Board Of Trustees Of The Galveston Wharves News

Galveston Wharves’ board of trustees today unanimously approved a project to repair pilings and pier deck in the Pier 19 area of the port. The board awarded the contract, with a not to exceed value of $190,000, to Taylor Marine Construction, Inc. to replace damaged pilings and deck. The work, which is expected to last approximately three months, is scheduled to begin in February 2015. Pursuant to the Charter of the City of Galveston, the port is charged with maintaining the Pier 19 public facility. The contract awarded today is one of two current projects. Last month, Texas Gulf Construction Company, Inc was awarded a $120,000 contract to rebuild the pier that connects the fuel pier to shore. On October 25, 2014 a section of the wooden pier that provides access to the fuel dock collapsed.

The Board of Trustees of the Galveston Wharves has approved a 5 year agreement with Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., that will generate a minimum US$1.86-million in annual operating revenues for the Port of Galveston. The Port explains that the agreement requires making improvements to the Port's Cruise Terminal No. 2 to accommodate larger vessels and more passengers. Initial plans are to increase the size of the terminal, expanding it to 150,000 square feet with the capacity to seat about 1,000. This expansion is estimated to cost approximately $10 million.

Conspiracy involving marine fenders, buoys and pilings provokes action by public and private interests in Texas and Louisiana. Baron & Budd, P.C. attorneys, working with attorneys from Los Angeles-based Glancy Bingow & Goldberg LLC, New York securities law firm Labaton Sucharow LLP, Mobile-based Vickers, Riis, Murray and Curran, L.L.C. and Galveston attorney A. Craig Eiland, have filed suit in federal district court in Los Angeles over a web of conspiracies to fix prices and rig bids on several marine products. The Board of Trustees of the Galveston Wharves, the Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans and OSG Lightering LLC, who all purchased marine products that were the subject of the conspiracies, have sued on behalf all those affected by the schemes.

The Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) has disbursed $65 million to six coastal states: Alabama, Alaska, California, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. This is the fourteenth installment in a series of annual payments based on 1985 settlement legislation regarding the allocation of royalties, rents and bonuses from certain federal offshore oil and gas leases. The 1978 Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Lands Act Amendments provided for certain coastal states and the federal government to share revenues earned from OCS leases, generally, three to six miles beyond a state's coastal boundary. This area, known as the 8(g) zone, is named after the enabling paragraph of that legislation.