Weekly News Summary For March 20-26, 2006:
Committee Staff Member Tells NWC Budget Summit:
Current Budget Process Hampers Competitiveness
A professional staff member of the Senate Energy and Water Development Subcommittee advised the inland waterways industry March 9 to push hard for infrastructure maintenance that in the end will benefit their business and ensure the nation’s security.
Focusing on education and performance-based budgeting (PBB) Roger Cockrell, a speaker at the 2006 Budget Summit sponsored by the National Waterways Conference, said that the kind of budgeting utilized by the administration “leads our nation to turn away infrastructure investments that return two and even three times their cost.”
Cockrell said that the industry “should demand that water resources investments that provide positive returns to the economy should be given the same consideration as funding for any other homeland or national security investment within the national budget.
“We should learn from the tragic experiences of this past year’s hurricanes that increased spending on infrastructure before an emergency develops is much cheaper than waiting until the emergency occurs. Pennywise and pound foolish is no way to run a national infrastructure program.”
Noting that America’s water resource infrastructure “has been the foundation for economic growth and quality of life for the past century,” Cockrell said if this country does not recapitalize and reinvest in its infrastructure, “our ability to remain competitive in a global marketplace will be impaired (and) will impact our national security.”
Looking to fiscal year 2007, Cockrell predicted that as a result of “reforms” enacted in FY 2006 Energy and Water Act, the Corps program will continue to “limp along much as it will this fiscal year.
“I don’t anticipate a large increase in allocation this year, which means that we will end up partially funding a multitude of projects that will have to carry that funding over until sufficient funds are available to award a fully funded contract.”…
In the federal court case involving five towboat pilots who sued American River Transportation Company (ARTCO) for wrongful termination, the jury March 16 found in favor of one but absolved the company of claims by the others.
The complaint alleged that ARTCO pressured its pilots and captains to push tows in excess of 35 barges. According to the complaint, the pilots refused to push the tows because they considered them to be unsafe.
The jury awarded Larry Gwin of Golconda, Ill., $10,000 for lost wages and $130,000 for punitive damages. He had sought roughly $425,000 in lost and future wages.
Sammy Hutton of Savannah, Tenn., Thomas Mason of Metairie, La., Charles Marshall of Gretna, La. and Gerald Ingram of Rolling Fork, Miss. were the other plaintiffs.
Initially, six plaintiffs filed suit but U.S. District Judge Michael Reagan dismissed Tony Reames of Yazoo City, Miss., because he was not able to prove he had been fired for refusing to push the six-long tows.
The verdict followed nearly 19 hours of deliberations. The trial began February 17 at the Southern District of Illinois in East St. Louis. Attorney Christopher Dysart of Dysart Law Firm represented the plaintiffs. Attorneys Gary Sachs and Douglass Gossow of Goldstein & Price LP argued for ARTCO….
When it comes to rebuilding the flood control/hurricane protection system in New Orleans by June 1, the beginning of hurricane season, failure is not an option for Col. Lewis F. Setliff III, commander of Task Force Guardian.
Task Force Guardian is the Corps of Engineers team in charge of restoring the greater New Orleans hurricane protection system to pre-Katrina levels. The team is made up of nearly 300 Corps employees from New Orleans and across the country as well as more than 1,000 contracted workers.
So far, Setliff estimates that 46 percent of dirt-turning work is completed. About 3,000 people are employed on any given day.
“We are making smart repairs with the best engineering in the world,” he said. “It is really taking shape. I am in communication personally with all of the contractors. I am confident we will be finished on time with a better and stronger storm protection system that minimizes risk.”
As far as the June 1 deadline, Setliff said contractors will still be onsite working, but the flood control/hurricane system will be to the level it was before Katrina. Some allowed improvements and more aesthetic work will be underway after the deadline….
Barge operators transiting the Ohio River through Kentucky may see some relief from a time-consuming and somewhat confusing tax payment situation following the recent passage of a bill in the state’s House of Representatives. The new bill would create a uniform system for assessing tangible property taxes on equipment that operates within the state, which maintains taxing rights and legal jurisdiction to the opposite shores of the Ohio River along its border with Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.
Towing companies and barge owners have not objected to paying the current tax as much as they have complained about how it is determined and collected. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Frank Rasche, D-Paducah, said the state currently has three methods of assessing and collecting the tax and it is confusing and unfair to Kentucky-based companies.
He said companies based within the state pay a tangible property tax based on 100 percent of their assets even if the equipment is used outside the state on other waterways. Vessels owned by companies outside the state are assessed only for their percentage of use within the state, he stated….
Few, if any, who attended the February 21 christening of Blessey Marine Services’ newest towboat noticed it. Most likely no one even thought about it. Certainly more evident on the mv. Capt. Jonathan H. Brown were the handcrafted pieces of furniture, ceramic tile floors, marble counter tops, expansive galley, impossibly clean engine room and overall fine workmanship of the builder, Verret Shipyard.
But, every light on the vessel has a dimmer switch!
Blessey Marine of Harahan, La., was one of the first companies to participate in the Crew Endurance Management System (CEMS) project, which is a cooperative initiative between the Coast Guard and member companies of the American Waterways Operators (AWO). Simply put, the project seeks to demonstrate that it is possible to reduce endurance risks aboard towing vessels rather than be required, through regulations, to change work hours.
As part of the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2004, Congress granted the Coast Guard authority to establish hours-of-service requirements. The Coast Guard and AWO are pulling together results of CEMS research for presentation to Congress.
Dimmer switches are a part of this.
Jo Ann Salyers, Blessey’s safety project manager, has been collecting data on the effects of vessel improvements, to make crews’ quarters darker and reduce noise levels and vibration.
“The dimmers are mostly for the benefit of guys coming off the midnight-to-6 watch,” she explained. “Keeping the lights low in the galley and sleeping quarters helps them to get to sleep easier and obtain a better quality sleep.”…
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