Metro News Release

For immediate release: November 17, 2003

Metro’s procurement office to host Small and Local Business Vendor Fair

On November 17, Metro’s Procurement Office will host a Small and Local Business Vendor Fair at the Carmen E. Turner Facility, 3500 Pennsy Drive in Landover, Maryland. The office has invited approximately 75 minority-owned and woman-owned businesses in the Washington metropolitan region to attend the fair to learn more about Metro’s procurement process and how to register on-line using Metro’s Vendor Relations System. Each of the business representatives who attend the fair will have the opportunity to interact with Procurement staff one-on-one, receiving individual attention on Procurement how-to’s and answers to their questions. Earlier this year, the Board of Directors approved a new initiative called the Small Business and Local Preference Program when it approved a two-year pilot to implement this program with the potential to add $20 million to the local economy. " This program represents a win-win-win situation " for small businesses, those they employ, and the local tax bases," stated Jim Graham, Chairman of the Metro Board of Directors and one of the leading proponents of this program. " The infusion of funds this program could make available to small businesses means a healthier regional economy, and we all benefit from that." The Small Business and Local Preference Program is designed to assist small business owners and employers of these businesses in the Washington metropolitan region to benefit through an infusion of funds from Metro. The program calls for a preference program for simplified acquisitions--procurements for which Metro pays $100,000 or less. At the fair, information will be provided to small-business vendors on this program to encourage small and local businesses to bid for potential contracts with Metro.

News release issued on November 17, 2003.