Railway Track & Structures - February 2008 - (Page 16) NRCChairman’s Column Strong start Manny Ramirez Chairman Don Coleman, Jim Hansen, Norm Jester and Bill Stout. They join our existing Board members to form the core leadership group of the NRC. The current directors are David Armstrong, Terry Benton, Gary Bevills, Danny Brown, Tony Chambers, Chris Daloisio, Bill Dorris, Patrick Jansen, Jon McGrath, Dave Minor, Chuck Patterson, Jim Perkins, Phil Pietrandrea and John Zuspan. As was announced at the conference, Ray Chambers has been president of the NRC for the past twelve years and, along with the past chairmen, he has made great progress in establishing the NRC as a force in the railroad community and an unyielding voice on Capitol Hill. Ray has now decided to retire from Chambers, Conlon and Hartwell and step down as president, but he will remain with the NRC as a senior policy advisor. Ray, from the NRC and the entire railroad industry, a big thank you. Chuck Baker has been selected by the NRC Board of Directors to replace Ray as president of the NRC. Chuck does a great job of coordinating the NRC and without question he will continue to provide the NRC the representation required on Capitol Hill, along with his team at Chambers, Conlon & Hartwell. I’d also like to congratulate all of the winners of the annual NRC Safe Contractor of the Year Contest and thank Gerry Gates of Genessee & Wyoming, Tom Streicher of the ASLRRA, and Tom Judge of RT&S for volunteering their time to judge the entries. The three winners this year are Coleman Industrial Construction, Delta Railroad Construction and Mass Electric Construction. And certainly a special thank you goes to David Armstrong of Commercial Insurance Associates for his continued sponsorship and coordination of the contest; it is a true service to the industry. I do have to take a moment to mention that the employees of MEC have placed first two years in a row in the safety contest. As at many other companies in the rail contracting industry, MEC (a subsidiary of Kiewit Corporation) really does put employee safety first. For those of you whom I haven’t met, a very quick bio: I grew up in Los Angeles, was drafted into the army in 1969 and served a tour in Vietnam. After the service, I was hired in 1971 by Southern Pacific Railroad as an assistant signalman and quickly learned the art of digging a ditch, shovel width, 30-inches deep, exactly. Southern Pacific had an exceptional educational program for its employees and, using that along with the GI Bill, I completed a degree in Management and Organizational Behavior. My senior thesis was the “Utilization of Existing Right of Ways for Commuter Rail Operations,” and as life would have it, I was recruited by MEC to begin the building of such an operation. I have been with MEC ever since. A couple of quick thoughts about the NRC and my goals: With the NRC growing in membership and our contractors gaining more work from transit, commuter rail and Class 1 customers, the NRC must continue to build useful relationships with organizations such as AAR, AGC, APTA, ASLRRA, AREMA, FRA, REMSA, RSI and RTA, which impact the rail industry. The 2008 Railroad Day on Capitol Hill is scheduled for Thursday, March 13, in Washington, D.C. The NRC will be actively supporting and participating in this industry event, in conjunction with the ASLRRA, AAR, REMSA, RSI and RTA. The headquarters hotel is the Grand Hyatt at 1000 H Street N.W. in Washington, D.C. You can call 202-582-1234 for reservations. Online registration forms are available at www.aslrra.org. This event provides railroaders, railroad contractors and suppliers an opportunity to tell our story about why railroads and rail infrastructure are important for your Senators and Representatives to focus on. Issues that we will discuss with Congress will include supporting railroad investment tax credits (both shortline and Class 1), opposing railroad reregulation efforts, refining railroad safety legislation to get a bill that works well for the industry, increasing rail transit investment, developing effective public-private partnerships focused on rail, advocating for a better intercity passenger rail program and pushing for improvements to the FRA RRIF loan process. The 2008 NRC Railroad Contracting Equipment Auction will begin at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, April 15, at the Blackmon Auctions yard in Little Rock, Ark. We expect the auction to finish by 2 p.m. Contact the NRC office to sign up to participate in the auction as either a buyer or a seller, or both. Sellers can either consign or donate equipment to the auction. For donated equipment, 100 percent of the proceeds of the sale will go to the NRC Safety, Training and Education Fund and the donating company can take the corresponding tax deduction. For consigned equipment, the seller will receive 100 percent of the proceeds of the sale, minus a two-percent seller’s fee, which will go to the NRC Safety, Training and Education Fund. The auction is an excellent place for contractors to find bargains on needed equipment or sell under-utilized assets. For suppliers, it’s a great venue to introduce equipment to a group of very interested buyers. To finish, I’d like to publicly thank my wife Dee for a lifetime of support and the enthusiasm she has shown for the NRC and all of the time we spend with this group. Lastly, I ask that you keep the men and women in uniform in your hearts and prayers. www.rtands.com The National Railroad Construction & Maintenance Association, Inc. 500 New Jersey Ave., N. W. Suite 400 Washington D. C. 20009 Tel: 202-715-2920 Fax: 202-318-0867 www.nrcma.org info@nrcma.org Hello everybody. Before I begin, I’d like to thank Simmons-Boardman Publishing and Railway Track & Structures for providing this space every month for The National Railroad Construction & Maintenance Association to communicate with the good people in the rail industry. I am Manny Ramirez of the Mass Electric Construction Company, and I am now the chairman of the Board of the NRC, taking over from Jon McGrath. I’d like to thank Jon for his guidance in preparation for my chairmanship. Going forward, Jim Perkins of Loram Maintenance of Way will serve as vice chairman and Terry Benton of Colo Railroad Builders will serve as secretary-treasurer of the NRC. I’d also like to thank the staff of Chambers, Conlon & Hartwell LLC for their ongoing work managing the NRC, leading our lobbying and government affairs efforts in Washington D.C., and putting on an excellent annual conference. I saw many of you at the most-recent NRC Conference in Palm Springs, and I think that everybody who was there agrees that the conference was another wonderful and highlyproductive event and provided us all with a strong start to 2008. This year we had record attendance (more than 620 registrants), a jam-packed exhibit hall and a great group of speakers presenting to packed houses. And despite the uncooperative weather, we all managed to have some fun, too. Leadership of the NRC Safety Committee has also changed. Our sincere thanks go to Ernesto Scarpitti from Delta Railroad Construction for all of the work he has done as Safety Committee chairman and also his ongoing work representing the NRC on the Rail Safety Advisory Committee. Stanley Beaver from Balfour Beatty will now step in as chairman of the Safety Committee. I’d like to publicly welcome our newly-elected members of the NRC Board of Directors: 16 Railway Track & Structures February 2008 http://www.nrcma.org http://www.nrcma.org http://www.aslrra.org http://www.rtands.com
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