WC Monitor
2/27/2015
IN MEMORIAM
Larry Kelly, manager of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge office, passed away late this week following a two-year battle with cancer. He was 58 years old. Kelly had more than 30 years of federal service and had worked at DOE’s Oak Ridge operations since 1990. He was named Manager of the DOE Oak Ridge Office in 2012. “Words cannot describe the sadness we feel with the passing of our manager, Larry Kelly. The loss of our leader is heavy on our heart, but it is the loss of a friend that leaves an emptiness that will be difficult to endure,” Deputy Manager Kevin Hall in a statement.
IN DOE
The Department of Energy this week began a public search to fill the new position of Manager of the DOE Office of Environmental Management Los Alamos Office. The new office is part of DOE’s plan to shift management of the legacy cleanup work at Los Alamos to EM from the National Nuclear Security Administration. “The vacancy announcement was posted early in this transition period to help expedite the recruitment and selection of a highly qualified permanent manager to oversee the EM cleanup work at Los Alamos. There are many more steps in the transition and we look forward to working with you to make it successful,” NNSA Los Alamos Field Office Manager Kim Davis Lebak said in a message this week to employees. The job posting will be open until March 16.
The Department of Energy plans to issue a draft Request for Proposals in the next week for a new contract to help support the performance of probabilistic analysis at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state. Work to be performed under the contract, according to a notice issued this week, will include: “(1) perform sensitivity analyses to provide near-term direction to site data collection activities, (2) transition existing components of a deterministic performance assessment (PA) to a probabilistic modeling platform to identify changes necessary in the model structure, input parameter distribution, the need for additional data, or the need for different modeling approaches, (3) prepare a long term probabilistic PA to support decision making and meet requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), and (4) prepare chapters and appendices for the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) as required by the SEIS Contractor.” One-on-one sessions are tentatively scheduled for the week of March 9. The final RFP is expected within a month.
Bidders on the new Portsmouth infrastructure support services now have an extra two weeks to prepare and submit proposals. Late last week, the Department of Energy issued an amendment to the Request for Proposals for the new contract moving the bid due date to March 12, from an earlier deadline of Feb. 26. The move marks the third time DOE has pushed back due dates for bids on the new contract.
IN THE INDUSTRY
CH2M Hill shareholders late last week approved a proposal that would allow the company to seek minority investment from outside investors. The proposal, as outlined in a proxy statement issued last month, involves the elimination of the “prohibition on the issuance of common stock, directly or indirectly, to persons other than employees, directors, consultants or employee benefit trusts without the consent of CH2M HILL stockholders, and to permit such third party investors to transfer CH2M HILL common stock, subject to any contractual limitations.” CH2M Hill has said the proposal is intended to help provide “greater flexibility” in raising capital, but also has stressed the move does not mean the company will be publicly traded.
Richland, Wash.-based RC Engineering and Construction Management has won a three-year contract worth approximately $4 million from the Department of Energy to perform construction site inspection services at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant project. RECM was approved by the Small Business Administration for a sole-source small disadvantaged business set-aside contract, according to the DOE Office of River Protection. The new contract goes into effect March 1. RECM will replace North Wind Solutions/Lucas Engineering, which has been providing construction site inspection services since April 2012 under a similarly approved SBA 8(a) contract.
