out ways to return to normal business, especially in terms of travel. Most companies are reluctant to push or even encourage their employees to travel while new terrorist attacks are expected, and many have come to no cohesive policy for conducting long-distance business.
Wayne Charness, vice president for corporate communications for Hasbro in Providence, said the company is concentrating on security as a first concern. "We can use audio conferencing," Charness said. "We've reminded our employees to ask themselves, 'Is it this important to be there?'"
Even Textron, producer of Cessna's Citation business jets, has been asking its employees to limit their travel to essential meetings. Sue Bishop, spokeswoman for Textron, said employees are using more cars and trains for shorter trips.
"We just upgraded the video conferencing equipment before this happened - I think it's ready now - and so we've had more Web meetings, video or telephone conferences," Bishop said.
Talin said before the attacks, people from different offices regularly made the rounds of the company's 41 branches nationwide, sharing ideas and checking on operations. "I would visit four or five branches a year," Talin said. "There were always people going out. Before this, air was our main way of transport."
That has changed during the past month. Non-essential meetings were rescheduled; even a big management conference scheduled for San Antonio this week was called off. The company has used audio and video conferences to replace some of their scheduled meetings, and Talin said employees who must travel can ask for alternative, "overland" travel on a case-by-case basis.
"I don't think we expected anyone to fly just after Sept. 11," Talin said. "Everyone is shaken in confidence in air travel security; people are really nervous."
Textron employees have a bit more confidence in many of their corporate flights. Through Cessna and Bell Helicopters, Textron has several jets and small planes for company use, though Bishop said those are used primarily for executives and large groups. "We have a lot of airplanes, and they were always at pretty full capacity; now it's even more so," Bishop said.
Bishop said having company planes does give her and other employees a sense of security. "It's better," she said. "You know everyone on the plane, and you know who's flying it."
Other companies are looking for that sort of security, too. Bishop said Textron's program to sell time-share-style ownership of planes has picked up since the attacks and the subsequent reduced plane routes and tighter security. "It's a very long sales process," Bishop said, "but we've received a lot of inquiries about the fractional shares process in the past few weeks."
Charness said Hasbro has no corporate jet, but the company does hire its own private planes and pilots for some trips. Margaret Monroe, Amica spokeswoman, said the company used to have an executive jet, but got rid of it long before Sept. 11. Neither knew whether their companies would buy shares in a company jet.
"I think we're all playing it by ear," Talin said. "It's going to be a few months before you can come up with any kind of permanent policy on this sort of thing."
Todd Andrews, spokesman for CVS pharmacy stores, said the company would keep any future travel policies secret for security.
Many companies are simply telling their employees to use common sense and travel only when and how they feel comfortable, Monroe said.
And when it is practical, added Charness. He took Amtrak to a meeting in New York this week, but said it wasn't because he was unnerved by flying. "I just didn't want to deal with traffic," he said.
