Capsule News Summary For February 14–20, 2005:
There's good news and bad news in President Bush's budget proposal for the civil works program of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for 2006.
Bush's budget proposal includes $4.513 billion in new federal funding. The bad news, according to the National Waterways Conference, is that that number is below the $4.705 billion appropriated for this year, and far below the estimated $5.6 billion the Corps needs to fulfill its missions. The good news is that the number represents the highest administration-requested funding in many years, notes Waterways Council Inc. (WCI).
"We are very pleased with the president's increasing recognition of the importance of the inland and coastal waterways and ports as a national transportation and economic engine," said R. Barry Palmer, president and chief executive officer of Waterways Council Inc., in a statement last week "We are in the early stages of evaluating the budget request for the planning, construction, and operation and maintenance of inland navigation system's needs, but we are very encouraged by the recognition of the administration's continuing understanding of the critical value of this transportation system while reflecting the priorities of a nation at war."
According to WCI, the budget request "underscores the president's goal to keep the nation economically strong and competitive."
Included in the budget is spending of $184 million from the Inland Waterways Trust Fund (IWTF) for improvements to navigation infrastructure. This meets WCI's recommendation to spend at least $150 million per year over the next seven to eight years from the fund….
American Commercial Lines Inc. (ACL) has announced that Clayton Yeutter was elected chairman of the ACL board of directors. Other members of the board are Eugene I. Davis, Richard L. Huber, Nils E. Larsen, Emanuel L. Rouvelas, R. Christopher Weber and newly-appointed president and chief executive officer, Mark R. Holden.
Yeutter has been Of Counsel to Hogan & Hartson LLP, a law firm in Washington, D.C., since 1993 and has established an international trade and agricultural law practice. A former United States secretary of agriculture, Mr. Yeutter currently serves as a director of Danielson Holding Corporation; chairman of the board of Oppenheimer Funds Inc. an institutional investment manager; chairman of the Board of CropSolutions Inc., a privately-owned agricultural chemical company; and a director of America First, a privately-owned investment management company.
Mark R. Holden was named president and chief executive officer of ACL Inc. on January 18. Prior to joining ACL, Holden served as senior vice president and chief financial officer of Wabash National Corporation….
The mv. CSS Arkansas sank in the Lower Mississippi River at Mile 179, near Donaldsonville, La., February 10 following a collision with the 737-foot Greek-flagged ship Rodon Amarandon, the Coast Guard reported.
The CSS Arkansas was northbound pushing seven barges when the vessels collided. The Rodon Amarandon, also northbound, was carrying pig iron.
Following the collision, the CSS Arkansas and one of its loaded coke barges sank. All four crew members aboard the vessel were rescued and transported to local hospitals as a precautionary measure. The other barges were safely recovered….
Golding Barge Line Inc. recently put into service a towboat that harkens back to the way boats were built in Greenville, Miss., in the 1970s when that town was known as the "Towboat Capital of the World." Only now the new boat is even better, according to its builder Newsouth Marine Builders LLC of Greenville.
The Vicksburg-based barge line took delivery of the Angie Golding on December 31 and has been operating it on a three-piece, 90,000-barrel tow. The 3,000 hp. vessel measures 110 by 32 feet and has a tunneled hull said to increase fuel efficiency by as much as 30 percent.
Its designer and builder, Tim Hovas, who founded Newsouth along with Joe Nichols and has one other boat to his credit so far, grew up working on many Greenville-built boats and for several of the shipyards there. His familiarity with the characteristics of tunneled sterns and formed bows of boats from that era fed his desire to design a line of towboats with the same attributes, only improved, using modern-day methods.
Steve Golding, president of Golding Barge, and his staff watched as the first boat, the Marguerite L. Terral, was constructed. Afterward, they interviewed the pilots.
"We liked the design so much and heard so many good things from the crews that we decided to have Newsouth build us one like it, although we asked the yard to lengthen the hull some seven feet for even greater performance," he said.
In describing the hull, Hovas said, "it's a combination of the tunnel-stern vessels that were built in Greenville for years with fair lines and radiused knuckles and a reverse chine bow that gets the head of the boat running out over the water. It really cuts through the water and provides a lot of speed because it doesn't create a wave in front of the boat."…
A team of river marine insurance brokers, all formerly with Aon Risk Services, St. Louis, has joined with one of the nation's top ten insurance brokerage firms to form the Missouri office of McGriff, Seibels & Williams.
Over the years, the group of industry experts, headed by Charles Southern, Jerry Yacobellis and Baxter Southern, assembled one of the largest brown-water insurance clienteles in the river business. It joined the McGriff group January 21.
Based in Birmingham, Ala., McGriff, Seibels & Williams is a 100-year old company that last year became a fully owned subsidiary of BB&T Corporation, a financial holding company. The combined operation is the sixth-largest insurance brokerage in the United States and the seventh-largest in the world. One of its areas of specialization is the energy and marine field, handled primarily out of its Houston office, with which the St. Louis office will be closely aligned.
Tommy Ebner, chairman of the Houston office, said the addition of the St. Louis group ties in perfectly with a core area of business in which McGriff is particularly well versed. McGriff also has offices in Atlanta, Ga.; Dallas and San Antonio, Texas; and Irvine, Calif. The St. Louis office, including a location in Caruthersville, Mo., is its seventh, and will be known as McGriff, Seibels & Williams of Missouri Inc….
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