Weekly News Summary for December 24, 2007 - January 6, 2008:
U.S. Technology Marine Services LLC, a new start-up company, will commence building barges in January in Fort Smith, Ark.
“The barge business is hot. Lots of people want barges,” said the company’s vice president, Robert Putnam.
The company is leasing 17 acres of property with a 32,000 square foot building, launching point and channel to the Arkansas River. Within those lease agreements, the company plans to buy an additional 72 acres of property with frontage to the river, Putnam said.
“This is a start-up company, absolutely a new business,” Putnam said.
The site has been prepared. Ground has been cleared. Angular cuts have been made into the channel for launching points. Holes have been dug to support stanchions, which will be concreted in to hold the I-beams that hold barges.
U.S. Technology Marine Service has a contract to build 20 barges in 2008 with an option for an additional 20 barges in 2009 if the buyer is happy. Putnam would not name the client….
Settoon Towing, the Pierre Part, La.-based towing company, christened its new corporate headquarters building and four new boats on October 13.
The company, which operates 36 towboats and 78 tank barges, provides a niche service, gathering crude oil in the shallow coastal waters of Louisiana, and hauling it to receiving points.
Settoon tows annually carry over 22 million barrels of crude oil. Also, the company hauls more than 6 million barrels per year of “produced” salt water, a byproduct of oil production, to commercial disposal facilities.
Most of the operations are in South Louisiana and on the Mississippi River, but Settoon tows do venture throughout the Gulf Coast, said Russ Settoon, president and owner.
“This is a great day for Settoon Towing, and I would like to thank everyone for sharing it with my family and staff,” Settoon told the gathering at the christening. “Over the last few years, we have been fortunate enough to have had substantial growth.”…
Turn Services Inc., a fleeting and harbor company based in New Orleans, La., recently bolstered its fleet of harbor boats with the purchase of three vessels from Deep South Towing Inc. and its affiliated firms. The acquisition was completed at the end of November.
All three are triple-screw, 1,400 hp. boats that were built by St. Charles Steel Works in Thibodeaux, La. between the 1960s and 1980s. The boats are the mvs. Black Beard, Jean Lafitte and Jolly Roger.
The sale marks the retirement of Deep South Towing’s owner, Marvin Dorr, and brings to an end a 58-year career in the towing business.
For Turn Services, it adds to the fleet of six boats the company operates between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The company hired virtually all of Deep South’s employees, including Dorr’s son, David, who will continue to maintain the vessels….
“I’ve known many river legends in the 88 years I’ve been around,” Capt. Paul Striegel remarked following the presentation of the Seamen Church’s inaugural River Legend award. “A lot of them deserved this honor more than me, but none of them appreciates it as much as I do.”
The popular Paducah pilot was honored before 300 guests during the Seamen’s Church Institute’s eighth annual River Bell Awards luncheon at Paducah December 13. Following the presentation, the affable octogenarian received a standing ovation from his peers, many of whom worked for him or learned under his watchful eye.
Striegel hails from a family of river pilots and captains who trace their roots back to his great-grandfather, who was a pilot on a Civil War gunboat.
“My daddy and I were pilots and my two sisters married pilots,” he noted. “My youngest sister also had a boy who became a pilot and my uncle was a pilot.”
He began his river career as a deckhand during the Great Depression and by 1939 was a pilot. By 1947, he was a licensed Master. He said he came to Paducah (from the Perryville, Tenn. area) in 1936 and boarded a little vessel called the Jim Smiley, or the “Big Jim” as he called it, where he began his career, making $2 per day as a deckhand….
The final 2008 Annual Operating Plan for the Missouri River will be released later this month. Though storage in the reservoirs is 2.8 million acre-feet higher (maf.) than a year ago, the plan continues to emphasize conservation efforts.
“2007 was the eighth consecutive year of drought for the Missouri River basin,” said Larry Cieslik, chief of the Corps of Engineers’ Water Management office in Omaha, Neb. “While there has been some improvement in storage, the drought does not appear to be over, so we will continue to restrict releases from the reservoirs in 2008.”
The AOP for next year anticipates releasing only enough water to provide minimum navigation flows for the entire season and shortening the season by 17 to 60 days. It was shortened by 35 days this year. The storage level will determine the actual season length on July 1, 2008….
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