Horizon Shipbuilding in Bayou La Batre has a new $80 million contract to build up to nine 140-foot tugboats, designed to push massive lines of barges full of refined oil products through the nation's inland river transport system.

The three-year deal will mean hiring about 120 new workers at the Bayou facility, said J.V. Collier, vice president of Horizon Shipbuilding.

"This contract will provide a huge economic boost for the Bayou area as a whole," Collier said, "and God knows we need it."

Collier said he did not want to discuss exactly what the company pays its workers. "Our business model is to hire the best people and pay them appropriately for their skills so that we increase efficiency through the quality of each person's work," Collier said. "We are a quality-driven company, and we understand the price of quality."

Horizon signed the deal last week with Florida Marine Transporters of Mandeville, La., to build a series of what the companies called a "new era," 6,000-horsepower, crew-friendly tugboat. Florida Marine has about 50 vessels.

Most of the company's barge-pushing tugs are outfitted with 2,000- or 3,000-horsepower engines and commonly push two to eight barges at a time, said Blake Boyd of Florida Marine.

The "new era" tugboat designed for Florida Marine by John W. Gilbert Associates of Hingham, Mass., will be able to push as many as a dozen barges at a time, Boyd said.

Each conventional barge carries about 30,000 barrels -- roughly equivalent to 300 tanker trucks -- of refined oil products, such as diesel, gasoline or jet fuel, he said.

The tugboats will also differ from others in many less obvious ways, generally to be appreciated by their crews, Boyd said.

For instance, the engineer's office overlooks the engine room to allow him quick access, Boyd said.

Also, the generators will be enclosed within a separate room rather than installed in the engine room. That way, the crew won't be assaulted by the earsplitting noise of the generators as they work to repair a dead engine, he said.

Florida Marine involved its captains and crew members in the design process, Boyd said. The company's chief executive officer, Dennis Pasentine, started out as a deckhand in the 1970s and worked his way up in the company, Boyd said.

"He's coming at this from the standpoint of someone who's worked on these boats," Boyd said.

Horizon, which has been in Bayou La Batre for the past decade, builds and repairs steel, aluminum and fiberglass vessels.

As Hurricane Katrina flooded the Bayou in August 2005, the storm did $2 million in damage to the facility. But since then, the company has not only rebuilt but so far has grown from fewer than 50 workers to 150 workers, Collier said.

The company will add to that success with another 120 or so workers over the next few months as the company ramps up operations to build the nine new tugs, Collier said. According to the contract, all nine are to be built by the first quarter of 2011, Boyd said.

Boyd said Florida Marine picked Horizon at the end of a nationwide competition.

U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, announced Friday that Bayou La Batre has won a $15.6 million Federal Emergency Management Agency grant to build as many as 120 furnished, affordable modular homes for hurricane victims.

"They have to be furnished because the vast majority of residents will be coming straight out of FEMA trailers to these homes," said Janey Galbraith, the city's grants consultant.

Bayou La Batre leaders initially discussed building the homes in partnership with Mobile's Mitchell Homes, but FEMA required that the city bid out the project competitively, Galbraith said.

The city will likely advertise for proposals in September, she said.

The project would construct homes in two neighborhoods, Safe Harbor Estates and Safe Harbor Landing, located on either side of Alabama 188 at the intersection with Shine Road.

Both sites lie outside the federally designated 100-year flood zone.

The project is intended in part to get Hurricane Katrina victims to move away from their old, flood-prone neighborhoods.

The Bayou lost a third of its population after Katrina hit Aug. 29, 2005, so city officials hope to regain tax base by attracting former and new residents. Before the storm, Bayou La Batre had about 2,300 residents.

The Bayou La Batre City Council awarded a $1.9 million contract last week to install infrastructure at Safe Harbor Landing on the east side of Alabama 188.

That $1.9 million is part of the

$37 million in HUD funds awarded to the city in June 2006, Galbraith said. But the infrastructure for Safe Harbor Estates will have to come out of the

$15.6 million awarded by FEMA, Galbraith said.

Dauphin Island officials have applied for funds to restore a 7,000-foot-long swath of eroding shoreline along the island's eastern end.

The project would require a $3.3 million slice of the $51 million that Alabama stands to receive this year through the federal Coastal Impact Assistance Program, which is intended to compensate states for the effects of offshore oil and gas drilling.

The island project would restore a stretch of beach, much of it public property, from historic Fort Gaines to the Audubon Place subdivision, said Mayor Jeff Collier.

Its most important function would be to protect the town's main freshwater aquifer, located beneath the island's

nationally popular Audubon Bird Sanctuary, Collier said.

"Erosion could eventually bring saltwater into the aquifer," destroying the water supply, he said.

Coastal engineers have said erosion could cause the aquifer itself to become part of an accelerating erosion process within the island's 164-acre bird sanctuary.

The erosion of the island's western end, which is far more dramatic and endangers hundreds of structures -- mostly rental homes -- has received much more media attention than the less drastic but nevertheless urgent erosion problems on the eastern end, which is wooded and more densely populated, Collier said.

But a beach restoration on the east end would be much easier legally, since it is mostly public property. The entire west end beach is privately owned by either individual property owners or by the private nonprofit Dauphin Island Property Owners Association, so it's difficult to use public money on that land, Collier said.

Association members voted in March to transfer to the town the 3½ miles of west side beach owned by the Dauphin Island Property Owners Association since 1953. The vote authorized the association's nine-member board to transfer the land to the town, making it eligible for public beach restoration funds.

But the board has not yet taken that vote pending the outcome of a challenge in Mobile County Circuit Court. The measure's critics filed a lawsuit shortly after the vote, claiming any sale or conveyance of the property would be illegal.

As for the location of the planned east end project, a large stretch is owned by the Dauphin Island Park and Beach Board, which also operates the public beach toward the island's western end, while another stretch is owned by the U.S. Coast Guard, Collier said.

The Coastal Impact Assistance Program was created as part of an energy policy overhaul enacted in 2005. The island is surrounded by natural gas platforms.

The town submitted its beach restoration application in June to the State Lands Division of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which is managing the state's share of the federal money, Collier said. The Lands Division is currently accepting applications for projects to be funded over the first two years of the four-year program.

Jim Griggs, State Lands Division director, said his office has received applications for several projects. Within the next few weeks, his office plans to prepare the projects for public comment, then prioritize the projects based on that public input. No public meeting dates have yet been set, he said.

"If a project isn't funded in this plan, that doesn't mean it might not get funded under the next two years' plan," Griggs said.

The restored beach would extend about 400 feet into the water toward its eastern end and about 100 feet into the water at its western end, with man-made dunes piled up to 40 feet high toward its center, Collier said.

Alabama and its counties stand to get $51 million over the next two years through the program. The state will get some $33.2 million for fiscal 2007, which began in October, and fiscal 2008, according to the office of U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile. Mobile County will get almost $10 million during the same two-year period, while Baldwin County's share will amount to almost $8 million.

Sessions was a sponsor of the 2005 bill establishing the program.

The program's funds come from oil and gas royalties that would normally go to the federal treasury. Their distribution is based on oil and gas production in each coastal state.

Volunteers on mission to take children fishing

It's been 10 years since the first "Kids Wishin' To Go Fishing" event was held. The brainchild of retired Police Sgt. Don Dixon and former sporting goods owner Wayne Lee was put together to give children an opportunity to experience a day on the water that could change their outlook on life.

Dixon and Lee sought out a person they felt could organize such an event and the rest is history. Well-known sportsman Doug Houston grabbed the project and took off, with the assistance of the Mobile Police Department, South Alabama Salvation Army, local businesses and volunteer boat owners. After a police escort to Dauphin Island, the children are given a rod and reel, tackle box and ice chest to keep fish in. They also receive a T-shirt and cap, plus lunch on the boat.

"Our whole goal was to get these children on the water, away from the troubles of everyday life, and concentrating solely on fishing," Houston said.

Houston said great fishing expertise is not needed to participate, simply a will to help a child learn to fish.

"These kids are just as excited to catch a croaker as a king mackerel," he said.

If you have a boat and would like to volunteer to take a child fishing in the event on Saturday, contact Houston at 602-1919.

-- KAYAK FISHING: The kayak has suddenly become the rage for inshore anglers who are sick and tired of crowds and ridiculous gas prices.

Several owners of kayaks proved they could land fish during the inaugural Mobile Bay Kayak Fishing Association tournament held last weekend. William Eastburn had the top flounder at 3.1 pounds, and Alan Bishop had the best speckled trout at 3.2.

The club plans to have another tournament in the fall to be held out of the Five Rivers kayak facility on the Causeway.

For more information about the club, visit www.mbkfa.com.

-- FIGHT FOR CANCER TOURNAMENT: When Gary Paul and his wife, Michele, had their son Brandon, they did not know cancer would soon disrupt their lives forever. Just a few months after Brandon was born, his mother succumbed to the disease.

Gary decided to do something to help find a cure. As the owner of Tackle This, Shoot That Outdoor Outfitters, Paul figured he needed to do something he knew a lot about, and that was fishing. Last year, he started a tournament in his wife's memory.

"I hope anglers will come out and support the tournament," he said. "The proceeds (after prizes) will go to the American Cancer Society. Cancer touches us all and we need to find a cure."

The inshore categories are speckled trout, flounder and redfish. Offshore categories are dolphin, king mackerel, Spanish mackerel, red snapper, vermilion snapper, triggerfish, grouper and amberjack.

The tournament is scheduled for Saturday, with weigh-in at Dauphin Island Marina. For more information, contact Paul at 633-5464 or 510-0363.

-- OH BOY! OBERTO

ALL-STARS COMING: Thirty teams of professional redfish anglers will be vying for a $60,000 top prize July 6-8 in the 30-boat Oh Boy! Oberto All-Star event out of LuLu's in Orange Beach.

Local angler Larry Kirby will be in the field fishing his home waters with his partner Gritter Griffin.

"I anticipate tough summertime conditions," Kirby said. "However, these guys are the best at what they do and that's catching redfish. I figure a lot of the teams will make the 300-mile round trip to Louisiana waters in search of really big fish.

"Gritter and I think it will take about 24 pounds-plus over two days to make the championship round the final day."

In the championship round, the top five teams will start from scratch.

"We have been catching plenty of fish, just not the right size," Kirby said. "The fish I have been on are a good ways away."

Contact Mike Thompson at:

nwt@zebra.net