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The New York

District TimesFall 2002 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York Distric

The New York

District Times

9/11/01

In honor of

lives lost

9-11-01

Joseph J. Seebode

USACE Civilian of the Year

Inside ...

Seebode named ‘Civilian of theYear’Joseph J. Seebode, Chief of

Harbor Programs received theUSACE Civilian of th e Year Awardat an Augu st ceremony h eld in Or-land o, Fla. Lt. Gen. Robert Flow-ers, Chief of Engineers, presented

the award to Seebode.

Seebode received theaward from am ong 35,000 Corps-wid e civilian emp loyees. He wascited for his outstan ding service tothe nation immediately followingthe attack on New York City by ter-rorists September 11, 2001, that re-sulted in the destruction of theWorld Trad e Center.

Seebode, an environmental

engineer, has over 21 years of ex-perience with the Corps. He cur-rent ly di rects the cr i t icalengineering and construction effortto deep en the Port of New York to 50 feet. He is alsosimultaneously managing the development and ex-ecution of a comp rehensive environmenta l restorationstrategy for the New York and New Jersey harbor es-tuary.

Prior to this assignment, Seebode managed theCorps Regulatory Program in the New York Districtfor 13 years.

Following the ter rorist attacks on N ew York City, Seebode was designated the official Corps liai-son to New York City, working with city, state andfederal officials on a nu mber of efforts to exped ite res-cue and recovery operations.

Working very long hours forseveral weeks, he coordinated withvarious agencies on opportunitiewh ere Corps’ expertise was availableto support the rescue and recoverymission. This included top ograph i

and bathymetric survey activitiesstructural engineering support, debris removal , and dredging anddred ged ma terial disposal.

Seebode managed the necessarylogistics and emergency perm its toexpedite dredging in the Hudsonand East Rivers to create the w atedepths necessary to accommodatebarges taking debris and structurasteel from the World Trade Centersite to the Staten Island land fill and

recycling facilities.

Many of the Corps efforts, aswell as those of other agencies involved in rescue and recovery opera

tions was aired in a History Chann el docum entary onthe World Trad e Center tragedy in wh ich Seebode w ainterviewed.

Seebode remains prou d of the USACE responseto the t raged y. “Within a few days of Sept. 11, 2001, wehad well over a hund red USACE experts here in N ewYork working on rescue and recovery operations. Ourpeople showed the true meaning of esprit de corps, andI am proud of our response and our efforts in a timewhen the nation needed us m ost.”

A Day on the Dock

1



U.S. Army Corps of Engineers • New York District2

The New YorkDistrict Times

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,

New York District

Vol. 27, No. 5

FALL 2002SEPT. OCT. NOV.

Commander andDistrict Engineer

Col. John B. O’Dowd

Chief, Public AffairsPeter H. Shugert

[email protected]

Editor, Layout & GraphicDesign

Vince [email protected]

- Authorization: The New YorkDistrict Times is an authorized un-official newspaper of the New York

District. It is published in accor-dance with the provisions of AR-360-1, and is printed by the De-fense Logistics Agency, DocumentAutomation & Production Service,New York, N.Y. Circulation: 1500copies per issue in print and avail-able on the worldwide web @www.nan.usace.army.mil

- Submission: Submit news and di-rect queries to: Editor, Public Af-fairs Office, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District, 26Federal Plaza, New York, NY10278-0090.

- Contents: Views and opinions ex-pressed herein are not necessarilythose of the Department of theArmy or this command. All pho-tos, unless otherwise credited,are official U.S. Armyphotos.

of Engineers® New York District

US Army Corps

On Sept. 11, 2001, America witnessed an act of terror such as wehave n ever seen before. The U.S. Army Corp s of Engineers respond ed im-

med iately to th e d isaster.

It was almost imp ossible to get in or out of dow ntown Manh attan.There was an enorm ous am ount of smoldering d ebris in a relatively sma llgeograph ic location (310 stories of buildings in a 12 square block area).

A fleet of boats, includ ing several from New York District, crossed

the New York Harbor and Hu dson River and transported h und reds of people out of the dangerous Red Zone. The Corps’ boat crews shuttledabout 3,000 stranded citizens, some injured , from Manha ttan. On the re-

turn journeys, the crews transported emergency personnel into Manhat-tan.

A team from th e New England District deployed Sept. 12 to NewYork City to support the federal recovery effort after terrorist attacks inNew York City.

The Corps drew on the full resources of its eight divisions, 41 dis-tricts, labs, and centers to perform its mission. Corps expertise in debrisremoval, structural analysis, urban search andrescue, emergency electricalpower, emergency contracting,emergency repair of wastewater

and solid w aste facilities, water,and ice were made ava ilable.

Corps people worked re-lentlessly with the Federal Re-

spon se Teams to assist New York City. Corps debrisremoval exper t shelped develop de-bris removal plans.

The Corps

also mobilized twodeployable tacticaloperations centersto the New York

Ci ty Fire Depart -ment for commandan d co n t ro l p u r -poses.

Looking back at our worst day andfinest hour

9/11/01 in retrospect

continued on next

page



3The New York District Times • Fall 2002

The fire department’s tactical and communi-cation vehicles were d estroyed wh en the tow ers col-lapsed. Deployed were two Corps Rapid ResponseVehicles which are self-contained mobile command-and -control centers packed w ith commu nications andcompu ter gear. FEMA and the Corps u sed the DTOCs

and RRVs to form a linked commun ications network around the area of destruction in N ew York City.

Operations supplied fireboat and fire truck crews w ith fuel, food, and w ater that enabled r escueand firefighting personnel to rem ain on station.

Over 140 Corps personnel deployed to NewYork City from arou nd the nation to sup port th e re-covery efforts, including support teams for FEMA.

New York District was immediately involvedin work development and execution as many othersdep loyed to the FEMA activation site. The Corps initi-

ated an emergency sup port fun ction cell and interfacedwith FEMA. The cell was par t of the federal respon seplan u nd er Public Works and Engineering.

After the attack, a small army of people andmachines w ere at Groun d Zero. Over 1,000 workers,240 trucks, 70 barges, and 260 pieces of heavy eq uip -ment removed d ebris aroun d the clock.

Dredging was necessary in the Hud son Riverto accomm odate the barges. In less than two d ays, thedredging began.

The 249th Engineer Battalion, Prime Power d e-

ployed 31 per sonnel to New York City. The city’s mainutilities comp any asked th ese soldiers to h elp install50 1,500-kilowatt generator s su pp lied by the city. Theywere u sed to p ower m edical triage facilities and tran -sient h ousing.

On Sept. 17 a team of nine ConEd electrical util-ity personnel augmented by five 249th soldiers in-s tal led two generators in lower Manhat tan andprovided pow er for buildings in the city’s civic centerand financial district.

The c i ty and FEMA used theCorps’ Geographic Information System

maps and information for various pur-poses. GIS experts created computer-gen-erated maps. The images showed buriedfires and dangerous hot spots where theWorld Trad e Center tow ers once stood.

Initially, there was over one hun-dred Corps employees assisting FEMA andthe city. A total of 209 people w ere in-pro-cessed and 97 were out-processed by the DivisionForward Office ad minis-trative staff. As the mis-

sions changed an d people moved in and out of theoperation, these num bers changed d aily.

Corps structures specialists helped the u rbansearch an d rescue teams search for any survivors buried beneath the d ebris. While firemen an d p olice siftedthrough the mou ntain of wreckage, Corps structuresspecialists monitored hazards and performed safetyanalyses to mitigate the hazard s associated with th esearch an d rescue op erations.

One of the m ost challenging m issions to sur-face was removing an estimated 1.2 million tons ofbuilding d ebris from the comp lex. This is one area theexpertise of the Corp s was tapp ed immediately. FEMAand New York City sought ou t the Corp s for its experience in debris man agement gained from years of di-saster recovery missions.

FEMA assigned the debris removal missionOct. 1 to the Corps to opera te the Staten Island land-

fill to dispose of World Trad e Center d ebris. The m ission partners included FEMA and New York CityUnder the mission, the firm of Phillips and JordonInc., managed contractors working at the land fill. Nei-ther the Corps n or P&J man aged the land fill. The De-partment of Sanitation and the New York PoliceDepar tment worked at the land fill raking, sorting, andsearching for evidence.

The debris was mainly structural and n ot thetrees and residential debris from natura l disasters nor-mally faced by the Corps. All structural steel debriswen t to tw o salvage yards for recycling. The rest wastransported to the land fill site.

Debris crews w orked arou nd the clock remov-ing abou t 10,000 tons a day. One asp ect was that thedebris was p art of a crime scene and contained bothevidence and h um an remains.

The 10-month effort at the Staten Island land-fill end ed July 15 as hu nd reds assembled at the closing cerem ony. After th e land fill closed, N ew YorkDistrict continued disassembling some of the facili-ties.

(9/11/01 cont’d from page 2)

Ground Zero

Sept. 2001




The Broadstreet Hollow Stream Project is an Army Corpsproject wh ere restoration is used to preserv e the quality of life andthe natu ral habitat. Today, 9 million New Yorkers are using safe

water as a result. The Broadstreet Hollow Stream is a tributary of the Espous Creek, which is the primary river running into theAshokan Reservoir. It is one of 31 projects being accomp lished un -der the New York City Watershed Environmental Assistance Pro-

gram.

“All of these projects are ongoing except for Broadstreet,which was completed in November 2000,” said Douglas Leite,project manager, New York District. “It may be comp leted, but th esuccessful work accomp lished on the project has left a lasting im-pression on the commu nity that has experienced flooding p roblemsover the years.”

District preserves QOL at Broadstreet Hollow

Bulldozers excavate along the toe of the dam as backfill placement is also

necessary at the shell zone following placement of filler material.

In 1935, the Corps oversaw theconstruction of the Waterbury Dam inVerm ont bu ilt in resonse to a flood ing d i-saster in 1927. Seventy years later, aCorps mu lti-district project d elivery teamis underway making necessary restora-tions to the dam located on the LittleRiver in the Wionooski River Basin in th etown of Waterbu ry.

In Augus t a res to ra t ion

ground breaking took place. “I have thehighest regards for the Corps. The work they do for the country is phenomenal,” said Vermont Sen. JamesJeffords.

“The Corps’ first civil works projects were in Vermont on Lake Champlain,” said Col. John O’Dowd,District Engineer. “Beginning in 1935 and end ing in 1938, the Waterbu ry Dam was built by the Civilian Conser-vation Corps un der th e superv ision of the Corps. The Corps has worked on the d am tw ice since then.”

According to Dou g Leite, project manager, in the late 1990s, the Corp s condu cted tests on the d am. “Partof the dam sits on the old river gorge that may have settled, possibly creating voids in the dam,” said Leite.“Excess seepage in the dam could erode the d am internally. ”

The repairs to the dam began in July and the pro ject is expected to be completed in Fall 2004. RAITO

Inc., a contractor from San Leandro, Calif. will perform three year s of repairs. J.A. McDonald, a Verm ont su bcon-tractor is excavating a d own stream section of the dam so th at filter stone can be p laced arou nd the d ischargepipe that runs through the center of the dam .

Preserving the en vironment h as been a top priority. The mitigation for the d raw dow n of the reservoirwill be a bio-engineered sh oreline stabilization p roject.

Civil works

Douglas Leite, project manager observes theBroadstreet Hollow Stream.

Corps repairs 70-year old dam

UpdateBy JoAnn e Castagna, PPMD




A ribbon cutting ceremony was held in Au gust to officially open th e mu ch-anticipa ted N iagra Falls Air Force ReserveCenter v isiting officer quarters. The project was one of 11 majorconstruction projects for the Air Force Reserve Comm and .

Rep. John LaFalce cut the ceremon ial ribbon in the lobby

of the new 32,000-square foot build ing. Lt. Col. Fagan , Louis-ville District Depu ty Comm and er; Mike Goodm an, PPMD; andDominick Passantino an d Joseph Salvatore of New York Dis-trict also attended the event.

The former visiting officers quarters at Niagara FallsAFRS had significantly deter iorated , forcing visiting personneto use off-base lodging accomm odations. The visiting officersqu arters is used extensively by military officers as well as otherDefense Departm ent p ersonnel in conjun ction w ith their training at Niagara Falls. A two-story, 60-room lodging facility re-places a v isiting officers qu arters stru cture bu ilt in 1952.

District projects transform military communities

The Spicer VillageMilitary Family Housingproject at Picatinny Arse-

nal, N.J., was opened inAugust and m arked a sig-nificant imp rovement forthe quality of life for mili-tary families living in thearea.

The new housesreplace pre-World War IIhou sing un its. Families have already begun m oving intotheir new residences. The hou sing consists of 14 3- bed-room, and 13 4-bedroom homes, and 2 three-bedroom

hand icap homes. The homes are equipp ed with mu ltiplebathroom s, garages, and have mod ern conveniences includ -ing: microwaves, dishw ashers, laun dry rooms, and centralheating and air cond itioning.

“Surrounding the area is a water park that was completed in 2000, and a newly renovated communitycenter and children’s park, all of which w ere designed w ithin the Corps of Engineers and constructed by N ewYork District,” said Kath y Postol, pro ject engineer at th e Picatinny resid ent office.

Postol worked closely with the construction contractor, Integrated Construction Enterprise, Inc., and en-sured the Army received a qu ality project in a timely manner. “Progress meetings were condu cted w ith Corpsthe contractor and the customer to ad dress concerns relating to th e project, resolve them and keep the p roject ontrack,” said Postol.

Elected officials and military dignitaries assembled at

the ribbon cutting ceremony held in the lobby of the

new 32,000-square foot visiting officers quarters.

Upstate lodging facility to accommodate officialgovernment travelers

The new housing units

(below) replace pre-World

War II housing units (left).




Fall FarewellsOdile Accilien, EN

Joann Ellison, PPMD

Gordon Orlow, RE

Michael Rogalski, PPMD

Douglas Sommer, PPMD

Yvonne Spraggins, PPMD

George Bucuta, PPMD

James Cronin, OP

Anthony delVecchio, PPMD

Heather Durr, CO

Caryl Forte, PPMD

Maj. Kris Urbauer, EOC

Cpt. Keith Taylor, CT

Pablo Colon-Garay, CO

Donald hale, CO

Scott Helmer, CT

Wanda Santos, CT

David Seng, OP

Ella Snell, Chief of Contracting

passed the certified associate

contracts managers exam.

Eighty-one candidates out of127

passed the exam.

Milestones

Peter Shugert, Chief, PA was

awarded the Army Achievement

Medal for Civilian Service for his

contributions as a member of the

NAD PA team for the Delaware

River deepening project.

Gary Kehoe, Chief of

Security at NAD received

the USACE Superior

Security Manager of the

Year Award, 2002.

Joseph Forcina, PPMD

received a certificate for

completion of the Army

Leadership Development

Program

Cpt. Taylor added

another milestone to

his career by passing

the certified associate

contracts managers

(CACM) exam prior to

his transfer from New

York District.

Awards, accolades, announcements




Corps biologist Heidi Firstencel of the Albany Field Office was

an active participant in water ecology workshop recently held

in upstate N.Y. for young school children.Students had the opportunity to visit wetlands and streams in

upstate New York during the session. The session was spon-

sored by the Heldeberg workshop, a not-for-profit organiza-

tion chartered by the Board of Regents of the University of the

State of New York at Albany.

“Activities included identifying vertebrate and invertebrate in-

habitants, and using the findings to indicate water quality,” said

Firstencel. “The students also learned that the Corps has an

important role in protecting the nation’s water resources.”

Corps biologists and studentsmeet with a common interest

Environmentalists meet with the Corps to observe projects

New York District recently hosteda grou p of local environmentalists aboardthe Corps vessel Hocking w ho w ere inter-ested in observing ongoing projects in NewYork Harbor. Col. John O’Dowd, District

Engineer and Joseph Seebode, Chief of Harbor Programs add ressed qu estionswhile underw ay in the H arbor.

District environmental p rogramsare associated with existing projects, newprojects, ad ministration of environm entalregulations, and sup port to other agen cies.

The number and scope of environmen-

tal programs and projects performed

by the Corps are many.

Being an action-oriented organization,

New York District has had its share of

projects which have been controversial

because of their environmental conse-

quences. At the same time, when ac-

tion is needed in order to protect or

restore the environment, Congress and

other Federal agencies have looked to

the Corps to get the job done.

Photo:CaleighO’Brien

Photos:Pet

erShugert




If you take a d rive 410 miles north from New

York City, and go west from Plattsbu rg, you w ill reachthe “elbow” on the Canad ian border, wh ere the beau-tiful St. Law rence River ru ns an d wh ere sits one of theEnvironmental Protection Agency’s critical environ-mental clean up projects - the Reynolds MetalsSup erfun d Site in Massena , N.Y.

The site is the Reynolds Facility tha t used to beowned by the Reynolds Aluminum Wrap Co., and isnow operated by Alcoa Aluminu m. But

it is still called the “Reynolds” p lant. Thefacility has been an a luminu m fabricat-ing plant since 1958. During the 1980sthe EPA discovered th at various typesof indu strial waste, including polychlo-r inated biphenyls , were being dis-charged into the St. Lawrence River.

The r iver bed needed to bedredged and capped , o therwise i twould p ose an environmental and p ub-lic health risk to surroun ding bu sinesses

and communities, including the St.Regis Mohawk Tribe Reservation, justone mile down the St. Lawren ce River.

The Mohawk commu nity, which

is politically influen tial in the area, is in-volved in this project and is workingclosely with the project team that in-cludes EPA Region II; New York State; Alcoa(Reynold s); several U.S. Arm y Corp s of Engineer d is-tricts including New York, Kansas City, Buffalo, andDetroit; and TAMS Consultan ts.

The project is a Kansas City District missionbecause th e d istrict su pp orts all of the EPA Region II’senvironmental cleanup efforts. They were in charge of

staffing the p roject and called on several districts andarea offices for su itable cand idates.

Mark Kucera, a 20-year civil engineer with NewYork District, was selected from th e list of cand idates.

“Since this was a Superfund project under EPA’s au-thority and involved dred ging of hazard ous material,I was looking for someone with both hazard ous, toxic,

and rad ioactive waste (HTRW), and dred ging experi-ence,” said Donald Braun, project engineer andKucera’s supervisor. “I had a couple of engineers wh ofit the bill, but since Mark had extensive Superfundexperience and was familiar with an d well respectedby the EPA as well as Kansas City District, I chose

him.”

The Corps’ responsibility for the Superfundproject was to provid e 24-hour ov ersight of the clean-up operation performed by contractors hired by the

Reynolds Metals Corporation.

“The EPA wanted a full-time presence on thefederal level. I was the senior full-time federal gov-ernm ent rep resentative on site,” said Kucera. “Withthe Corps’ experience involving dredging, environ-

mental work, and construction man agement, we werean easy choice. My role was to verify the remed iationwork w as being performed in comp liance with the ap-proved work p lans, and to keep coordination with all

the various agencies und er control.”

Kucera said the project had its challenges, butnothing the team couldn’t hand le. “Environmentalwork frequen tly yields challenges in th at you ’re notalways sure wh at is there until you literally d ig into

it,” said Kucera. “The short construction season innorthern New York comp licated things consideringthe extensive scope of the project. Any problems wehad to overcome became a group effort.”

By JoAnn e Castagna, PPMD

Dredges clean upSuperfund site

Three dredges working within three-quarters of a mile of each other helpedclean up the Reynolds Metals Superfund site.

(continued on next page)

Photo:MarkKucera




superfund sit e (cont’d from previous page)

Public health concerns were another chal-lenge for the p roject team . They held frequent pu blicavailability sessions to answer comm un ity questions.

The St. Regis Mohaw k Tribe Reservation’s Environ-mental Staff attended th e meetings and w ere always

present on-site. Their main concerns were contami-nation flowing d own river into their property, the re-lease of waterborne an d airborne contamination, andthe safe removal of dredged material.

Kucera’s dedication to the project and longhours of work earned him Kansas City District’sHeartland Award. “H e received this award du e tohis exemplary performance in the field, including

outstanding teamwork skills, and his enduranceaway from home,” said Josephine Newton-Lund,project manager in Kansas City District.

The Heartland Award honors outstanding ac-

complishments by p ersonnel outside of the d istrict.Col. Robert Morris, a former Kansas City District En-gineer, conceived the award . Before his tenu re in 1997,there was no formal means to recognize outstand ingachievements by ind ividu als outside of the d istrict,such as work performed by other Corps districts,

military, and contractual personnel.

“I enjoyed the comp lexity of the p roject,”

Kucera said. “We had what was called the largestdred ging fleet on the Great Lakes/ St. Lawren ce Seaway, three d redges w ithin th ree-quar ters of a mile oeach other. All of the d redge spoil had to be transferredto land for stabilization and disposal. Add in all the

environmental aspects and the various governmentsinvolved, it became more interesting than a typicaldredging project. On the lighter side, it’s a beautifulpart of N ew York State.”

Reynolds (Alcoa) has spent about $47 millionto clean u p th e site. The first ph ase was comp leted inearly N ovember 2001. The construction is ongoing .

“Twenty-four h our oversight w as achieved su ccessfully,” said New ton-Lund . “The EPA Region II washap py w ith our field oversight crew, which was led by

Kucera and consisted of personnel from New YorkBuffalo, Detroit, and Kansas City d istricts, and TAMSConsultants, Inc. The Corps oversight crew providedthe EPA remedial project manager with on-site infor-

mation daily. They performed this in an exemplarymanner. EPA also depended on the oversight crew’soutstand ing technical skills.”

Kucera stresses that this project was a team ef-fort. “We had a great team of players,” he said. “I’dlike to think I made a contribution to the team effort.”

Caven Point crews recognized for 9/11 support

(l-r) Col. O’Dowd congratulates Randall Hintz, of the District’s

Emergency Operations and John Hartmann, Chief of Opera-

tions during an awards presentation held at Caven Point, N.J.

New York’s Caven Point office was the spotfor a recent award s presentation. Members of the boatcrews were presented plaques and pins for their sup-port d uring and after the attacks on New York City.“For their selfless efforts throughout the rescue and

recovery op erations du ring the September 11th disas-ters,” read the citations.

Col. John O’Dowd, District Engineer pre-sented the award s to the crews of Hayward, Gelberman,

Driftmaster an d Hocking crews and supp ort staff whowere on the scene from the beginning and whoworked 24-hour d ays operating their vessels from andto lower Manhat tan to t ransport thousands of strand ed citizens and later to haul away WTC debris.

“Everywhere I travel I always hear positivestatements abou t the boat crews here on the New York Harbor. You shou ld be p roud ,” said O ’Dowd .




ServiceAwards

ServiceAwards

Rodney Abrams, EN

Gezahegne Assegid, ENBennett Baker, EN

Nancy Brighton, PLMark Burlas, PLJohn Canby, CO

Ricardo Collazo, OPJohn Connell, OP

Anthony Ciorra, PPMDChristine Delorier, OP

Michael DeBenedictis, COStephen DiBari, EN

Barbara Dindl, RE

Janet Falo, PPMDDaniel Florio, OP

Sharoyah Bala, SE

Thomas Battaglia, COJovencio Cariaga, OP

Thomas Enroth, PPMDHeidi Firstencel, OP

Mark Forte, OPRichard Gajdek, PPMD

Dale Gamache, RE

Donald Harris, OCRandall Hintz, OP

Jeffrey Frye, PPMD

Robert Gerrits, ENBrian Jackson, CO

Daniel Karlok, OPNeal Kolb, COMark Kucera, CO

Costas Lymberis, COMichael Marcello, OP

Patrick Nejand, COBrian Orzel, OP

Howard Ruben, PLCraig Spitz, OPDennis Swain, OP

Christina Rasmussen, ENHerman Wine, PPMD

15 Years

10 Years

Constantine Karathanasis, CO

Mary Links, PLLoretta Parris, CT

Alisa Pittman, REDiane Rahoy, EN

Judith Rugg, PLMonique Wiggins, RMVanessa Woolford, RE

Thomas Wyche, OP

Jerry Seiff, senior rea lity specialist retired in October a fter a rem arkable 61

years, 9 month s, 21 days of governmen t service. Seiff was a senior reality special-

ist who w orked in Real Estate for 51 years.

Seif was awarded the Distingu ished Service Award for his many years of

faithful service.

Seiff is a mem ber of a number of comm ittees for Veteran s. He entered the

Army and served in World War II. Arriving at the Corp s in 1951, he started as a

GS-6 in the Real Estate Division’s Plann ing an d Contro l Bran ch. Seiff negotiated

and executed complex projects through out the northeast. He rose through th e

ranks to become a team leader of outgrants.

He is responsible for achievements such a s an easement to N ew York City

in the 1960s for the constru ction of the Verazzano Bridge using 63 acres at Fort H amilton. Seiff was a lso respon-sible for disposing and transferring prop erty to p rivate and local own ership includ ing missile sites in N ew York,

and var ious sites in New Jersey. Seiff prep ared a qu itclaim deed an d obtained approval for tran sferring 1,412.42

acres of land at Stewart Air Force Base to New York State in the 1970s wh ich resulted in the construction of

Stewart International Airport.

In the 1990s, Seiff prepared and obtained approval for the Hotel Thayer lease at the USMA West Point

betw een the U.S. Arm y Morale, Welfare, and Recreation Fund and Hu dson River Partners, L.P. This prov ided

mu ch-needed hotel accomm odations of the highest order for our national military academy. Seiff also com-

pleted d eed p ackages allowing the USARC p rogram to m eet its sched ule following the Sept. 11 terrorist attack

on New York City.

Seiff continues to be a volunteer as a retired annu itant with real estate wh ere he assists in mentoring andcoaching ind ividu als in New York District.

Realty specialist retires following 61-year career

Jerome SeiffPhoto:Vince

Elias




Residents set sail to observe dredging operations

Photos:PeterShugert

Col. John O’Dowd, District Engineer explains dredging op-

erations to two Bayonne residents on Brady’s Dock.

Joseph Seebode, Chief of Harbor Programs met with sev-

eral residents who attended the community relations ses-

sion on Brady’s Dock. Residents learned about the

importance of the Kill van Kull dredging operations from

Corps and Port Authority representatives.

New York District hosted a “Day on the Dock”

for Bayonne, N.J. residents during Veteran’s Dayweekend. The d ay was organized to provide mem -bers of the comm un ity an opportu nity to meet with

representatives of various port-related activities anddiscuss details of the deepening project in the Killvan Kull, including its importance to the local com-mu nity and region as a w hole.

The Kill van Kull is a vital waterw ay that sepa-rates New York an d New Jersey and is a crucial ar-tery necessary to accommodate large container ships.

“The ‘Day on th e Dock’ may not m ake things

shake any less, it may not make any less noise, but atleast you’ll understand the project ,” Col. JohnO’Dowd, District Engineer said as he addressed acrowd of residents.

The event w as held on Brad y’s Dock, not farfrom wh ere two d rill boats are currently w orking tocomplete contract area 5 (to date, five of nine con-

tracts are completed) to deepen the KVK to 45 feet.Over 50 residents, ranging in ages 10 to 78, gatheredin the tent to view exhibits that included port pho-tos, rock samples, geophon es and seismograp hs.

“As a residen t, I felt the even t was extremelyvaluable in that it showed the whole picture,” saidTed Connolly, First Ward council member and

Bayonne resident. “It had everyone in on e p lace fromdred ging and blasting contractors to management andworkers. It provided m e the opportu nity to meet witheveryone in person and see the difficulties and learnabout the p rocedu res in regard to the deepening efforts,”he said.

“It was also enlightening in that I saw some othe residents that hav e been going through this [dr illing and blasting] for 10 years, feel better abou t the progression of communication between the Army Corps

of Engineers and the blasting companies that are involved ,” said Connolly.

Residents also received a tour of the nation’third largest container port, courtesy of two Army

Corp s’ vessels, the Hocking and the Hayward . Residen tsailed along the KVK and up into New ark Bay, receiving an up-close look at the drill boats and dredge inaction and had their questions answered by the subjecma tter exper ts in charge of the KVK project.

The deepening project is part of an overall effort to create a safe and efficient tran sporta tion netw orkfor large vessels calling on the Por t of New York an dNew Jersey. The existing 40-foot chann el does n ot permit access by many of today’s container sh ips.

Participants in the Day on the Dock included

the Por t Auth ority of New York an d N ew Jersey, U.SCoast Guard, Contract Drilling and Blasting, BeanStuyvesant, Great Lakes Dredge and Dock, New YorkShipping Association, and Nation’s Port.

By Carolyn Vad ino




New York District evaluates seawall at

historic national monument

Civil WorksEllis Island:

~ occupies 27 acres in Upper New York Bay, and islocated southwest of Manhattan.

~ has been Government-controlled since 1808.

~ was the site of an arsenal and a fort.

~ served from 1892 to 1954 as the primary immigrationstation for the United States.

~ is estimated that 40 percent of all Americans had anancestor arrive at Ellis Island.

New York District signed an interagency agree-ment with th e National Park Service in September toperform design, environmental analysis, and historicpreservation w ork associated with the rehabilitationof the historic Ellis Island seawall in New York Har-

bor.

Engineers o f New York Districtare evaluating needed repairs on theseawall surround ing the island that w as

used during its peak years -- 1892 to1924 to welcome thousands of immi-grants a day. Over 100 million Ameri-cans can trace their ancestry in theUnited States to a man , woman or childwhose name passed from a steamship

manifest sheet to an inspector’s recordat Ellis Island .

As part of the seawall evalua-tion, which began in September, the

Corps is cond ucting a subsur face examination with theassistance of a drill crew from the its Baltimore Dis-trict.

“This project provides us with a r are opp ortu-nity to perform a m ajor role in p rotecting one of themost important landmarks in our nation’s history,”said Anthony Ciorra, project manager. “The projectteam is fully cognizant of the cultu ral and historic sig-nificance of Ellis Island, which is added motivationfor delivering a qu ality prod uct to our customer.”

The seaw all is a significant featu re of the Ellis

Island N ational Monument and many segments rep-

resent original constru ction d ating to the 19th and 20thcentur ies. A subsu rface investigation willinclud e digging test pits andconducting soil borings.

A s d e -tailed in histori-cal pictures anddocuments, thevast majority of

Ellis Island is ei-

ther p laced fill material or placed dred ged m aterial.

The Corps plans on condu cting ad ditional fieldinvestigations at the site to includ e a geophysical sur-vey of the sidewalk and p ublic areas at the easternmostend of what is referred to as Island On e.

Any p roposed repairs will attempt to m aintainthe historic nature of the seawall and provide strengthand stability to ensure the continued p reservation ofEllis Island.

In 1965 Ellis Island was included as part ofStatue of Liberty National Monument. Ellis Island’s

main bu ilding w as restored to its former grand eur inSeptem ber 1990.

Historic Ellis Island national monument is located in the New York Harbor.




District employees walk for the cure

By Ken Wells, Public Affairs

Glad to be making strides to eliminate breast cancer. District

participants (l-r) Lindsay Glover, Ellen Simon, Vikki Gross, Yadi

Rivera-Villegas, Karen Hicks, Johnny Martinez, Wedad YoussefMonique Wiggins and Juliette Baker.

On Sunday Oct. 20, a number of employeesfrom N ew York District took par t in an importan tevent in sup port of breast cancer aw areness, ”Mak-ing Strides Against Breast Cancer,” in Central Park in New York City. The event is a non-comp etitive 5-mile walk d esigned to raise awareness, foster cama-rad erie, and generate fund s for breast cancer research,services, and adv ocacy.

Vikki Gross of EEO, in conjunction withDonna Vaugh an and Ellen Simon, w ere responsiblefor coordinating District employee involvement. This

year’s District participants, family, and friends in-clud ed Gross, her hu sband, Burn ard, and son Devyn;Vaughan and family mem bers, Beverly, Mart ina, andTamiko Vaughan, Ellen Collins, Patricia Kenner andNatalie Josep h; Simon; Yad i Rivera-Villegas; KarenHicks; Johnny Martinez and his wife Norm a; WedadYoussef; Monique Wiggins; Juliette Baker, and Lind-say Glover.

Ellen Simon is involved in variou s breast can-cer awareness causes. “You can wa lk, volunteer, be-come a sponsor or make a donation,” said Simon.“There are man y w ays to fight th is disease.”

The walk is sponsored in p art by the Ameri-can Cancer Society, which has dedicated more than$2 billion to tra ilblazing scientific research, published

breast health guidelines that help ind ividu als protectthemselves, and localized the BRCA1 gene for inher-ited su sceptibility to breast cancer.

Barbara Delinsky, a New York Times best sell-ing auth or and au thor of “Up lift: Secrets from the Sisterhood of Breast Cancer Survivors” supplied teamT-shirts that bore the book’s title. “Up lift” containspractical tips and up beat anecdotes for those with breascancer, told by breast cancer survivors of all ages that

not only comfort those und ergoing treatment, but ed u-cate their family and friends as w ell. Delinsky d onatesall of her p rofits from “Up lift” to furth er breast cancerresearch.

New York State re-cently joined 47 otherstates by making iden-tify theft a crime. Und er

the law, New York w ill treat ID theft as a felony. The

law criminalizes identity theft as w ell as the law fulpossession of personal ID information to commit

fraud and other criminal acts. People in N ew Jerseyhave the sam e rights un der existing law.

If you’ve been a victim of iden tity theft, file acomplaint with the Federal Trade Commission bycontacting th e FTC’s Identity Theft Hotline: toll-free1-877-IDTHEFT (438-4338); TDD: 202-326-2502; bymail: Identity Theft Clearinghouse, Federal TradeCommission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenu e, NW, Wash-ington, DC 20580

If someone has stolen you r identity, the FTC recomm end s you take the following action imm ediatelyComplete a federa l ID theft affidav it available at (877

382-4357; Contact the frau d d epartm ents of each of thethree major credit bureaus. Inform them to flag yourfile with a fraud alert including a statement that credi

tors should get your permission before opening newaccoun ts in your nam e. Request copies of your creditreports. Credit bureaus must give you a free copy ofyour report if it is inaccurate because of fraud. Thethree major credit bureaus: Equifax 800.525.6285Experian 888.EXPERIAN, and Trans Union (800) 680-

7289.

Contact the secur ity departments at financial in-stitutions and businesses where accounts have beenfraud ently opened. File a local police report w here theidentity theft took place.

Security

OfficeNews




District launches pilot mentoring programBy Vince Elias

New York District launchedanother ambitious pilot program or-

chestrated by Human Resources. InAugust, mentors and mentees inter-acted in the conference room at abrun ch kick off for the pilot program.

The District’s mentoring pro-gram is the latest of many successfulprograms targeted at Corps employ-ees new to th e District.

Sand ra Gaffney of the office of Counsel and Debra Smith of HumanResources presided at the kick off.Gaffney was instrum ental from th e program ’s incep-tion to its imp lementation d uring th e initial planningph ase of the program wh ich began as a d istrict widementoring ‘needs and w ishes’ survey condu cted byan OPLAN initiative sub-team in 1999.

“I’m delighted to see this program come tofruition. One of the reasons th at I am so enthu siasticabout the program is that it was shaped by the p eopleit serves, the New York District employees,” saidGaffney.

Lt. Col. Douglas Sarver, Deputy Comm and ermade the welcoming remarks and Debra Smith of

Human Resources spoke about the specifics of theprogram.

“The mentoring initiative is an extension of the District’s highly successful summer hire programthat the District conducts through the government-wide Workforce Recruitment Program for CollegeStud ents,” said Smith. Smith remind ed everyonethat the program also helps mentors. Smith calledthe program “win-win” for the Corps and for per-sons seeking emp loyment.

“We wan t to increase the num ber of mentors

and men tees within our work force,” she explained .

Mentor and mentee Debra Murray(right) of Real Estatte and MarilynRobinson of Resource Managementare two active participants in thementoring program.

“We have invested in their career de-velopment and they want significantand successful careers.”

Jeffery Kumor, mentee, joined the p rogram to be able to seethe big picture through someoneelse’s eyes. “Furnish me some guid-ance about th e wh ole ball of wax, soto speak,” he said.

“I joined the program in or-der to help guide new staff in theircareer p ath u sing my experiences asa m odel, said Jodi McDonald, men-tor.

“The mentoring p rogram will benefit the dis-trict by providing the staff with an opportunity tolearn more about the Corps and about themselves,and to seek information and resources. The Districtwill also benefit by recru iting and reta ining emp loy-ees who strive to improve themselves, and to dis-cover where th ey ideally fit within the organization,said McDonald. “I’ve shared the d istrict m entoringprogram information with people from across theCorps who w ant to begin a m entoring program intheir respective districts -- after all, the Corps is alearning organization,” she said.

“The pilot mentoring program is slated torun one year,” added Smith. The relationshipsformed between mentors and their menteers willshape th emselves to be as simp le or as comp lex aspar ticipants desire.

Gaffney reminded employees that the per-man ent program will be imp lemented after reviewof the pilot program by senior man agement.

Employees interested in participating as amentor or mentee should contact Debra Smith in HRdirectly or subm it an e-mail request to the MentorProgram mailbox at Mentor, CENAN 02.

Photo:Vince

Elias

Guitarist Junior Colon and guest speaker Professor Otilio Diaz

from the Puerto Rican Cultural Heritage House were participants

of New York District’s Hispanic Heritage Month program ar-

ranged by EEO. Colon performed a variety of musical numbers

and Diaz spoke about the contributions by Hispanic Americans

from the Caribbean nations.

Hispanic Heritage Month guests makeprogram numero uno




AnnouncementsAnnouncements

New union officials elected

Maxine Anderson

Results from the union election conducted inSeptember for the local 98 IFPTE

Officers elected for 2002 – 2004:

MAXINE ANDERSON – PRESIDENT

VANESSA DAVIS – VICE PRESIDENT

DENISE BUTTS – TREASURER

LINDA BUSSEY – SECRETARY

FRANK TANGORA – FIRST TRUSTEE

Corps employees nationwide open their hearts forNew York firefighter fund

TRUSTEES

ELAINE EUBANKS

YADIRA RIVERA-VILLEGAS

JULIETTE BAKER

STANLEY NUREMBURG

ELECTION COMMITTEE

ROBERT HASS

GRACE COLLINS

STEVE YANDRICH

To date, the FDNY Firefighter Michael Kiefer Fund has raised over $40,000. Michael Kiefer, son of BudKiefer, an employee of New York District is honored for the fund that was started in January 2002.Michael Kiefer a firefigter with the New York City Fire Department lost his life while responding with hisunit to the attacks at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

The funds will be used to purchase equipment for the New York Hospital-Cornell Burn Center.

The Kiefer family and New York District coordinators Lou Benard and Jenine Gallo convey their thanks and apprecia-tion to all Corps employees inside and outside of New York District who have contributed to the fund.

Col. (P) Merdith W. B. (Bo) Temple took command of North Atlantic Division on Nov. 252002. He relieved Brig. Gen. M. Stephen Rhoades who retired. His previous assignment wascommander of the Corps’ Transatlantic Programs Center in Winchester, Va.

Col. (P) Temple, a Virginia native, was commissioned in the Engineer Branch in 1975. Heearned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the Virginia Military Institute and a master’sdegree in civil engineering from Texas A&M University. He is also a graduate of the U.S. ArmyCommand and General Staff College and the U.S. Army War College, and he is a registeredprofessional engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Col. (P) Temple has held numerous command and staff positions in the United States and overseas. Before hisassignment to the Transatlantic Programs Center in 2001, he was the assistant chief of staff, Operations (G3), XVIII AirborneCorps at Fort Bragg, N.C. He has been stationed at Fort Bragg for multiple assignments: the 548th Engineer Battalion(Combat Heavy), 20th Engineer Brigade (Combat) (Airborne Corps); the 307th Engineer Battalion, 82d Airborne Division; ascommander, 307th Engineer Battalion and as commander, 20th Engineer Brigade (Combat) (Airborne Corps). He has served

with the U.S. Army Personnel Command Center in Virginia and as a Reserve Component adviser with the Readiness Groupin Colorado.

He has served overseas with the 44th Engineer Battalion, Korea; U.S. Army Europe & 7th Army, Germany; 307thEngineer Battalion in Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War; and with NATO Headquarters in Turkey.

His decorations and awards include the Legion of Merit (2 oak leaf clusters), the Bronze Star Medal, DefenseMeritorious Service Medal, the Army Meritorious Service Medal (6 oak leaf clusters), Joint Service Commendation Medal,the Army Commendation Medal (4 oak leaf clusters), the Army Superior Unit Award, and the Master Parachutist Badge.

Col. (P) Temple takes command of NAD

Col. (P) Merdith W.B. (Bo) Temple

President of the local 98 IFPTE




CENAN-PA

Jacob K. Javits BuildingNew York, NY 10278-0090

FIRST CLASS MAILAddress Correction Requested

Safety record upheld at landfill operations. Over 1.7 million people-hours at the Staten Island landfill WTCoperation and not a single fatality and only one serious injury.

The Safety Office staff provided the leadership of the inter-agency team that ensured that the work wouldbe accomplished safely.

Safety line

John Sasson, Area Engineer, Picatinny shakes hands

with New Jersey Governor John McGreevey. Gamal

Award, Tommy Thompson and Sasson recently metwith the Governor in Sea Bright, N.J. The Corps on-

site project engineers are involved with the Corps’

crucial Sea Bright beach renourishment project.

New York District paid tribute toBrig. Gen. M. Stephen Rhoades,Commander, North Atlantic Divi-sion, at a farewell salute by Corpsvessels on Nov. 19, one week prior to his retirement. Brig.Gen. Rhoades commanded North Atlantic Division for thepast three years.

Three Corps vessels along with a New York CityFire Department fireboat and New York City police depart-ment boat paid homage to Brig. Gen. Rhoades and his wife,

Vivian.Brig. Gen. Rhoades returned the salute with a fond

farewell wave from the shores of Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn,as the vessels blasted their horns and the fireboat pumped

jets of water into the air in honor of his superb leadershipwhile commanding North Atlantic Division.

District salutes NAD Commander

Photos:PeterShugert

us army: fall02

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