[JLee Baer]

The Riverbarge Explorer is sitting in the Port of Port Arthur. I passed it Saturday while going to meet our turn boat. Apparently there was an auction by the U.S. Marshalls held on Aug 8th. They only advertised in a small local paper that no one has ever heard of in Beaumont. Only one person showed up (oddly from from New Orleans). The Ms. Nari was sold for $265,000 and the barges were sold for $263,000 per barge! The total MarAd loan was for around $15mil. MarAd has been offered more than that before but always refused any offers and now this? As an American tax payer this seems a liitle outrageous. All this talk in Washington about creating jobs and also how the govenorment has no money and the current administration lets this happen? Atleast our previuos adminstration stuck to thier guns and tried to get as much as possible so not to have so much of a loss to taxpayers. I was told by an insider at MarAd it was sold to a scraper in NOLA. (really?) Anyone got any ideas? I looked up and saw that the title and documentation has still not been transfers yet.