BUSINESS/ORGANIZATIONAL BRIEFS

Waste Services transfer station to be constructed in Houston

Burlington, Ontario— Waste Services, Inc. announced that it had received its construction permit from the City of Houston to begin construction of its transfer station facility located in southwest Houston.

Earthwork had begun on the site earlier this week and this is the last remaining approval necessary to complete construction of the project. The facility is permitted for 850 tons per day and will provide volumes to the company's Fort Bend Regional landfill located in Fort Bend County, Texas.

WCA Waste acquires Translift, Inc.

Houston, TX—  WCA Waste Corporation has acquired Translift Inc., a private trash collection firm based in Little Rock, Arkansas. Translift currently owns and operates nine refuse collection trucks and serves about 750 customers. The company has five roll-off routes and three commercial routes.

According to WCA officials, solid waste collected by the Translift fleet will eventually be routed to the company’s Rolling Meadows landfill in nearby Hazen, Arkansas, about 40 miles from the primary area served.

WCA Waste Corp. is a vertically integrated, non-hazardous solid waste management company providing collection, transfer and disposal services for approximately 87,000 commercial, industrial and residential customers in seven states in the South and Central regions of the United States.

Fluor begins building a copper smelter in South America

Aliso Viejo, CA— Fluor Corporation has begun construction on the first smelter modernization of its kind in South America. The smelter is owned by Southern Peru Copper Corporation and is located in Peru.

When complete, the smelter will be the first modernized copper smelter in South America to use ISASMELT technology (by Xstrata Plc), a modern bath-smelting process for the production of non-ferrous metals. The smelter is being modernized to comply with environmental emissions regulations mandated by the Peruvian government.

When complete, in June 2006, the smelter will produce copper that can be sent to copper refineries for further processing.

Oakleaf appoints new national sales associates

East Hartford, CT— Bob Duff, a former executive and six-year veteran at Waste Management, Inc., and Paul Davi from Allied Waste Industries has joined Oakleaf Waste Management, Inc. as vice presidents, national sales associates. The announcement was made by Oakleaf president and CEO Jim Barnes.

Duff’s primary responsibility will be to sell Oakleaf Waste Management Apartment Waste Services (AWS) and Integrated Process Technologies services to key national accounts having multiple locations and with headquarters in the southern part of the U.S.

Davi will service the southwest region of the U.S.

Casella Waste Systems, Inc. appoints two new independent directors

Rutland, VT— Casella Waste Systems, Inc. announced that Joseph G. Doody, president, North American Delivery of Staples, Inc., and John J. Zillmer, former president, Food and Support Services of Aramark, Inc., have been elected to its board of directors.

Mr. Doody has served as president, Staples North American Delivery since March 2002. As such, he is responsible for all activities associated with delivery to North American customers, including logistics and customer service, and oversees the Staples Business Delivery, Staples Contract, and Quill businesses.

Wastequip, Inc. acquires assets of McClain

Beechwood, OH— Wastequip, Inc., one of the largest waste equipment manufacturers, has acquired certain assets of McClain Industries, Inc.

Ken McClain, the founder, chairman and CEO of McClain Industries, said that the company is closing its three remaining waste equipment facilities. Mr. McClain founded McClain Industries in 1968, stated “I have been in the waste industry for almost 40 years and it is time to slow down. I feel that Wastequip, with its coast-to-coast plants and large inventory and engineering resources, is positioned very well to serve our current customers.” Wastequip expects to service the existing McClain customers from Wastequip’s current facilities.

Target and OfficeMax environmental executives focus on green products

Washington, DC— Pat Perry, group manager of environmental services at Target Corporation, has been elected chair of the Buy Recycled Business Alliance (BRBA) Steering Committee. Joining her as the committee’s vice chair is Susan A. Mills, manager, environmental practices, OfficeMax. The BRBA is a national non-profit consortium dedicated to the advancement of environmentally preferable products emphasizing recycled content.

Environmental insurance program available

New York, NY— Hudson Programs, an operating division of Hudson Insurance Group, announces that their environmental insurance program is now available in 46 states, plus the District of Columbia. Denver-based Freberg Environmental, Inc. (FEI) exclusively underwrites the program, with claims administration for the program handled by Murdoch Claim Management Company of Windsor, Connecticut.

Hudson has established several new specialty programs in well-defined segments over the last twelve months and the addition of this program is an excellent contribution to its portfolio. The early success of this program makes it a valued addition to our portfolio.” The program was officially announced in February and began writing that same month. The program includes coverage for all size of environmental engineers, consultants and contractors, aboveground and underground storage tanks, as well as site pollution coverage for a wide variety of facilities. The program is largely written on a non-admitted basis. Admitted capability is currently limited to New York and New Jersey.

The program features commercial general liability, contractor pollution liability, professional liability and 1st and 3rd party pollution liability with limits up to $10,000,000. The minimum premiums generally start at $3,000, $750 for tank business. Site pollution policy terms are available up to ten years. The program is currently unavailable in the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, and New Hampshire.

Sennebogen appoints Briggs Equipment for service in Florida

Charlotte, NC— Constantino Lannes, president of SENNEBOGEN North America, announced that Briggs Equipment has been appointed to service the company’s customers in Florida. With 15 sales and service locations throughout the southern seaboard states, this appointment consolidates SENNEBOGEN customer service in the region with one of the industry’s most respected distribution organizations.

Founded in 1952, Briggs Equipment made its name as a major supplier of lift truck equipment and also operates one of America’s “Top 25” equipment rental fleets. Recognized as the largest CASE equipment distributor in North America, Briggs’ Construction Equipment Division first took on the Sennebogen line of purpose-built material handling machines in early 2003.

LINPAC appoints new quality assurance manager

Georgetown, KY— Jonathan W. Kitchen, quality assurance manager, has joined LINPAC Materials Handling’s quality assurance and engineering team of Valerie Anderson, Quality Engineer, and Kerri M. Campbell, Quality Engineer.

Kitchen will manage the quality system at both LINPAC’s Georgetown and Bardstown, Kentucky manufacturing locations, overseeing the implementation of changes and new standards, as well as auditing the quality system and driving continuous improvement initiatives. Kitchen is also responsible for ensuring the plants’ compliance with the ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management System. He is based at the company’s Georgetown location.

Auto parts retailer follows home-improvement lead, launches car care clinics

Roanoke, VA— Advance Auto Parts is holding free, monthly car-care clinics at its stores nationwide to teach drivers how to maintain their vehicles and perform minor repairs.

The video clinics, similar to consumer education seminars offered by major home-improvement retailers, occur on the last Saturday of each month and are broadcast nationwide to more than 2,500 stores on the company’s in-store television network.

“Each 20-minute clinic gives drivers the confidence and skills to perform maintenance and repair jobs, and save a lot of money in the process,” said Bryan Gregory, Advance Auto Parts’ consumer education manager. “The video clinics are part of our new consumer education program to show drivers that becoming a ‘do-it-yourselfer’ is easy and improves vehicle safety and reliability.”

Advance Auto Parts is based in Roanoke, Virginia and is the second largest auto parts chain in the nation with more than 2,500 stores in 39 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

NITON opens new sales office in Hong Kong

Billerica, MA— NITON® LLC, manufacturer of portable x-ray fluorescence (XRF) instrumentation, an-nounced the opening of NITON ASIA LIMITED. The new office, located in Hong Kong, will provide local sales and service support to NITON’s distribution network within the Asia and Pacific Rim regions.

Dofasco signs technology agreement with JFE Steel

Hamilton, Ontario— Dofasco Inc. announced the company has signed a Technology Cooperation Agreement for automotive steels with JFE Steel Corporation of Japan. JFE will provide Dofasco with the product and process technology support to produce advanced automotive steels at DJ Galvanizing in Windsor, Ontario. Dofasco and JFE are joint venture partners at DJ Galvanizing.

A prior Technology Cooperation Agreement, signed in 1989 between Dofasco and NKK (a predecessor of JFE), expired earlier this year.

U. S. Steel announces management changes

Pittsburgh, PA— United States Steel Corporation announced several changes in the company’s management structure effective with the retirement of Thomas J. Usher as chief executive officer on September 30, and the election of John P. Surma as president and chief executive officer effective October 1. As previously announced, Usher will remain chairman of the board of directors.

John J. Connelly has been elected senior vice president-strategic planning and business development. According to Surma, “Connelly played an important role in the acquisition of U. S. Steel Kosice and the National Steel assets and will continue to assume increasingly important responsibilities for shaping U. S. Steel’s future strategies.” Connelly will report to Surma.

Thomas W. Sterling was elected senior vice president-human resources and business services. Sterling’s expanded duties will include responsibility for the company’s newly formed business service center which includes information technology and support systems for corporate and operations business processes, and Eugene P. Trudell, vice president-business services, will report to him. Sterling will continue to report to Surma.

J. James Kutka, vice president-commercial, will assume responsibility for all North American flat-rolled products sales and marketing. Kutka will report to John H. Goodish, executive vice president-operations.

In other management changes, Susan M. Kapusta, general manager-community affairs & United States Steel Foundation, will report to Sterling, and W. Nicholas Harper, manager-investor relations, will report to Surma. Harper and Kapusta had previously reported to Usher.

National Recycling Coalition elects board

Washington DC— Members of the National Recycling Coalition (NRC) have elected David Refkin of Time, Inc.; Melinda Uerling of Recycle Ann Arbor; Scott Vitters of The Coca-Cola Company; and Darryl Young of the California Department of Conservation to the NRC board of directors. They also re-elected Lisa Skumatz of Skumatz Economic Research Associates and Susan Kattchee of the Alameda County Waste Management Authority and Recycling Board. The election results were announced in San Francisco at NRCs 23rd Annual Congress & Exposition.

Attachment Technologies becomes Paladin

Cedar Rapids, IA— Attachment Technologies, Inc. (ATI) announced a new company name, Paladin.

The Paladin brands include these well known names: Badger, Bradco, C&P, Genesis, JRB, McMillen, Pengo and The Major. These brands will not be affected by the corporate name change and Paladin’s customers will continue to work directly with the appropriate brand team for their attachment product needs.

The company will continue to support all the brands, but will be introducing standardized policies and innovative processes for new product development, efficient manufacturing, economy of scale, global sourcing and faster order to delivery time.

New Link-Belt authorized distributors named

Lexington, KY— LBX Company, makers of Link-Belt earthmoving, forestry and material handling equipment, is pleased to announce the appointment of two new authorized distributors of Link-Belt excavators, articulated trucks, wheel loaders, and material handlers: R&B Power in Bayamon, Puerto Rico and Woodward Tractor in Cody, Wyoming. These appointments are effective immediately.

R&B Power is now the sole supplier of Link-Belt earthmoving equipment in Puerto Rico. Woodward Tractor is located in Cody, Wyoming, where they will serve the northern and central regions of the state.