Make Quick Work of Growing Your Business

The North Central Chamber of Commerce is hosting a "speed networking" event tomorrow morning at Goodwill Industries.

  In a twist on the modern "speed date" trend, the North Central Chamber of Commerce is hosting a "speed networking" event tomorrow morning at Goodwill Industries in Providence. Chamber President Deb Ramos explained the concept in a recent email message. "It’s a relaxed atmosphere, but forces the attendees to meet each other and offers them quality one-on-one time," Ramos wrote. "Seating is so that you network with the person across from you. Every few minutes the group rotates the table(s), creating the opportunity for each person to sit across from a different person every rotation." This will be the latest in a series of speed networking events that the Chamber — which covers Johnston, Smithfield, North Providence, Scituate, Foster and …

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Your Government Handbook

Town Council Meeting — Nov. 14

Town Councilors are scheduled to continue a hearing on the Apple Valley Citgo gas station on Greenville Avenue.

Town Building Inspector Ben Nascenzi is scheduled to give an update to the Johnston Town Council on recent work at the Apple Valley Citgo Food Mart on Greenville Avenue at tonight's scheduled meeting. The public session is set to begin at 7 p.m. at the municipal court. A copy of the agenda for tonight's meeting is attached to this article. At issue is whether the gas station's owner, Mohammed Amer, has complied with town orders to replace a fence he took down last year, leading neighbors to complain; plant new grass in a 10-ft. buffer zone on the property; and move a guardrail that had been in the buffer area. After Nascenzi threatened to shut down the business in August, Amer secured a restraining order against the town. During the …

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Pause In The Progress

Road projects near major developments will resume in early 2011.

Two sites of ongoing business development on Atwood and Hartford avenues will have distinctly different looks, once a pair of road projects are completed in 2011. Another project has provided safe crossing for residents, clients and staff of a local nonprofit agency. At the site near the former Stuart's department store, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation recently wrapped its work on the first phase of road improvements that will ultimately stretch from Old Pocasset Road to the Interstate 295 ramps, roughly 1,000 feet west. Funded by federal stimulus money, the Stuarts roadway project required varying levels of work to bring the road and sidewalks up to current standards, DOT Spokesman Charles St. Martin explained. "It was a …

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