Alabama

The Board of Directors of the National Commission for Directors of the National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators were recently elected to serve during 2009.

From the South Central region, J. Chris Ryan, Boh Bros. Construction, New Orleans, was elected to the position of secretary/treasurer. Ryan, who has been a member of the board since 2003, was also elected to a new three-year term on the board.

Elected to president for a one-year term is John Kennedy, Manitowoc Crane Group.

Prior to being elected president in 2005, Kennedy served two terms as secretary/treasurer.

Elected to a one-year term as vice president is Garry M. Higdem, CH2M Hill, Englewood, Colo. Higdem has been a member of the board since 1999 and has served as vice president since 2002.

Ronald Schad, Essex Crane Rental, Buffalo Grove, Ill., continues as immediate past president. Schad served the board as president from 2002-2004. Kerry Hulse, Deep South Crane & Rigging, Houston, continues to serve the board in the capacity of chairman, commissioners.

Newly elected to the board for a three-year term is Thom Sicklesteel, Sicklesteel Cranes, Mount Vernon, Wash. Elected for an additional three-year term is Dale Daul, McGough Construction, St. Paul, Minn.

Other members of the board include Stephen Brown, International Union of Operating Engineers, and Robert Steiner, Barcelona Equipment, Clearwater, Fla.

Arkansas

The Board of Directors of Cromwell Architects Engineers recently announced the election of three new officers at its annual meeting in March: Charles J. Penix, chairman and chief executive officer; Gregory B. Cockmon, president; and Daniel K. Fowler, chief operating officer.

Cromwell Architects Engineers is a multi-disciplinary firm recognized for design excellence, innovation and service. In continuous practice since its founding in 1885, Cromwell provides a wide range of services including master planning, programming, design, engineering, interior design and construction phase services.

Louisiana

Peter Gale

Louisiana Workers’ Compensation Corp. has hired Peter Gale as senior vice president of insurance services, a newly created position.

Gale brings 23 years of commercial insurance experience with such companies as AIG, “A” (Excellent) rating from A.M. Best and, for the seventh consecutive year, was named one of the top 50 property and casualty insurance companies in the nation—out of more than 3,000—by Ward Group, the leading authority on insurance industry benchmarking.

Mississippi

Dale and Associates Architects of Jackson, Miss., recently announced that Stephanie Boyles and Ross Barkley have received their certification for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for New Construction.

Stephanie Boyles

Boyles received her bachelor’s degree in architecture from Louisiana Tech University in 2005. She is an intern architect for the firm in their Biloxi office and is an allied member of the American Institute of Architects.

Barkley received his bachelor’s degree in architecture from Mississippi State University in 2007 and his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Mississippi in 2003.

He is an intern architect for the firm in its Jackson location and is an allied member of the American Institute of Architects.

Ryan McDaniel, employee of SSR Ellers in Hernando, Miss., an engineering design and facility consulting firm, recently earned his professional engineering license in Mississippi.

Ross Barkley

McDaniel, a structural design engineer and project manager, has been with SSR since 2005. In addition to his new license in Mississippi, he is also a registered professional engineer in Tennessee and Louisiana.

McDaniel earned his bachelor’s in engineering from the University of Tennessee at Martin and a master’s in civil engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla.

He is an active member of the West Tennessee Structural Engineers Association and Society of American Military Engineers, and is also a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Tennessee Society of Professional Engineers and the American Institute of Steel Construction.

Tennessee

Students at Halls High School in Lauderdale County gathered recently for a special assembly to congratulate 18 Halls High students for winning top prize in the Tennessee Department of Transportation’ s first ever Project Orange Video Contest.

The teens’ 25-second winning video, entitled “Halls High Safety Video: Between the Barrels Video Contest,” was chosen from among 76 video entries by students across the state. The video shows the tragedy that can unfold when a group of teenagers makes a bad decision while traveling through a work zone.

TDOT worked with the principal of Halls High to organize a surprise assembly in the gymnasium of the school on April 6 to announce the winning video and honor the students involved in the project.

The students were also invited to travel to Memphis to re-record the audio from the PSA in a professional studio last week. WREG in Memphis partnered with TDOT on the Project Orange video contest and gave the students a tour of their studios before recording the final audio for the public service announcement.

Representatives from the Tennessee Road Builders Association presented $2,500 in gift cards to Best Buy to the winning teens.

Representatives from Bridgestone were also on hand to award certificates for five sets of Bridgestone tires to the winning group. Bridgestone reps also encouraged the teens to enter their video in the company’s national teen safety video contest.

The mission of the “Between the Barrels” program is to increase teen-age awareness of the importance of safety on the roadways, particularly in work zones.

Region

T.Y. Lin International, a globally recognized full-service infrastructure consulting firm, recently announced that James A. Moreno has been named senior vice president and director of the South Region.

James A. Moreno

Moreno brings to TYLI more than 35 years of experience that includes successfully managing large-scale transportation and planning projects as well as building a consultant practice for a large multi-national consultant firm in Florida.

Based in Tampa, Moreno will be responsible for directing the business activities for TYLI’s South Region – including Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

Moreno previously worked for Parsons Brinkerhoff, where he helped to establish PB’s Tampa office. For more than 16 years, he managed both the office and various projects including preliminary engineering studies, environmental assessments, environmental impact statements and alternative analyses for highway, bridge and transit projects.

His notable projects include the Fort Lauderdale Airport/Seaport Connector Major Investment Study, the Florida Interstate-4 Multimodal Master Plan, and the Florida Northern Extension of the Miami Metromover. Prior to joining PB, Moreno worked for nine years for the Metro-Dade County Transportation Administration (MDTA), and served as the project manager for the initial stage of the Metromover system.

Moreno is a professional engineer in Florida and New York, and he holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the Florida Institute of Consultant Engineers (FICE). Presently, Moreno is the co-chair of the FICE/FDOT Liaison Committee.