Category: Rhode Island
Chafee Not Voting for Bush; Gregg Comforts Him
By Thomas Rains
WASHINGTON, SEP. 5 –At least two of his fellow New England Republicans aren’t ready to write Sen. Lincoln Chafee out of the GOP despite the Rhode Island senator’s announcement last week that he would not vote for President Bush on Nov. 2.
Chafee said he would instead write in the name of another Republican, possibly the first President Bush, as a symbolic protest.
In an interview, Tuesday Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire responded to Chafee’s announcement by calling the Republican Party a “big tent” that has room for different views. He added that Chafee’s fiscal conservatism aligns him with many Republicans. This “big tent” characteristic does not apply to the Democratic Party, Gregg said, quipping that Democrats do not allow anyone in who does not support abortion rights.
Chafee supported Bush’s election bid in 2000 even though he disagreed with many of Bush’s policies. Since then Chafee has voted against opening a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to development, opposed authorizing force in Iraq, and voted against. Bush’s 2003 tax cut.
While Chafee has sided with Democrats on many issues, Gregg called Chafee a “strong Republican” and does “not at all” think the he will defect like Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords, who moved from Republican to independent in 2001.
Jeffords, however, may have something to say about that.
“I understand the feelings he has,” Jeffords told The New York Times on Monday. “I’m going to be talking to him, so I’m not going to say any more.” Jeffords was unavailable for further comment Tuesday,
Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine said she respects Chafee’s decision but does not agree with him.
“Sen. Chafee’s decision is his own,” said Antonia Ferrier, communications director for Snowe, whom Ferrier described as having a “good, strong friendship” with Chafee.
Like Chafee, Snowe frequently votes with Democrats on cultural issues and some economic ones, but she has typically voted with Republicans on foreign policy and defense issues.
“Sen. Snowe is firmly behind the president’s re-election campaign,” Ferrier added.
According to Gregg, Chafee is simply in line with the views of his constituents in Rhode Island. New England, Gregg said, has gotten “more liberal” over the years, while the Republican Party has become “more western and southern” in its geographic representation.
Chafee is the only Republican member of Congress from Rhode Island, which Al Gore carried in 2000 with 61 percent of the vote. The state’s other senator, Jack Reed, has one of the most liberal voting records in the senate, according to The Almanac of American Politics , while the state’s two representatives have similar voting records.
But, loyalty runs deep in the Grand Old Party, and Chafee has a history with the moderate wing of the Republican Party.
His father, John Chafee, was a Republican governor and senator from Rhode Island who named his son after President Abraham Lincoln. At age 11, Chafee went with his father to the 1964 Republican National Convention and has said he remembers the hostility supporters of Barry Goldwater directed at more moderate Nelson Rockefeller supporters.
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Will Medicare Issues be Resolved?
By David Tamasi
WASHINGTON - They are almost all Republicans, meeting behind closed doors in an effort to resolve their differences. But time is running out for Congress to complete its work on what would be the most significant overhaul to Medicare in 40 years.
"I've always thought failure was not an option," said Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy. "But we are in the last moments of the final inning."
Republican congressional leaders have said they wish to recess this month, but first they'd like to pass a Medicare bill that is a domestic priority for them and for President Bush. But one moderate Republican whose support is considered crucial to ultimate passage is not so sure the issue will be resolved.
"I am pessimistic that a bill will get finished," said Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-Rhode Island.
Last summer, both the House and Senate approved a $400 billion, 10-year package that would revamp the health care system for seniors and, for the first time, provide them a prescription drug benefit. Yet the bill has been hamstrung by differences between House and Senate versions, particularly a House provision that would allow direct competition between private-sector plans and Medicare.
Democrats say such competition would eventually leave seniors without care. Republicans, prodded by conservatives in the House, have insisted that private plans be allowed to compete.
In June, the House passed its Medicare bill 216-215 amid last-minute arm-twisting by House GOP leaders. With only a one-vote margin, the House leadership is keenly aware of the value of every Republican vote. Therefore, various coalitions that emerge on the legislation can hold disproportionate sway over negotiations. For example, 42 House conservatives have threatened to oppose any bill that does not contain the provision for private competition.
In the Senate, Republicans must placate the concerns of moderate Senate Democrats and the liberal Kennedy, who long has been a leader on Medicare and who is the senior Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Kennedy supported the Senate version of Medicare, bringing with him Democrats who might otherwise have voted against the measure. As a result, his continued support is vital to the life of the bill.
"They need to keep the Senate Democrats happy and the House Republicans happy," said Congressman Martin Meehan, D-Lowell.
The two Republicans attempting to bridge the gaps are House Ways and Means chairman Bill Thomas of California and Senate Finance Committee chairman Charles Grassley of Iowa. They have engaged in several public disputes over the last few months, which has done little to inspire confidence that compromise can be reached.
"The disagreements between Thomas and Grassley are issues affecting who they represent and not between them personally," Chafee said.
Grassley reportedly wants to ensure that $25 billion goes to Medicare payments for rural states. Thomas is said to oppose that provision.
Democrats, meanwhile, have protested the fact that only two of their members--Senators John Breaux of Louisiana and Max Baucus of Montana--have been allowed to participate in the negotiations,. Last week, Congressman Charles Rangel, D-New York, attempted to join the Medicare discussions but was not permitted, Meehan said.
"There is a long way to go," he said. "To get the biggest issues resolved, you need to get Democrats a seat at the table."
It is likely to take congressional aides six to eight days to draft legislative language once an agreement has been reached. In addition, the Congressional Budget Office must review the bill to ensure it does not exceed its limit of $400 billion.
Many Congress members and advocates for senior citizens worry that if a Medicare bill is not completed this year, it will fall victim to presidential politics in 2004. But Congressman John Tierney, D-Salem, said he does not necessarily think that will be the case.
"It will be harder to get a bill next year in an election year," Tierney said. But, he said, "I don't know why that has to be a matter of course."
Tierney said that it was "politically imperative" for the President to get a Medicare bill but questioned whether the bill would contain enough for Senate Democrats to support it.
The Bush administration reportedly has agreed with House Republicans to seek possible cutbacks in Medicare benefits, including the prescription drug plan, if the program's costs exceed $400 billion.
House and Senate negotiators are scheduled to continue their daily negotiations until at least Veterans Day, Nov. 11.
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.
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."
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.
Providence Company Gets $4.5 Billion Contract for Pocketknives
By Sarah Sparks
At the end of summer, Steve Paolantonio's Providence-based Colonial Knife Co. was hanging by a thread. His customer base was crumbling. The 82-year-old company had no name recognition. He had cut his staff from 40 to 17 in six months.
Steve Paolantonio is proof that the edge of war can cut both ways.
As part of the mass military build-up called for by President George W. Bush's "war on terrorism," Colonial Knife Co. has won a five-year, $4.5 billion contract to supply three different kinds of knives to the General Service Administration, a military wholesaler. The contract will allow Paolantonio to hire 80 new workers in the next three months and cinch deals with Stanleyworks, Cooper and Danaher tool makers. And it will provide a much-needed cushion to a company whose 2000 annual revenue was $2.4 million.
"This GSA work was a blessing, it really was, because I wasn't counting on it, and it came on board right away," Paolantonio, 39, said.
He might not have been counting on the contract, but Paolantonio had been angling for something similar. "I've been after these guys for 10 years, trying to get a hold of somebody, but I never could," Paolantonio said.
A few weeks ago, a new distributor told Paolantonio he was going to sell to the government and asked if Colonial could handle a major knife contract. "They all have to be American-made, and there aren't that many knife companies left in the United States," Paolantonio said, "so he knew who the players were, as did I."
In a closed bid, Colonial Knife beat out nationwide competitors Gerber Knife, Camillus Cutlery and W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery, claiming contracts for three out of four knives. They refused a contract for a marlin spike knife, a survival knife for the Navy, because the order was too small for the knife's complicated construction.
Vincent Vitralia, department supervisor, said the workers' morale has gone through the roof since the company landed the contract. "We are all very glad to do this work," he said.
Colonial Knife hasn't had a government contract this large since World War II, when the company made fighting knives - bayonets, Navy deck knives, airmen's survival knives, machetes - for the GIs. Paolantonio's grandfather, a blacksmith in the Rhode Island calvary during World War I, started the business in 1917, working out of his garage and catering mostly to the then-booming jewelry industry in Providence. "He made knife skeletons, a couple knives a day, for the jewelers, and they would put pearl and ivory inlays in them," Paolantonio said.
The World War II contract allowed the company to expand from the late 1930s until the 1970s, with two 300-worker shifts per day. For the most part, Colonial's meat and potatoes customers came from mom-and-pop hardware stores, which ran the company into trouble as major chains such as Wal-Mart, Target and Home Depot began to put Colonial's customers out of business.
"You could be kind and say we've had some financial problems. ... It's been hard, it's been really hard, because we don't have that many retailers left," Paolantonio said. "You've got some Mid-west regional chains but they aren't going to last much longer, either. There's got to be a half-dozen major players, and if you're not selling to them, you're not selling to anybody."
Since the 1980s, Colonial has struggled to stay afloat. Two years ago, the company changed its focus from small retailers to the industrial tool market - the "tool-belt, hard-hat guys" such as Stanleyworks, Cooper Tools and Danaher Corp., makers of Craftsman tools.
But before the contract, it was difficult to get noticed. "A company called Kline Tools, it's phenomenally huge, and I emailed them, I said look, I just landed a $4.5 million deal," he said, "They've never heard of Colonial Knife, even though we've been around for 70 years, because we haven't made a big push into this industry."
"This [contract] is buying me time to go after the industrial tool market," he said. Paolantonio is now in negotiations to make knives under the Stanley label, among others.
The contract even saved one of Colonial's traditional knives, the model 1200 Boy Scout Knife, a tradition for 75 years and destined for the vaults before the GSA's 151,000-piece order.
"We were going to discontinue that knife," Paolantonio said. "That style just is not popular anymore; you know, kids just don't carry knives anymore." Colonial was producing them only on a limited basis for Restoration Hardware, a boutique-style furnishings store.
Colonial will also produce 180,000 of model J316, a locking knife with a single, dull-finished blade and a rubberized handle, for use in survival and maintenance kits.
The most difficult order will be 33,000 switchblade rescue knives, the only pieces not already in production. "It can cut through parachute lines, so if you're stuck in a tree you can get out," Paolantonio said. "The reason it's a switchblade - switchblades are normally illegal - but if you are in a crash situation and your arm is broken you can use it with one hand."
Once the contract was in hand, Paolantonio was able to woo a new engineer, Joe, from a rival company. Joe, who didn't want his last name used, will help tool the machines and organize construction of the switchblades.
"The automatic knife in particular, we're taking it apart and looking at how it's put together, deciding, okay, we can make it like this, because it has to meet government specs," Paolantonio said.
In addition to the engineer, Colonial has started recruiting heavily and has recalled three retired employees to teach the new workers. Paolantonio said he is worried about hiring the 80 new workers that will be needed to start production on time in three months.
"The downturn in the economy might be good, because it might be easier to get good people," he said.
Vincent Vitralia, department supervisor, said the workers' morale has gone through the roof since the company landed the contract. "We are all very glad to do this work," he said.
Stranded R.I. Businesspeople Hit The Road
By Sarah Sparks
WASHINGTON - Don Sweitzer didn't want to wait for the airports to be up and running. He was stranded in Lexington, Ky., surrounded by the governors of eight states, desperate to get home. So he hit the road.
Sweitzer, senior vice president for public affairs at Gtech in West Greenwich, heard about the World Trade Center attack at a meeting of the Southern Governors Association in Lexington, which he was attending to promote his company. He joined several other Rhode Island businesspeople who were stranded far from home and decided to hit the road.
James LeBelle, national sales manager for KVH in Middletown, was already driving in a rented car when a radio announcer broadcast the first plane attack. LeBelle had left a trade show in Harrisburg, Penn. for a two-hour drive to catch a mid-morning Southwest flight to Providence from the Baltimore-Washington International Airport. When he heard about the multiple attacks, LeBelle said, "I didn't even bother going to the airport or calling the car rental agency because I figured I was probably a nuisance and they were probably overwhelmed with other calls. And I didn't know whether it (the attack) would escalate to something greater."
For the next 15 hours, LeBelle followed a careful course - up Highway 81, over Highway 84 east, across Connecticut and into Rhode Island - stopping only to grab food in gas stations and steering clear of cities. "I entirely mapped it out so I would go way far away. I went almost up into Albany to avoid New York City," he said.
LeBelle was able to get through to his wife's mobile phone from time to time, but most of his information came over the radio. "Unfortunately, I listened to one radio station that said there was something like 30 or 31 planes hijacked, and it took about an hour and a half for them to come out and say that was incorrect," LeBelle said.
"So you're thinking, 31 airplanes hijacked in the United States, that's pretty much every major city. ... All I could think about was: this could escalate to something like war; I didn't know what would happen next."
For the most part, LeBelle found the radio comforting, though. Sweitzer listened too in the car he was driving, though he said the radio made the trip difficult; it was a constant reminder of the tragedy unfolding in New York and Washington.
Kristen Levy, press representative for American Power in West Kingston, at least had human comfort. She and her 12 co-workers caravanned back in several cars from a trade show in Chicago after their flights were cancelled. "Everyone was afraid and just unsure of what was going on. We were all worried about family and friends and that sort of thing," Levy said. "It was just shock ... we were all at a loss for words for what was going on."
At least a hundred Rhode Island businesspeople are still marooned across the country and overseas, and as airports remain closed day after day, more and more of them may be forced to drive or find another form of transportation. Jane White, human resources director for Textron in Providence, said that two employees locked out of flights in Chicago and Atlanta also rented cars and drove back.
And Bob Richer, human resources director of Brown & Sharpe in North Kingstown, said the company is urging 25 to 40 grounded employees not to fly home right away even if airports open before Monday. "We're just telling them to sit tight," Richer said, until it is clearly safe to come home.
But for those like Sweitzer and LeBelle, work and family pulled them home as fast as they could drive. Sweitzer went straight to work, arriving at 4 p.m. Wednesday and filling in his colleagues before going home to sleep.
LeBelle returned to Providence at 2 a.m. Wednesday and was back at work early the next day.
Rhode Islander Witnesses Pentagon Attack
By Sarah Sparks
While a hijacked airliner was heading toward its attack on the Pentagon, intern Briana Angelone of North Scituite, R.I., was attempting to deal with the response to the two earlier terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.
In the office of House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., Angelone, 20, tried to calm panicked constituents calling the office. "As we were watching it, we saw another plane crash into the World Trade Center and people were calling up. … One lady called up and was like, 'What are you going to do about them bombing the World Trade Center?' "
I said, "Listen, ma'am, I'm sitting in the Capital here; I'm a little nervous myself."
Hastert was in his office getting briefed on the Trade Center attacks, Angelone said, when she and the rest of the staff met in the main conference room, which overlooks the Washington Monument and the Pentagon.
"We're sitting there and through the window we see this plane," she said. "Somebody says, 'Look, look!' We all looked out the window and there was all this billowing smoke pouring off the Pentagon. It was crazy; I couldn't believe it."
"One guy (from Hastert's office) called the police and said, 'Something just hit the Pentagon,' and they said they already knew."
Angelone, of Colby-Sawyer College in New Hampshire, and another intern were told to leave. They started for her co-worker's car, parked some distance from the Capitol, but were warned not to take the Metro subway train, she said, because of the possibility of "bombs or anthrax." "The police were yelling, 'Get away from the Capitol,' "
The Capitol and all federal buildings in the district were evacuated, and routes out of the city were choked with traffic. Angelone, who lives in northwest Washington, said that the trip home that usually takes 20 minutes dragged on for two and a half hours. Suit-clad men and women swarmed north, some walking, some - like Angelone - stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
At home, she found seven messages on her voice mail from friends and family hoping she was safe.
"I had messages from people I haven't talked to in a long time. My mom called me up, crying. It's been really bad," Angelone said.
