Page 50: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 1993)

NWC

ANNUAL MEETING

Is America

Abandoning its Rivers?

The theme of the National Waterwaysl

Conference's 1993 Annual Meeting and Water-I ways Exposition is "Confronting Dramaticl

Change In Waterways Policy: Is America Aban-| doning its Rivers?." The annual meeting will bel held on Wednesday to Friday, Sept. 15-17, at the |

Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tenn.

Speakers will include Dr. G. Edward Dickey, I

Acting Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil

Works), who will discuss the proposed increase in waterway fuel taxes and Conference Pres.

Harry N. Cook, who will deliver his annual "state of the waterways" report. They are among some 30 speakers, panelists and moderators on the three-day convention program.

Panels will examine a wide range of water- ways issues such as emerging markets for waterborne commerce, taxes affecting naviga- tion programs and their impacts, low-cost lock- and-dam construction methods, endangered species protection and wetlands regulation.

For a fifth year, a waterways exposition is planned. It will be located in one section of the main ballroom, next to the rooms where the general sessions and luncheons will be held.

Conference Chmn. W. Richard (Dick)

Christensen of Ashland Oil, Inc., Ashland, Ky., will call the NWC annual meeting to order on

Thursday morning, Sept. 16. After Mr. Cook presents his report, the opening panel will dis- cuss market trends and developments.

The moderator will be Peter E. Hubbard of

Cincinnati, senior vice president-sales and mar- keting for the Ohio River Company.

The second panel will explore the grain out- look. William J. Schmidt, Jr., of St. Louis, assistant vice president of Bunge Corp., will chair the panel.

After the opening luncheon, Michael J.

Toohey, associate director of Ashland Oil's gov- ernment relations department, will moderate a panel analyzing the Administration's proposed $l-per-gallon inland waterway fuel tax. Dr.

Dickey will discuss the case for the tax, and

Christoper J. Brescia of St. Louis, president of the Midwest Area River Coalition (MARC- 2000), will outline the case against the tax. The

Congressional view will be presented by Wil- liam H. Hanks, Jr., state director of Sen. James

Sasser's Nashville office.

Impacts of the proposed fuel tax will be as- sessed by the last panel of the day, which will be chaired by R. Barry Palmer of Pittsburgh, executive director of the Association for the

Development of Inland Navigation in America's

Ohio Valley (DINAMO).

Panelists will include Dr. Robert N. Stearns of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the

Army (Civil Works); Timothy R. Murphy of

Mercer Management Consulting, Inc. (formerly

Temple, Barker & Sloane, Inc.), and Joanna M.

Stamatiades of the U.S. General Accounting

Office.

In the evening, there will be a banquet in the

Peabody Hotel ballroom.

Gen. Genega will present his civil works report to start the Friday program. The first morning panel will concern the protection of threatened or endangered species, such as the

Alabama sturgeon, and the possible impacts on navigation, with panelists representing the Army