Weekly News Summary For February 4-10, 2008:
American Electric Power Company announced January 28 what river observers had known for weeks; AEP MEMCO LLC has leased five towboats and purchased related assets from B&H Towing Inc. and its affiliate, Lay Leasing Inc., of Paducah, Ky.
Certain employees of the Lay Companies who operated or managed its towboat fleet were offered positions with AEP MEMCO, AEP said in the announcement.
The transaction took effect January 1, and within a week, B&H boats were seen sporting AEP colors.
AEP MEMCO is a subsidiary of American Electric Power and part of the AEP River Operations Division, which has 1,200 employees and offices in Chesterfield, Mo.
B&H and Lay Leasing, together called the Lay Companies, are privately held companies that have supplied fully found towboats to AEP River Operations for 12 years….
After a six-month search, the National Waterways Conference announced January 28 that it has hired a new president.
“Amy W. Larson, who has been general counsel of the Federal Maritime Commission in Washington, D.C., since 2004, was named to the position effective March 1,” said Gary LaGrange, president of the Port of New Orleans and chairman of NWC.
Larson is currently the general counsel for the Federal Maritime Commission, a position she has held since January 2004. In addition to serving as the chief legal officer for FMC, her responsibilities include representing the commission’s interests before Congress and in the federal courts; working with Congress, other federal agencies and the private sector on port and maritime security; and developing policy for an integrated U.S. maritime transportation system as a member of the coordinating board of the Committee on the Marine Transportation System.
She has worked for the commission since 1993, beginning as counsel to the Inspector General and later serving as legislative counsel.
The NWC position had been vacant since the sudden resignation in June of former president Worth Hager. Eight weeks after she resigned, Hager died in her sleep at her Washington, D.C., home. Larson will be only the third president in NWC’s 47-year history, following Hager and longtime president Harry N. Cook….
Kirby Corporation announced record net earnings for the fourth quarter of 2007, and said it plans to spend about $80 million in 2008 building new towboats and tank barges.
The company announced fourth-quarter earnings of $34.4 million, or 64 cents per share, compared with net earnings of $23.4 million, or 44 cents per share, for the 2006 fourth quarter. Consolidated revenues for the 2007 fourth quarter were a record $307.9 million, an increase of 22 percent over the $251.4 million reported for the 2006 fourth quarter.
For the full year of 2007, Kirby reported record net earnings of $123.3 million, or $2.29 per share, compared with $95.5 million, or $1.79 per share, for 2006. Consolidated revenues for the 2007 year were a record $1.17 billion, a 19 percent increase compared with the $984.2 million reported in 2006.
“The record fourth quarter marked the 16th consecutive quarter that our earnings exceeded the same quarter of the previous year,” said Joe Pyne, Kirby’s president and chief executive officer. “Strong demand continued in all of the marine transportation markets Kirby services. Our fleet of tank barges and towboats remained essentially fully utilized, and pricing for our services remained consistent with the first nine months of 2007. We did experience an increase in delay days and a corresponding decrease in efficiency caused by typical poor operating conditions during the 2007 fourth quarter.”…
The Memphis Engineer District is set to begin work on a major reconnaissance study of the Lower Mississippi River. Titled the Lower Mississippi River Resource Assessment (LMRRA), up to a half-million dollars in federal funds may be used to work in cooperation with federal resource agencies and river border states that have joint responsibilities for its management.
“This is a great opportunity for us to work together as a broad-based team to determine the best ways to restore and benefit from this vital natural resource,” said Col. Tom Smith, commander of the Corps’ Memphis District. “We will be looking toward the future to ensure that the river can be used and enjoyed by the generations that follow us. This project will not impact the quality of the Corps’ federally mandated navigation or flood risk management efforts.”…
The Tri-City Regional Port District, Granite City, Ill. released a research report quantifying the economic impact of the district on Madison County, Ill. The impact analysis was completed by RSN Economic Group, Inc.
“It is a pleasure and personally rewarding to be able to report to you today that the annual benefit of the port’s activities to the economy of Madison County is more significant than I expected, having a 2007 economic impact of over $208 million,” reported Charles King Jr., chairman of the Tri-City Regional Port District board. “The port is responsible for 1,347 jobs in Madison County, $66 million in payroll, and it generates a positive state and local tax revenue impact of almost $10 million annually.”…
Kurt Kienitz has been collecting river hats for 30 years.
“They just kept coming. Being a natural pack rat, I just never threw anything away,” he said. “I got some from my dad, and it just accumulated.”
Kienitz, 49, is hoping to sell his entire collection of 177 hats and use the proceeds to cover the $2,000 cost of sending him and his son on a mission trip to Guatemala in mid-March.
Some of the hats have been used. Most of them have been washed.
“There’s a high percentage of them that have never been worn and some have been worn by some at some time,” he said.
Many of them are from marine companies that have been bought out or closed.
Kienitz has a listing of the hats and hopes to sell the collection as a whole, but will entertain requests for individual hats. He’s planning to let the customer set the price….
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