Cape Cod wind-farm developers get permit

Developers of a proposed energy-producing wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod have been granted a key environmental permit. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection has issued a water-quality certificate for Cape Wind Associates’ plan to install nearly eight miles of transmission cable in waters off Yarmouth. If the project moves forward, five additional miles of cable in federal waters would link the wind farm to the electric grid. The water-quality certificate issued in mid-August is one of about 20 permits Cape Wind must secure before the turbines are built. The company has proposed a 130-turbine wind farm in 25-square miles of Nantucket Sound. Critics call the project an environmental hazard that will mar pristine views.

GTECH signs contract in Dominican Republic

GTECH Corp., the Providence-based unit of Italy’s Lottomattica SpA, said yesterday it has signed a 20-year contract with Loto Real Del Cibao C.X.A. to be the exclusive technology provider for an online lottery system, terminals and future commercial services and other gaming opportunities in the Dominical Republic. Loto Real was recently awarded a concession to operate and manage an online lottery in that country for the next 20 years. GTECH’s 20-year contract began on Aug. 28, and is expected to generate revenues of about $130 million over the contract term, commencing in the first quarter of next year.

John Hancock Financial offices merge

Two John Hancock Financial Network offices in Warwick and Rocky Hill, Conn. have merged to expand services in Rhode Island, Connecticut, western Massachusetts and Westchester County, N.Y. The new organization will be named Independence Financial Partners and will have 70 representatives and more than $1.2 billion in assets under management.

CVS to sponsor children’s program on PBS

The charitable arm of Woonsocket-based CVS Caremark Corp. has signed on as a sponsor of Arthur, a popular PBS Kids TV series, for one year. Funding for the year-long sponsorship comes through the CVS Caremark Charitable Trust and it will use its airtime to promote “All Kids Can,” a $25-million program the company launched in 2006 to aid children with disabilities. Working in conjunction with Meeting Street School, Easter Seals and the National Center for Boundless Playgrounds, the program supports inclusive learning activities, barrier-free playgrounds and medical rehabilitation and therapy.

Vermont company secures Navy contract

A small Manchester, Vt., company has won a $1-million contract to provide specialized sensors that will be used in a new Zumwalt class of U.S. Navy destroyer. Battenkill Technologies will supply the sensors to Bath Iron Works of Bath, Maine, for the Navy’s DDG 1000 class destroyer. The company has developed sensors that will be placed inside the ballast tanks of some Navy ships, eliminating the need for human technicians to inspect the tanks for corrosion. Battenkill was founded three years ago in Massachusetts by Bruce Nelson and Jonathan Grant and moved to Manchester last year. The company now has two full-time employees and two part-time employees, but Grant said it will likely hire more people.

Astro-Med improves its label printer

West Warwick-based Astro-Med Inc.’s QuickLabel Systems product group has released a higher-speed version of a popular short-run digital color label printer that produces at 3 inches per second, a 50-percent increase over the previous model. The printer is an electrophotographic digital system that yields photo-quality color labels on roll-fed stock, allowing printing with content including photos, graphics and barcodes. In August of last year, Astro-Med received a patent on the mechanism it invented to allow printing on continuous rollstock.

Avon executive named to Staples board

Staples Inc., of Framingham, Mass., has announced the appointment of Elizabeth A. Smith, president of Avon Products Inc., to its board of directors. She is responsible for Avon’s worldwide product-to-market processes, infrastructure and systems and leads the company’s North American operations. Smith joined Avon in 2005 as executive vice president and brand president and was given the additional role of leading Avon North America. Smith was named president in September of last year.

Maine heating-oil customers called desperate

A Maine heating-oil industry official on Wednesday in Augusta told a legislative panel that’s looking for ways to address a price crisis that customers are “desperate” and more Maine oil dealers are going out of business. “We see a desperate customer base,” said David Martin, chairman of the Maine Oil Dealers Association and vice president of Webber Energy of Bangor. With oil running about $4 a gallon, “nobody knows” what the price will be when the cold weather hits, Martin told the Heat and Energy Emergency Task Force. “We see oil companies that have been great competitors for generations and generations in Maine, family-owned businesses, that probably are not well-positioned for this marketplace,” said Martin. “We anticipate as an industry that there’ll be less oil companies in the state in a year from now.”

New imaging system from Caliper Life

Hopkinton, Mass.-based Caliper Life Sciences Inc., a provider of tools and services for drug discovery and life-sciences research, has introduced a preclinical in vivo imaging system. It enables researchers to noninvasively view biological events at the molecular level as they occur and uses ultra-high sensitivity cameras to add video capability to the company’s existing line of bioluminescence and fluorescence imaging offerings. With the new system, researchers can visualize, track, quantify and understand biological processes as the action happens, driving visual exploration and analysis of gene expression, cellular pathways and drug response.

Vermont reports decrease in revenues

Vermont’s state revenues took a big dip in August, which officials Wednesday called another sign of a national economic downturn. Tax collections supporting the state’s general fund were 11 percent below projections that had just been set in late July. For the first two months of the fiscal year, revenues were lagging projections by about 5 percent in the general fund and were off 6.6 percent in the transportation fund. Secretary of Administration Neale Lunderville said July and August typically are low-revenue months, but that the lags in collections clearly show the need for caution in managing state spending. Several consumption taxes, including sales and use and rooms and meals, were down from the same period last year.

Maine bank, credit union announce merger

Two Augusta, Maine-based financial institutions, one a federal credit union and the other a state-chartered savings bank, announced Tuesday that they plan to merge. If the agreement wins regulatory approval, the merger of Kennebec Savings Bank and KV Federal Credit Union would mark a first in Maine and would be among the first instances nationally of a credit union teaming up with a savings bank. Officials billed the merger as a way for the two institutions to become more efficient and position themselves for growth in a crowded banking market. The companies have set June 30 as a “loose target” for completing the deal.