View non-flash version
open and convention registration will begin on Wednesday afternoon. An early arrivals' reception is scheduled that evening. After Mr. Cook's report on Thurs- day morning, September 24, the panel discussion sessions will begin. The morning panels will concern the growth outlook for river valley in- dustries and navigation financing strategies. The opening luncheon, with a featured speaker to be an- nounced later, will come at noon. During the afternoon, other pan- els will examine the escalation in maritime user fees and user taxes and consider regulatory problems, principally involving endangered species and wetlands protection. Annual meeting attendees will leave the hotel for their annual reception and dinner aboard the Showboat Goldenrod, which is an- chored in the Missouri River at nearby St. Charles. On the re- cently restored showboat, which is registered ad a National His- toric Landmark, delegates will see a Broadway show, "I Do, I Do." The status report on the Army Corps of Engineers' civil works program will launch the final day's program. Two morning panels are planned, and they will deal with water shortages on the Missouri River and the need to modernize the Upper Mississippi Waterway. Among those participating on the Upper Mississippi program will be Christopher J. Brescia, president of MARC-2000, the group recently organized to promote the replacement of congested locks on the waterway; Dudley Hanson, planning chief in the Corps of Engi- neers' Rock Island District, who is head of a team studying navigation improvements on the Upper Missis- sippi, and Holly Stoerker, execu- tive director of the Upper Mississippi River Basin Association. As at previous annual meetings, a spouses' program is planned. It will include a morning visit to the Mis- souri Botanical Gardens, lunch in the historic Lemp Mansion and af- ternoon shopping on Cherokee Street, a recently renovated neighborhood. The Stouffer Concourse Hotel has set aside a block of rooms for the NWC annual meeting, but reserva- tions must be made before Septem- ber 9. The rooms are available at deeply discounted rates: $89 single/ $99 double, plus tax. Because the headquarters hotel is located near St. Louis Interna- tional Airport, shuttle buses have been arranged to take attendees to and from downtown restaurants and stores. For more information, contact NWC's convention coordinator, Verna M. Boucher, National Wa- terways Conference, Inc., 1130 17th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036; telephone: (202) 296-4415; fax: (202) 835-3861. Who's Who In NWC New Sources Of Revenue Needed To Fund Inland Waterways Projects By Harry Cook, President National Waterways Conference Inc. Since it was founded 32 years ago, the National Waterways Conference has focused its resources and efforts in one direction: promoting national policies aimed at insuring the long- term health and vitality of the shal- low-draft navigation industry. Over the years, NWC has led the fight against arbitrary and oppres- sive waterway user taxes and user fees. At the same time, the organiza- tion has fought for continued Fed- eral funding, at adequate levels, for priority navigation programs—no easy feat in a time of mushrooming budget deficits and massive spend- ing cutbacks. As a central element of the NWC's mission, we have long worked to docu- ment the public value of waterway programs and to show their overall importance to the American economy. Navigation projects generate ben- efits which are widely dispersed throughout the river valleys and coastal regions. In furtherance of its education and information program, NWC con- ducts economic research, publishes papers and reports, issues a highly acclaimed newsletter, sponsors semi- nars on waterway-related topics, holds annual meetings and provides Washington representation. In seeking to influence maritime policy, NWC first tries to develop a consensus within the waterways in- dustry. As a result, task forces are often set up to thrash out controver- sial issues. Since 1974, NWC has sponsored monthly "waterways roundtable" luncheons. During the long Congressional fight over re- placement of Lock and Dam 26 near St. Louis, an alliance of Washington- based executives of waterway-related companies and associations was or- ganized. In these efforts, NWC has served as the catalyst. In authorizing replacement of L&D 26, Congress insisted on insti- tution of a waterway fuel tax begin- ning in 1980. This was the first user tax on waterway commerce. In the decade since then, about a dozen additional user fees and user taxes have been imposed. Accumulatively, the impact of all these charges is rather dra- matic. Shipping companies, in fact, have begun to divert some cargoes from New England and Puget Sound ports to Canada. Still, Federal agencies—particu- larly the U.S. Coast Guard—are planning to implement even more user fees. Unless the Federal government stops piling more and more user fees, there charges are going to rob U.S. ports of valuable cargoes and also cause some U.S. products to lose out in important overseas markets. Some of the user fees and user taxes are going for deficit reduc- tion or simply accruing in the gen- eral fund. A few of the charges produce revenues which are used for navigation infrastructure pro- grams. For instance, the inland waterways fuel tax pays one-half of the cost of lock-and-dam re- placements. Even so, the demand for new projects during the next decades far outstrip the amount of fuel tax revenues which are in prospect. As a result, waterways propo- nents are beginning to look at supplemental revenue sources: tapping beneficiaries of other wa- terway programs, such as munici- pal water supply, hydropower or recreation or establishing new fi- nancing plans based on capacity utilization, so-called basin ac- counts, or navigation cost alloca- tion system.The effort to find new revenues is crucial to the water- way industry's continued viabil- ity, and NWC intends to be a ma- jor player in locating revenues to support a first-class waterway sys- tem. The National Waterways Confer- ence lives up to its name: it is a "conference" of navigation interests. The membership diversity is reflected in its 75-member board of directors, which represents five separate mem- bership categories: waterway carri- ers, shippers, shipyards and other waterway services, port authorities and other public entities, and indus- try associations. The leadership of the organiza- tion, which was founded in 1960, reads like a "who's who" in the inland waterways industry. Completing his first term as chair- man of the board of directors is J.D. (Johnnie) Laman, manager-marine and international operations for Dow USA. W. Richard (Dick) Christensen, serves as vice chairman. He is vice president-marine/surface transporta- tion and facilities for Ashland Petro- leum Co. The conference's long-time staff executive is its president, Harry N. Cook. Mr. Cook, a former journal- ist, joined the NWC in 1964 and has held the post of president since 1978. First vice president is Robert W. Portis, port director of the Tulsa Port of Catoosa, head of navigation on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System. The four vice presidents are: Wallace A. Gieringer, executive director of the Pine Bluff-Jefferson County (Ark.) Port Authority; Den- nis L. Kirwin, vice president, Mid- land Marine Co.; Charles R. Lehman, vice president, American Commercial Barge Line Co.; and Donald G. Waldon, administrator, Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway De- velopment Authority. William J. Hull, an attorney, is the vice president and counsel. The secretary is H. Nelson Spencer III, publisher of the Waterways Journal, and the treasurer is Donald C. McCrory, director, Memphis and Shelby County Port Commission. NWC's immediate past president is Berdon Lawrence, president, Hollywood Marine, Inc., who is cur- rently serving as a member of the Inland Waterways Users Board. Members of the NWC executive committee include the following: Nicholas J. Barchie, president, Warrior and Gulf Navigation Co.; Robert G. Brave, executive direc- tor, Little Rock Port Authority; J. Ron Brinson, president and chief executive officer, Port of New Or- leans; W.R. (Ron) Coles, consult- ing engineer; Brian L. Garrity, supervisor-water distribution sys- tem, IMC Fertilizer, Inc. Keith R. Gosney, president, Pin- nacle Transportation, Inc.; Carl B. Hakenjos, senior marine consult- ant, Waldemar S. Nelson and Co.; David W. Kreutzer, general man- ager-river division, Consolidation Coal Co.; Gary P. LaGrange, ex- ecutive director, Port of West St. Mary. Offa S. Nichols Jr., president, Warrior-Tombigbee Development Association; R. Barry Palmer, ex- ecutive director, DINAMO; Gale R. Rhodes, manager, river transporta- tion division, AEP Fuel Supply; T. Mark Simmons, Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee Board; and L.E. (Les) Sutton, president, Ingram Towing Co. Members of the board of directors serve three-year terms. At the gen- eral membership meeting to be held at the forthcoming St. Louis con- vention, 25 board members will be elected or re-elected to new terms. Some 400 companies now belong to NWC, making it one of the largest industry associations. August, 1992 17
