Bankrupt LI barge operator Bouchard Transportation eyes closure, 108 layoffs

Long Island barge operator Bouchard Transportation Company Inc. plans to close its facilities and lay off 108 workers if it is unable to find a buyer, the company said in a filing with New York State.

Melville-based Bouchard, which operates petroleum barges, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September.

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification posted Tuesday on the state Department of Labor website said that Bouchard is seeking a party willing to buy the company or its assets.

Depending on terms of any transaction "the company may need to engage in employee layoffs," the filing said.

"If the company closes the facility, it is expected that the majority of (or all) employees located at the facility will be permanently terminated," the company's notice said.

Layoffs could begin July 15 and continue through Aug. 15, according to the filing.

Judge David R. Jones, who is hearing the company's case in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston, removed Morton S. Bouchard III as the company's chief executive and director.

The court installed Matthew Ray, managing partner at Chicago-based Portage Point Partners, as chief restructuring officer at Bouchard.

The company, founded in 1918, referred all inquiries to Ray, who did not respond to telephone calls and emails.

Bouchard's fleet includes 25 double-hulled barges and 26 tugboats, according to court papers.

"Debtor-in-possession financing" would let the company continue operations using property to which creditors might have a legal claim, according to court papers.

In April, the company and three former and current executives paid $375,000 in restitution to a seaman who was fired after he cooperated in the investigation of a fatal 2017 explosion.

The payment by the company, Morton S. Bouchard III, Brendan Bouchard and Kevin Donohue came under an agreement with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The explosion off Port Aransas, Texas, discharged crude oil and caused more than $5 million in damage.

The seaman who received the settlement — the brother of one of the two seamen killed in the incident — worked at the company but was not aboard the barge at the time of the explosion.

OSHA investigators ruled that the dismissal amounted to retaliation.

By Ken Schachter

kenneth.schachter@newsday.comkschach

Ken Schachter covers corporate news, including technology and aerospace, and other business topics for Newsday. He has also worked at The Miami Herald and The Jerusalem Post.