Chap. 693.  An Act establishing a merkimack valley industrial
INFORMATION CENTER.
Be it enacted, etc., as follows:
Section 1. The department of commerce and development, hereinafter referred to as the department, is hereby authorized to establish a regional center for combining and distributing information dealing with scientific and technological advancement, marketing knowledge, new techniques in public and industrial relations for the industries, businesses and labor organizations of northeastern Massachusetts, said center to be known as the Merrimack Valley Industrial Information Center, hereinafter referred to as the center, and to be located at the Lowell Technological Institute of Massachusetts Research Foundation, hereinafter called the foundation.
Section 2. Fifty thousand dollars from the tourism and industrial development fund is hereby appropriated for the fiscal year of nineteen hundred and sixty-nine, for the purpose of preparing a comprehensive plan for the organization and operation of the center. Said plan shall provide detailed estimates of the financial requirements of the center and the ways and means for meeting these requirements through such contributions and grants as may be provided by the federal, commonwealth, and local governments, the foundation, participating businesses and industries, labor organizations, and other interested groups or organizations.
Section 3. The program of the center shall include the following: in the scientific and technological areas, releases dealing with scientific
Acts, 1968.—Chap. 693.
and technological advancement, industry and product seminars, consultation on problems in products and processes; in the marketing area, assessment of the accessibility of markets and suitability of products and industries to the northeastern Massachusetts region, financing, seminars on trade and international marketing, and education on licensing, trade contracts, and channels to foreign markets; in the management and industrial relations area, releases on new scientific and technological advancement affecting manpower development and economic growth, new skill seminars, education on organization, administration, and coordination of industrial relations and projection of future opportunities and consultation and counseling to labor and management on problems in labor management relations.
Section 4. The Merrimack Valley region, which the center shall serve, is defined as that area included within the standard metropolitan statistical areas of Lowell, Lawrence, Haverhill and Newburyport, and extending westerly to the Middlesex county-Worcester county boundary line and east to the Atlantic ocean. The department shall evaluate the progress of said center for the purpose of making recommendations concerning the establishment of regional industrial information centers elsewhere in the commonwealth.                     Approved July 19,1968.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Executive Department, State House,
Boston, July 29, 1968.
The Honorable John F. X. Davoren, Secretary of the Commonwealth, State House,
Boston, Massachusetts.
Dear Mr. Secretary: — I, John A. Volpe, pursuant to the provisions of Article XLVIII of the Amendments to the Constitution, the Referendum II, Emergency Measures, hereby declare in my opinion the immediate preservation of the public convenience requires that the law being Chapter 693 of the Acts of 1968, entitled "An Act establishing a Merrimack Valley Industrial Information Center." and the enactment of which received my approval on July 19, 1968, should take effect forthwith.
Postponement of the operation of this act would defeat its purpose which is to permit the Department of Commerce and Development to receive a federal matching grant.
Sincerely,
John A. Volpe, Governor of the Commonwealth.
Office of the Secretary, Boston, July 30, 1968. I, John F. X. Davoren, Secretary of the Commonwealth, hereby certify that the accompanying statement was filed in this office by His Excellency the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts at ten o'clock and thirty-two minutes, a.m., on the above date, and in accordance with Article Forty-eight of the Amendments to the Constitution said chapter takes effect forthwith, being chapter six hundred and ninety-three of the acts of nineteen hundred and sixty-eight.
John F. X. Davoben, Secretary of the Commonwealth.