By Greg Duggan - Daily News Transcript
Saturday, December 07, 2006
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WESTWOOD - Compliments of Westwood Station developer Cabot, Cabot & Forbes, the town and Hale Reservation took advantage of an offer to build up their collections of office furniture.
Between Westwood, Hale, the town of Needham and Boston's Franciscan Hospital for Children, CC&F donated over $35,000 worth of office furniture and equipment from an administrative office building at 201 University Ave. that it eventually plans to demolish.
While the developer could have sold the furniture, Jed Raymond, a project manager for CC&F, said yesterday, "This seemed like a more apropos use for it. It's just a goodwill gesture that will make life easier for everybody."
Mike Jaillet, the Westwood town administrator, said much of the furniture - including cubicles, chairs, file cabinets and desks - went into the new Recreation Department facility at Westwood High School within the last couple of months.
"It's a welcome addition. It's a way of furnishing some of our offices without having to appropriate new money to do it," Jaillet said yesterday.
At Hale Reservation, staff last week picked up office furniture, cabinets and shelving to use in its lodges.
"It gives us, specifically some of the cabinetry, the ability to store program supplies and better accommodate program services in the summer when we have thousands of children in the summer camp program," Nancy Hartmann, associate director of the reservation said yesterday.
The donations came about with a suggestion from CC&F President Jay Doherty to reach out to area communities with the offer, Raymond said.
"We heard back from Westwood and Needham. Westwood put me in touch with Hale Reservation. Through connections in here we heard the Franciscan Hospital was also interested," Raymond explained.
Both Jaillet and Raymond said the donation was not a conflict of interest.
"We put the word out that if anybody wanted to come and grab furniture, they were welcome to," Raymond said. "It was very straight forward. Everyone had an option and could refer others to us."
Jaillet explained that the town has received donated or cheap furniture in the past from other companies that no longer need the equipment.
"There is no condlict of interest. No promise has been made to them one way or another about the permitting process," Jaillet said.
Daily News staff writer Greg Duggan can be reached at 781-433-8355 or by email at gduggan@cnc.com.
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