Mayor partners with Governor in his Business Outreach Tour

Mayor Angel Taveras joined Governor Lincoln Chafee in his statewide buisiness tour of cities and towns, to hear from dozens of local business owners about issues they are facing and services government can provide.

The hour-and-a-half workshop, emceed by RI Dept. of Labor & Training chief Charles Fogarty, and held at the Liston (Providence) campus of the Community College of Rhode Island, featured the Governor, Mayor, and a host of officials from city, state and federal government, including Congressman Cicilline. The Providence stop - one of nearly 1/2 dozen done so far - was intended to give business owners and enterpreneurs information about financial and technical programs they can access to start or grow their companies.

Among the many speakers were: Earl Queenan, head of finance for the RI Economic Development Corporation; Adriana Dawson, Director of the RI Small Business Development Center at Johnson & Wales University; Mark Hayward, Rhode Island Director of the US Small Business Administration; Leslie Taito, Director of the Officie of Regulatory Relief for the RIEDC; Janet Raymond, Sr. VP for the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce and Doris De Los Santos, Director of Municipal and External Affairs for the Governor.

Booths were set up outside of the auditorium, to give attendees additional information and provide guests one-on-one meetings with public officials.