Weekly News Summary For October 6-12, 2008:
Washington, D.C.—The Coast Guard has awarded Bollinger Shipyards in Lockport, La., an $88 million contract for design and construction of a new 153-foot patrol boat.
The contract was awarded nearly two years after Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen scrapped the service’s eight refitted 123-foot patrol boats when it was discovered that structural flaws made them unseaworthy.
The fast response cutter, which will be known as the Sentinel-class patrol boat, is expected to fill the void created by the earlier failure of the 123-foot patrol boats. Those cutters had been upgraded under the service’s $24 billion Deepwater modernization program, and their failure forced the Coast Guard to take over the contract from Integrated Coast Guard Systems, a consortium created by Lockheed Martin Corporation and Northrop Grumman Corporation, to administer the wide-ranging contract to upgrade the service’s air, sea and communications assets.
The new 153-foot cutter, which is to enter service in the fall of 2010, is based on a design by Damen Shipyards Group, a Netherlands-based shipbuilder, Damen and Bollinger together will produce the cutters in Lockport; by law, the Coast Guard can purchase ships built only in the United States…
The Corps of Engineers’ regulation of the Missouri River in 2009 will include two “spring pulses”—one in March and the other in May—and the possibility of a navigation season shortened by as much as 30 days, according to the draft operating plan released last week. The draft plan also anticipates there will be only minimum flows at the start of the navigation season.
The draft plan is available for comment until November 21.
The carefully monitored pulses from Gavins Point Dam in the spring are intended to mimic the historic ebb and flow of the river to benefit the spawning of the pallid sturgeon, which is listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act. The pulses are designed to satisfy the requirements of the amended 2003 biological opinion published by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The 2009 operating plan includes “flood control constraints” contained in the Master Water Control Manual. These are the river levels that act as triggers for reducing releases from Gavins Point during high downstream flows. Both pulses may be reduced or eliminated due to these downstream flow limits. An additional safeguard is the incorporation of observed and anticipated rain into the daily river forecast to provide greater assurance that flows will remain below the flow limits….
The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA), reported that its Monthly Leasing and Finance Index (MLFI-25) showed that overall new business volume in August had declined 14.5 percent from August a year ago. Its July report had reflected a 17.3 increase of loan originations over July of last year.
August’s drop was thought to show the effects of the ongoing credit crisis on manufacturers and other purchasers of heavy equipment.
“The big news here is the 14.5 percent drop in August new business originations,” said William Verhelle, ELFA chairman and chief executive officer of First American Equipment Finance in Fairport, N.Y.
“For nearly a year now, everyone has been watching for signs that the global credit crisis is spreading into the general economy.”
ELFA president Kenneth E. Bentsen Jr. said, “The decline in new business volume is likely a combination of capital constraints among lessors and lenders, enhanced underwriting standards and risk-based pricing, and some diminishment of demand.
The Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans announced last week that it has approved a settlement of its lawsuit with property insurer FM Global over damages from Hurricane Katrina. The port did not disclose the amount of the settlement.
“We are satisfied that this is a fair offer for the damages sustained during Hurricane Katrina that were covered by FM Global,” said Gary P. LaGrange, port president and chief executive officer. Settling this lawsuit allows us to close the chapter on our Katrina insurance claim, continue making repairs and avoid a costly and protracted battle of lawsuits and appeals.”
LaGrange went on to credit the personal involvement of former chairman Danny Hughes in helping to focus the issues and push the process along.
The Port of New Orleans had two property insurance policies when Katrina hit—one with Lexington Insurance Company with a policy limit of $20 million, and one with FM Global with a policy limit of $145 million for hurricane damage. Before the settlement, Lexington paid the port the policy limit for Katrina damages and FM Global advanced the port funds to begin some repair projects…
Capt. Bobby Joe James grew up along the Tombigbee River in Alabama, fished there, and thought one day it would be fun to work on the river. He signed on as a deckhand with Parker Towing Company of Tuscaloosa the winter after he got out of high school.
His very first trip during an exceptionally cold December was almost his last, though. At that time, tows had to lock through one barge at a time using a cable to pull the barge into and out of the chamber. As they were making the lock, the wire broke and the green deckhand had to scramble around in the difficult conditions to help resecure the barge and get it through the lock.
“I’ve never been so cold in my life,” he said. “If there was ever a time I was tempted to hit the bank, that was it, my first time out.”
But, he persevered, and on September 16 this year, a full 48 years since almost quitting the river, the now vice president of operations watched as his wife, Vicki, christened a vessel named mv. Bobby Joe James, as a tribute to his lengthy career with Parker Towing. He is due to retire at the end of the year.
After his first few years on the river, Capt. James moved up to the pilothouse, but then left to serve a three-year tour of duty with the Navy. He returned in 1969 to become the youngest captain on the Warrior River.
Parker Towing promoted him to port captain in 1983, then to his current position….
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