Weekly News Summary For October 31-November 6, 2005:
The Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Development Council re-elected Eugene Bishop of Iuka, Miss., as its chairman during its annual meeting October 19–20. As executive director of the Yellow Creek Port Authority, Bishop oversees an industrial complex located at the juncture of the Tennessee River and Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. The port’s tenants include waterway users such as steel coil and heavy metal fabricators. Prior to his being named executive director of the port in 1991, he was an engineering supervisor on numerous construction sites for the Tennessee Valley Authority.
The Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Development Council, founded in 1984 to promote the development of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, also re-elected Steve Alley of Ft. Mitchell, Ky., Ingram Barge Company, vice chairman; Tim Weston of Tupelo, Miss., Tennessee Valley Authority, treasurer; and Fred Hansard of Demopolis, Ala., Demopolis Yacht Basin, secretary.
Dean White of Mobile, Ala., Gulf Caribe Maritime Inc. remains chairman emeritus.
The meeting was held at the Gold Strike Casino Resort in Tunica, Miss. It was moved from Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Miss., because of Hurricane Katrina….
Rep. John J. Duncan (R-Tenn.), chairman of the House Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee, made it clear to the people of Louisiana that Congress would not authorize and appropriate $18 billion to build Category 5 hurricane protection across the Louisiana coast and $14 billion for coastal restoration.
“This is not going to happen,” Duncan said in opening remarks at a subcommittee hearing on hurricane and flood protection and water resources planning for a rebuilt Gulf Coast. “Not because Congress does not want to help New Orleans and the state of Louisiana. It is not going to happen because it would be inconsistent with our responsibility to the U.S. taxpayers to ensure that these projects are in the federal interest, technically feasible and economically justified. Right now, we don’t have enough information to make these determinations. We can work with the (U.S. Army) Corps (of Engineers) and the state to streamline the process, but we cannot abandon our responsibilities by authorizing a black box and letting other people decide how taxpayer dollars should be spent.”
Questioning the feasibility of higher levees, Duncan said that the only feasible option for providing New Orleans with Category 5 hurricane protection from storm surges coming from Lake Pontchartrain may be the barrier gates that Congress authorized in 1965. However, he said construction of those gates was halted by an environmental lawsuit in 1977. He estimated the cost of building such barriers and raising some levees at about $5.5 billion….
Kirby Corporation, Houston, last week announced net earnings for the third quarter of $17.3 million, or 67 cents per share, compared with $13.2 million or 53 cents per share, for the third quarter of 2004. The 2005 third quarter results included an estimated 10-cents-per-share negative impact from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Consolidated revenues for the 2005 third quarter were $198.7 million, a 15 percent increase compared with $173.4 million for the 2004 third quarter.
Kirby reported net earnings for the first nine months of 2005 of $49 million, or $1.91 per share, compared with $36 million, or $1.44 per share, for the first nine months of 2004. Consolidated revenues for the first nine months of 2005 were $582.4 million, a 16 percent increase compared with $501.6 million for the first nine months of 2004….
A recent contract-signing ceremony with the Northwest Tennessee Regional Port Authority and Corps of Engineers was heralded as the beginning of a bright future for the slack-water port to be located near Tiptonville, Tenn.
Construction of the facility at Cates Landing in Lake County is expected to begin within the year and is expected to be completed in late 2007. The creation of the port has been a multi-county and agency effort that has taken five years.
Initial economic impact studies indicate the port and adjacent industrial park will boost the regional agricultural economy and attract new industry, creating more than 5,600 jobs, rather directly or indirectly.
“This is the biggest economic development project we’ve seen in northwest Tennessee in my lifetime,” said U.S. Rep. John Tanner. “Because of our prime location and great water and land resources, this growth will put us on the map of the world’s major cargo shipping points.”
The new port will be located about 25 miles from Interstate 55 and about 28 miles from the future route of Interstate 69. It is also about 30 miles from railroad lines connecting to Canada and the Gulf of Mexico….
Ingram Barge Company, Nashville, Tenn., held a renaming ceremony for its 5,600 hp. towboat Herman Pott October 7 at the company’s fleet in East Carondelet, Ill. The vessel’s new name is Richard E. Waugh.
It is named for a bank executive who has had longstanding business dealings with the barge company’s parent, Ingram Industries. Waugh is president and chief executive officer of Scotiabank in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He began his career with the bank in 1970 and in 1985 moved to New York where, for the next eight years, as the bank’s most senior officer in the U.S., he played a pivotal role in the development and expansion of the bank’s U.S. activities, Ingram said.
He was named to his current position in 2003, after returning to Toronto 10 years earlier and working in several other high-level capacities.
The St. Louis Ship towboat was built for Federal Barge Line in 1973. It measures 168 by 40 feet and is powered by twin GM 16-645E5 diesels. One year after its construction, it appeared in a TV film named “The Rivermen” under the name River King….
Thanks to Upper River Services and Ingram Barge Line, homes built through Operation Home Delivery, a Habitat for Humanity program, by scores of volunteers in the Twin Cities are traveling down the Mississippi toward their destination in Louisiana.
Rather than have volunteers travel to an already taxed region to build homes for Habitat for Humanity, the organization established Operation Home Delivery in several sites, notably New York City involving the NBC Today Show, where it allowed for volunteers to make a difference in their home state.
One obvious logistical need was the transportation of the constructed homes, built in small, organized sections, from the beginning of the Mississippi to the end. That is where Lee Nelson of Upper River Services came in handy. He handled the logistics concerning the waterborne move….
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