Veterans Day NO MEETING
2006-11-10 00:00 (America/New_York)

Richard Kessel, LIPA Chairman
2006-11-17 00:00
Our speaker at LIMBA was LIPA Chairman Richard Kessel. As usual Richard connected very well with his audience. He began by speaking about the recent storm outages that seriously plagued the system. Communications and the proper workforce deployment were the hallmarks of the recovery. Kessel believes in communicating. Often we see communications from some corporations that is experiencing trouble as cover-up. Kessels attitude seems to be get out the news, even if it’s bad. Not informing the public simply does not fly.

He spoke about rates and for historic perspective he cited the folly of Shoreham as part of the reason we are paying high rates.

The phenomenal growth of the needs that have been placed on the system has resulted in a constant need to increase capacity. However he stated that by various strategies the system has maintained the balance of needs vs supply assets. The building of the 12 smaller, quicker to build, generators helped maintain the system. The Cross Sound Cable is now in place and has taken the stress off the system. The, still to be completed, Neptune cable will provide another 650 megawatts of power.

Kessel admits that the best way to provide on-island generation would be to use the most efficient combined cycle baseload generators of the magnitude of 300+ megawatts. These are difficult to permit and build. The Caithness plant falls into that category and has been permitted and will be built in North Bellport.

Since LIPA took over the system the capacity has increased by 2300 megawatts. That is an enormous increase over a system that was less than 4000 megawatts at the time LIPA began.

Kessel reverted to high rates and went on to say that rates are high because;
1) LIPA pays $334 million in taxes.
2) Shorham debt load is still 4 Billion
3) Fuel. The cost of fuel has risen dramatically

The most exiting news was and is that LIPA is engaged in the largest demand side management in history. Finding ways not to keep expanding the need for power is essential. Reducing power needs by energy efficient lighting is a major savings. The more we do in the area of managing and reducing loads has dividends in less pollution and less generating needs.

Alternative energy is no small item. There are numerous proposals for producing power by wind, fuel cells, solar and more exotic new methods. All of these will be part of an energy producing matrix alongside demand management.. He was disappointed that the Solar Roof Program had only 750 subscribers instead of the 10,000 that were expected.

In the end Ritchie harkened back to the fact that we will still want to have more connections to the mainland and use generating assets that are not presently available to us.
Pictured: LIPA Chairman, Richard Kessel and Ernie Fazio

THanksgiving Holiday No Meeting
2006-11-24 00:00

Marc Allesi State assemblyman
2006-12-01 00:00
Members and friendsMarc Alessi is the NY Assemblyman that represents the North Fork of Long Island. He began his talk on education and how the formula for state aid is skewed by the high value of our homes. According to Alessi the village of Mattituck has the same income and employment of Syracuse NY, but has a reimbursement rate for schools that is dramatically different. In Syracuse the state aid is 50% in Mattituck the state aid comes to 13%. The perceived wealth of Mattituck is much higher due to the value of their homes and therefore the aid is lower. He says that the discrepancy can be corrected without an income tax.
He then addressed the lack of oversight of LIPA. The fuel adjustment in the bills are essentially rate increases, and should be called that, according to Mr. Alessi. The fuel adjustment is allowed by law to be added when the cost of fuel rises unexpectedly. When a fuel adjustment is around for more than 12 months then it is expected to be in the rates as an increase. However if an increase amounts to more than 2.5% then the PSC (Public Service Commission) has the right and obligation to review the rate structure. By continuing to call the fuel increase an adjustment, the review is not triggered.
As far as the National Grid purchase of Keyspan is concerned Alessi promises a thorough review of the sale of the company as required by statute, keeping in mind that the transaction must benefit the ratepayer.
Marc is jockeying for a leadership in the Assembly Energy Committee. He sees some excellent opportunities for biodiesel and other alternative energy scenarios, and he’d like to be in the arena to influence a good outcome. He pointed out that there huge amounts of waste cooking oils entering the environment that may otherwise be used to replace conventional diesel.
Mr. Alessi then went on to speak about emergency preparedness. His perusal of the not-for-profits indicated that they were in a better state of preparedness than the government agencies.
Medicaid fraud is another topic that Alessi touched on, and his assessment was that there was more to do in this area. Mr Alessi was instrumental in discovering the school frauds that have come to light, and Medicaid seems ripe for a careful review.Pictured: Ernie fazio, Assemblyman, Marc Alessi and Bill Miller

Annual Holiday Gathering and Toy Collection
2006-12-08 00:00
This morning’s meeting was different, to say the least. Our Holiday Gathering has been a success in the past and this year was no exception.
We were treated to the innovative creativity of Steve DePass. Much of what Steve does is inventing the songs that he sings on the spot. They are always witty and often downright hysterical. His grasp of the English language and the creative use of rhythm and rhyme are second to no others I have ever seen.
The audience was asked to throw out what Steve called “fine how do you do’s.” Each of these comments no matter how difficult it would seem, were turned around by Steve and delivered back to the crowd in a humorous lyric. Most of the time the audience could not see it coming, leaving the crowd surprised at the songs he weaves on the spot. The nature of humor is the ability to break through the audiences expectations and deliver something that catches the audience off guard. He succeeded magnificently.
With all of this Steve DePass is a serious man. His insights on friendship, race, and loving relations places him in a category that distinguishes from the journeyman entertainer. In a conversation that I once had with Steve I told him that I used to pay someone $150 an hour to speak to me like that. He laughed and told me that those people charge more than that now.
Steve has developed several programs that are designed to communicate the positive meanings of “Black History Month”. He will be performing these programs at colleges and corporate venues. He is very proud of this effort

These programs are fun filled musical programs featuring the audience inter-active song improvisations which have hallmarked Steve’s long and distinguished career. If you have an interest in Steve DePass’s work he has asked me to field calls at my LIMBA number. 631 757-6663

Southwest Airlines
2006-12-15 00:00
Our speaker at LIMBA, this morning was Loretta Hohmann, from Southwest Airlines. Loretta was not scheduled to speak, but the person who was supposed to speak was flying in from the west and was weather delayed. As it turns out, it didn’t matter. Ms Hohmann is very knowledgeable. Ms Hohmann began by speaking about the relationship the Southwest has built with the Town of Islip. From the beginning SW wanted major improvements at the airport. These airport upgrades would be paid for by SW and the improved property would remain in the ownership of the Town. This proved to be very attractive to the Town of Islip and satisfied the physical plant needs that SW said it needed to operate.
Ms Hohmann then spoke about the community involvement that the airline considers important from the standpoint of good community relations and a sense of corporate citizenship. In each of SW’s markets they have a program called “home for the holidays”. This program allows elderly people of limited means to travel at the airlines expense during holiday periods to see family members. They select one family from each of their markets.
She spoke briefly about a company BLOG, where information can be exchanged on line. It is located at www.blogsouthwest.com
Southwest likes to operate out of smaller airports, whenever possible. According to Hohmann the landing fees are lower and the efficiency of moving aircraft on time is better. Islip-MacArthur certainly fits that airport profile, and they are happy with the arrangements they have made there. The company maintains an excellent cooperative relationship with other carriers. Sometime they help each other out with equipment and services, such as snow removal.
In addition to airport selection, Southwest attributes some of their financial success to standardized aircraft. If a plane is pulled out of service, the replacement plane will be like the one that was sidelined and the crew is capable of flying it.
During the Q&A portion of the program I asked if a light rail system would be built to tie the terminal to the LIRR train station. Ms Hohmann said the original plan was to put the terminal next to the rail system, and that plan was blocked by the Town. However they have a shuttle bus to the train that costs $5 that is operated by Colonial Coach.
When we closed the meeting Southwest raffled off a ticket for any place in the US that is served by the company.
We welcome Southwest and we pledged to support any reasonable enhancements that they think they should be made to serve the region better.

no meeting Holiday
2006-12-22 00:00, 2006-12-29 00:00

East End Transportation- Hank Decillia Ex Dir
2007-01-05 00:00
This morning our issue was East End Transportation. Hank DeCillia is the Executive Director of Five Towns Rural Transit Inc. Mr DeCillia explained that the east end Long Island was so poorly served by mass transit that there were 5 hours between trains in certain locations. The LIRR has no intentions of improving the situation anytime soon. DeCillia’s organization has proposed a system of self propelled rail units that could be as small as one car. These rail links would be coordinated with a system of shuttle buses that would have 30 minute intervals. The service would not technically be termed “light Rail” because it would be compatible with the rails that are in place for the LIRR. The frequency of this service would make mass transit more appealing.
The bridge points where the new system will connect to the LIRR are Speonk on the Montauk line and Ronkonkoma for the North Fork connections. The new units will not interfere with the present LIRR service. The present LIRR service handles a very large volume of passengers when the summer demand is there. The new system will share the tracks by installing a number of passing sidings. There are a number of groups that will benefit by these enhancement. The full time residents, Commuters, Renters/2nd homeowners and reverse commuters. The reverse commuters are those people that travel east to work. The self propelled units will be modern, clean burning, diesels or perhaps a hybrid technology. The bus component will be hybrid. Mr. DeCillia spoke about the environmental aspects. This system will have a lower contribution to the air pollution problem than increasing automobile capacity. The cost is another issue. The system will have a significant cost, but DeCillia points out the road improvements that will be needed are even more costly. The good news is that much of the funds that will be needed, already exists. There are $60 million dollars paid by east enders to the MTA in taxes. The operating costs of the new system are estimated to be $40 million. The other aspects of reducing air pollution and road congestion make this proposal worth looking into. See the East End Shuttle at www.eastendshuttle.org for more info. LIMBA will consider making this initiative a project we will support when the board meets again.

Martin Luther King Holiday No Meeting
2007-01-12 00:00

Mike Deluise, Deveopment Officer, Dowling College
2007-01-19 00:00
This morning we were expecting to have as our speaker Dowling College’s President Bob Gaffney. Unfortunately Mr. Gaffney had an emergency that prevented his attendance. Instead Michael DeLuise, Dowling’s Development officer was there to fill in. Later we went on to other issues that are of concern to LIMBA and its membership.

In the portion of the meeting that Mike DeLuise handled he pointed out that many of Long Island’s teachers were graduates of Dowling, 5100 was the number he cited. I have had some knowledge of Dowling College for many years and that number was a surprise to me.

Mike’s attitude was that his college and other Long Island based higher education institutions are part of a very essential industry on Long Island. It is important that we retain as many of these graduates on Long Island as we can. According to DeLuise about 80% of all Dowling grads remain on Long Island. Cooperation with other schools is desirable and possible. The ultimate goal is to have students regard all of the schools on Long Island as quality institutions. Much can, and should, be done to foster that concept.

Later in the meeting we discussed the sale of Keyspan to National Grid some in the audience thought that if this sale should be completed, that perhaps that National Grid should make substantial promises to the community. For the sake of clean air and more power availability LIMBA has been advocating the repowering of the oldest and most polluting plants. Will National Grid be inclined to repower later? Frankly we don’t know, but we do know that additional power supplies coming in from new feeder cables will open a window of opportunity very soon, and we should take advantage of that fact.

we then went on to discuss the fact that the budget that the last congress past left Brookhaven National Lab without the funds to continue several of it’s most important research projects. This is an outrage when you consider our need to transform America and create a new energy policy. Our Congressional delegation is very aware of the BNL situation, and they are working together to correct the situation, but they need our support.

Lastly we briefly discussed the property at Kings Park. The site of the psychiatric hospital is in terrible condition and is a candidate for a “super fund” clean-up. The town of Smithtown is reluctant to do anything with it. These derelict buildings are mostly unused and the potential for a magnificent facility is not being realized. That will be a the subject of a panel discussion in March.

We didn’t start out to have a “Round Table” discussion, but it turned out that way
There is an acute interest in these topics, and we more than ran out the clock. We’ve got a lot to talk about going forward and great opportunities, if we have the good sense to make them happen.
Pictured: Terry Townsend, Dowling Trustee, Cynthia Grossman, Assistant Development Officer at Dowling, Jennefer Gunn Assistant to Congressman Tim Bishop, Michael DeLuise, Development Officer at Dowling and Ernie Fazio, LIMBA

Rob Dipple, Long Island Museum
2007-01-26 00:00
This morning the Long Island Museum of Art History and Carriages’ Development officer Ron Dippel made a presentation at LIMBA.

A large section of the museum has been dedicated to the carriage collection. Graves Brothers Carriage Builders of Massachusetts went out of business many years ago. Remarkably that facility has been preserved by the family that owned the property and recently they donated the artifacts to the museum. All of the tools and equipment used in the manufacture of their carriages were catalogued, disassembled, shipped and reconstructed at the Stony Brook location. They were also able to secure copies of the Studebaker carriages and a Studebaker automobile. Studebaker was able to make the transition to making cars while other carriage makers went out of business.

The Art section has collections from the many Long Island artists. It has the largest collection anywhere of Long Island artist, William Sidney Mount who lived in Stony Brook. There are also revolving expositions that had a showing of the stained glass of Louis Comfort Tiffany, who lived in Cold Spring Harbor.

The history of Long Island chronicles the many major innovations that were born on Long Island. One exhibit was dedicated to legacy of Robert Moses. The successes and controversy that surrounded the “Master Builder included the building of the parkway system, the beachfront parks of Jones beach and Robert Moses Park, which remain today as his great successes. The controversial projects include the Cross Bronx Expressway and the ill-conceived idea of building a road through the spine of Fire Island. (It was never built).

There is also the building of Levitown. Levitt was referred to as the Henry Ford of home building. At one point a new home owner was given the keys to a new house every 45 minutes. The methods of home building were replicated all over the country and some of them were built by the same Levitt organization that built on Long Island. On February 10th the museum will demonstrate a Levitt kitchen and some other rooms in those homes.

Recently the museum was named as an associate museum of the Smithsonian Institute. This is prestigious designation and in cooperation will be a part of the National Treasures tour where exhibits will travel throughout the country.

This museum is a dynamic institution that changes and builds. If you have been there before you will learn more if you return. They are in fact planning a new section to house the exhibits that are constantly growing.
On May 10th they will be hosting an event “Perfecting the Art of Business”. You may want to visit the website http://www.longislandmuseum.org/ Pictured: LIMBA’s Ernie Fazio, LI Museum Trustee, Michelle Zere, and Museum Development officer Rob Dippel

Ron -Terenzi Proposed Amusement Park, Calverton
2007-02-02 00:00
We had a presentation on a proposed amusement park for the Calverton Airport property that is near Riverhead. Ron Terenzi is the CEO of the developer, Island Amusement Ventures. His vision of the plan was discussed today in some detail.

Mr. Terenzi began by stating that Long Island does not lend itself to the mega amusement park model. Nor does he want to see something that is too small for a first class roller coaster. The total area of the proposed park will be 70 acres. That’s not small, but it is no Disney operation either.

Ron pointed out that the economics of this park will work. He used conservative models in terms of attendance, about 500,000. The other attractions in the vicinity include Splish Splash Water Park,and the Atlantis Aquarium. Each have succeeded with having a much narrower operating window and a narrower range of interest. For example Splish Splash only operates in very favorable weather and has a narrow calendar range. Splish Splash operates only in the warmest months, and even in the warm months it is not well attended in cloudy weather, much less rain. Their attendance is in the 600,000 person range. The aquarium has a somewhat wider window of optimum operating time, and they do numbers similar to Splish Splash.

The appeal for this park will be families. With the inclusion of major rides, such as a roller coaster, availability of healthy foods, an amphitheater, and midway games.The window of operation for most of the park that will start in April and go into October. Their will also be a 45,000 sq. ft. indoor facility that will be open year round. The enclosed portion will have an arcade, games, and rides.

When we moved on to the Q&A portion I voiced my concern for the airport runways that are adjacent to the facility. I asked if there was any danger of them being permanently closed. We have a need for those runways, and with the reasonable concern for air access in a national emergency with Homeland Security considerations we must retain them. Terenzi agreed wholeheartedly and in fact stated that he hoped that the park would be a fly-in destination for general aviation.

There were questions about the jobs that will be created. Ron said that the seasonal employment was cost estimated at a rate that would allow them to be competitive in the entry level employment, $8/hr. The technical jobs would be more in keeping with the craft workers rates, electricians, maintenance people etc.

After the formal part of the meeting many people stayed to peruse the displays that Mr. Terenzi and his partners had on tripods, and ask many more questions. You can learn more about this by going to the parks website. www.IslandAmusementVentures..com

Steve Schrier Ex Dir Suff Center on the Holocaust ......
2007-02-09 00:00
This program will address matters of race and mutual understanding between people.
Steve Schrier is the
Executive Director of the Suffolk Center on the Holocaust, Diversity & Human Understanding, Inc

Presidents Day Weekend NO MEETING
2007-02-16 00:00

Dr Sam Aronsen - Director of Brookhaven national Labs
2007-02-23 00:00
This morning we heard a presentation on the economic and scientific benefits of having Brookhaven National Laboratory in our backyard.
The director, Dr Sam Aronson came to LIMBA and within the fairly limited time we allot our speakers, gave us a good overview.
BNL has an annual budget of about $500 million and much of that goes to paying for high value people that contribute directly to the economy. The economic benefit of the science is enormous as well. In combination the total economic value to this region over the past 10 years has been about $10 billion.

BNL, is very diverse in the science that is done there. As the director pointed out some of the science is curiosity based and the final outcome cannot be explained because no one knows exactly where a particular area of inquiry is going to go. And while that pursuit of science is harder to explain and get funding for, it is the area of research that new ideas emanate from, according to Aronson.

Presently the lab is building a new collider and will phase out the old one when the new one is built. This is where a lot a basic research is done. The collider is able to create elements that have only existed within seconds of the “Big Bang” at the start of the universe. The practical purpose of this hard to explain, but it useful in studying things that are known to us.

The study of structure and properties of materials is important to the discovery of new materials, and is also very much a part of the labs goals.In this part of the discussion we talked about the significance of Nano Technology. According to Dr. Aronson, by being able to assemble materials at the nano level we can take materials that are known to us and cause them to behave in a way that is beneficial to new applications that would otherwise be impossible.

Creating a secure energy source for the purpose of energy independence was also discussed. We asked about the probabilities of new energy sources emerging. The director implied that he was optimistic about the long term prospects, but the short term prospects on energy reduction and independence would probably come from “bridge technologies” such as plug-in automobiles, bio-mass, solar panel efficiency improvements, and other known and improvable energy technologies. Fusion did not seem like a very promising technology, but a new and very large effort in this arena is being done on an international basis in France.

Life sciences and brain study at BNL has gotten a lot of attention from the press, and BNL scientists have been studying and observing the functions of the brain under normal and drug effected brains. Brains of people with addictive behavior apparently has a different look to it when studied under an MRI than a brain that is not subject to addiction.

Practical solutions to everyday problems are handled at the Lab in the Applied Science area. Better oil burners, homeland security devices, and many other developments come from this department, but the solutions are based on some “basic research” mentioned above that now are solutions looking for a place to be useful.

Geri Reichbach, Brookhaven Medical Center.
2007-03-02 00:00
This morning we tapped into one of our many hospitals for information on what they saw as their role in their particular community.
Brookhaven Hospital’s Colleen Valdini spoke at LIMBA and told us of specialties that have been developed at the hospital, and also the depth of services in facilities that are not attached to the hospital.
The hospital is a 321 bed facility and employs computerized patient information systems. Each patient is issued a bar code. That bar code is read for properly identifying a patient when dispensing medication. This avoids overmedication as well as contraindications caused by concurrent medications.

The hospital has developed expertise in stroke care. There that takes place when a stroke occurs is reversible if treated quickly. Rehabilitation of a stroke victim is greatly diminished after the first six weeks. They have learned that the rehab efforts must be intense during that period because the rehab results beyond six weeks is small.
Another area of expertise that has been developed at the hospital is the care of diabetes. Brookhaven has establishes several outreach units that serve Coram and two other locations. It is not always convenient for patients to come to the hospital. We expect “state of the art” medicine in large, well endowed colleges, but we are pleasantly surprised when the care we need is available and local.

The hospital owns a hyper baric unit where they can exert pressurized 100% oxygen on wounds that are difficult to heal. The oxygen helps in the topical contact to the wound as well as the inhaled content of the pure oxygen in the blood while the patient is encased in the treatment unit. This unit is being used to help diabetics with wound problems.

Still another expertise has been developed in obesities. Surgically remedied weight loss strategies have many important aspects to be considered. The doctors at Brookhaven have developed the knowledge base needed to perform these procedures with a safe successful record.

Kings Park Discussion at LaQuinta
2007-03-09 00:00
This morning’s meeting was held at LaQuinta instead of our usual location.The meeting was sponsored by Joe Oliveri and LaQuinta, as well as Cliff Sondock from The Land Use institute and Mike O’Reilly of Trade winds Environmental Restoration.
The topic was; “What Should Be Developed at Kings Park Psychiatric Center.” Most of the hospitals and facilities buildings were abandoned years ago. The property was severely polluted during its service life and the responsibility for cleaning it up is the source of most of the rhetoric that pervades any discussion.
The format of having a panel discuss any problem opens up the opportunities of having a “food fight.” This particularly true when you have strong personalities on the panel such as;Jack Kulka, Smithtown Supervisor Pat Vecchio, Land Use Director Cliff Sondock and Carmine Martuscello from Racanelli Construction. Then there were the local people who are emotionally involved in the issue. It was a spirited discussion to say the least. The good news is, we all walked out of the room with the feeling that we agreed on at least one thing. That is;The property must be cleaned up, and the state has the responsibility of doing it. It is the state’s responsibility because the pollution was put there on their watch.
The discussions about whether or not any construction should take place and what that development should consist of, gave rise to some sharp exchanges. Despite that we were able to carry out a dialogue that gave us good information. Some of that information was new to me and new to a lot of other people too. For example the state has already set aside $25 million to be applied to the environmental clean-up. It was pointed out that the true cost estimate was over $50 million. Jack Kulka suggested that the money we have be applied to the first stage of the work at once, instead of waiting for the rest of the money. Later we can petition for the rest.

The prospect of developing the land for commercial use, or the building of homes for that, matter did not resonate well with most of the crowd.
We also learned that there is a power plant on the property that was completely modernized in the 1990’s and never used. It is a gas fired unit, and It has been “mothballed” and could be used if needed.
In any event the final use precludes total development, except for about 92 acres. The rest of the almost 500 acres would remain park. Perhaps that’s the way it should be, but that would only happen after a clean-up is completed. If this property ends up being a park then let’s make it a magnificent place where all of us can be proud of it.
Pictured: Carmine Martuscello (Racanelli Construction), Pat Vecchio (Town Supervisor), Jack Kulka (Kulka Construction), Clifford Sondock (Land Use Institute).

Jim Banks Cutural Diversity Officer at Suffolk Community Col
2007-03-16 00:00
This morning’s meeting was a little unusual, but I’ve said that in the past about other meetings. So maybe unusual is the norm for us. James Banks is the Coordinator of Multicultural Affairs of Suffolk County Community College. We had the pleasure of hearing Jim at this morning’s LIMBA meeting. Mr. Banks began by giving each of us a list of stereotypes and groups and asked us to match the stereotype with the group. Among the matchings were; policeman =donuts and Pakistanis= 7-11 franchisees. We all had the matches nearly the same. He then went on to tell us that a group of new arrivals to America would have not done “as well” as we did in the matching. Their preconceived notions would not have been developed yet. He then gave us a little exercise in non-verbal communications to demonstrate that messages are given and perceived even when nothing is being said. The purpose to these exercises are to demonstrate that we hold beliefs that are prejudicial. The word “prejudice” or pre judge really tells the story. By sensitizing ourselves to these pre-set traps we can avoid responding in a stereotypical way.Jim is a muscular looking man and is a former US Marine Sergeant. He belies his own masculine stereotype by engaging in non traditional activities for a man. His hobbies include, sewing, crocheting and quilting. He even organized an all male crocheting club. On the other hand he also enjoys pocket billiards, basketball, singing, and poetry writing. Each of these activities summon up an image and conclusions that, as they say in the song, “It Aint Necessarily So”Learning things about perception, as we did this morning is fun, even though at a deeper level we already knew them to be true. It was a tough morning to get out on the road, but for those of us who did, it was worth it.

Round Table discussion
2007-03-23 00:00
This morning we conducted an “round Table” discussion. These meetings tend to have a tentative agenda, that is, we wind up talking about things other than what we thought we would discuss. No matter. There are so many issues that are important to Long Island, we could start anywhere.
Taxes and multiple layers of government, and numerous school districts is where we began and that dominated most of the meeting.
The general consensus was that taxes are hampering our competitive edge and discouraging some people from moving here.
Here are some of the observations on schools;

We have too many layers of management in our schools.
Teachers use the example of the wealthiest districts to set the pay scales of teachers in less wealthy districts. In the next round of negotiations the process is repeated, jack-sawing the pay scales ever upward.
There are far too many school districts
Politicians see the same problems as the rest of us, but are fearful of being removed from office if they serve the people and not those vested interests
We spoke briefly about fire departments and how inefficient the resources are spent there.
Paid fire departments in wealthy northern Virginia spend less per capita on fire safety services than their “volunteer” counterparts on Long Island with no compromise in the service to the community. In fact the service is better because their is always a staff available.

These two issues are large burdens on the taxpayers and they can be addressed without compromising quality. Furthermore, there are some districts that are poorly run and corruption is no stranger. Regardless of the assets thrown at them they under perform. There is no agency big enough to audit all these entities.

Finally we spoke about energy. Alternative energy was discussed and we agreed that government bodies could lead the way by putting high efficiency projects into their own buildings. Alternative energy generation has not been fostered in any significant way. (Exceptions are the towns of Brookhaven and Babylon have adopted “Energy Star” specifications in their residential building codes.)

Sharon Cates-Williams and Doug Miller
2007-03-30 00:00
On Friday, March 30th, we had the distinct pleasure of hosting the CIO/Comissioner and Director of MIS, respectively, of Suffolk County. The indefatigueable Sharon Cates-Williams, and the engaging Doug Miller. Doug spoke about the work the county has done in the GIS field, creating a very rich database of geolocated information and making it available to all the municipalities and first responders in the field. The applications are manifold, from helping tax assessors make accurate assessments, ( groans from the audience… ) to helping first responders possess critical knowledge on residents with special needs. Fire departments can now have maps of their districts with an overlay of the houses that contain folks with disabilities, an extremely helpful feature. Doug also detailed some of the automated tools that the police are using, such as OCR camera that scans license plates as a cruiser drives, checking those plates against the State’s databases for outstanding warrants and other issues, and then notifying the officer that there’s something to be attended to around him.Ms. Cates-Williams came to speak about the Long Island Wi-Fi project, which has been a focus of my attention since the county executive mentioned it in his state of the county speech in 2006. Her vision for the project, is an outdoor focused network with three tiers of service, a free tier and two paid, higher speed grades, is one that enables mobile county workers to be more efficient, and timelier in their responses to changing conditions, with the ability to stay connected to data on the road. Department of Social Services workers and Probation officers were just two of the departments where she illustrated the benefits of mobility. She detailed the steps involved in the county issuing the RFP, first producing a lightweight RFI to gauge interest, and based on the healthy group of responses, spurred the formation of the committee, the addition of Nassau County to the project, and the RFP’s issuance. At the February 8th pre-proposal conference, it was evident that the project had attracted many of the major players in the industry. Sharon is expecting some good responses that address the issues of security, privacy, and a full coverage requirement. Of course, the LIMBA audience peppered her with questions, on both the technology and business sides. Ernie’s question in absentia was “How much will this cost?”, and the answer is that it won’t cost the taxpayers anything because it is being built with private money and there will be a free tier of service. A quick tutorial about the differences between WiMAX and Wi-Fi was gone through, and discussions about mounting assets and real estate also ensued.It was a tremendous coup for our group to have Sharon and Doug come and speak about these vital initiatives to an engaged audience, where at LIMBA, you learn something every time you go.

GOOD FRIDAY - NO MEETING
2007-04-06 00:00

Keyspan- Bob Teetz, Director of Environmental Engineering
2007-04-13 00:00
Today at LIMBA we had the opportunity to hear about what is going on with Keyspan Energy’s Emissions and Air Quality initiatives. Bob Teetz, Directory of Environmental Engineering and Compliance for Keyspan, gave a broad and deep presentation of where our electricity comes from, what fuels are used to generate it, and what is being done to make the on island power generation cleaner. An overview of the external interconnects for power importation, Keyspan’s own plants and third party plants was the first part of the presentation. Keyspan doesn’t use any coal to fuel their plants, only #6 fuel oil, Jet Fuel, and Natural Gas are used. These more expensive, cleaner fuels, contribute to our higher rates here. The imported power is generated in several ways, including nuclear and coal. Lower priced imported power is projected to serve a larger percentage of demand as the Neptune project comes online. Most of Keyspan’s larger plants are dual-fuel, switching between Natural Gas and #6 low-sulfur oil.Given this setup, an over view of emissions was presented, with some controversy. In total pollutant output, Keyspan has the #2 producer, in the Northport power station. This is mostly unavoidable, because it is the largest power station in the system at 1500 Megawatts, and I believe the largest station on the east coast. When compared on a pollution quantity per megawatt generated, Keyspan comes out better than the national average, but you are also comparing that to coal-fired plants. There was some contesting of the measurement of pollution and Keyspan’s standings in it, but a good picture of what is going on in general was presented.We moved on to a primer on repowering generating stations, describing the way that the current power plants are architected. Older technology conventional power plants run at approximately 34% efficiency. Newer, combined cycle plants run at about 50% efficiency, and produce 90% less pollution. They also use higher priced fuel, either natural gas or jet fuel. Newer plants, also cannot use what is called once-through cooling, which takes massive amounts of seawater in and out of the plant to cool it. They must use cooling towers, which sap efficiency, but don’t impact the aquatic environment as much. The options for repowering each of the older base load stations were discussed, pros and cons. Mr Teetz pointed out that some locations are not suitable for repowering. Northport would have to improve transmission lines to the site and the cost would be several hundred $million dollars. Port Jefferson on the other hand is less amenable to repowering because there is no more flat land on which to build.The opportunities for the future in terms of increasing capacity, burning cleaner fuels and scrubbing emissions were outlined. A lively Q and A was held throughout, with our resident skeptics holding Bob’s feet to the fire, which he handled with aplomb. In sum, there are some opportunities to make great strides in reducing powerplant pollution on Long Island, but there is some debate about whether this will make a big impact on air quality here, as our regional air quality is affected mostly by wind-borne pollution from the west, and locally generated transport pollution, cars and trucks. Again, an important presentation on issues that affect us directly, in both our lungs and pocketbooks. Another Friday morning well spent and well informed at LIMBA.

Phil Nolan- New Initiative to keep Islip vibrant.
2007-04-20 00:00
Phil Nolan, the recently ( November 2006 ) elected Supervisor of the Town of Islip, came to speak at LIMBA this morning, introducing himself and talking about his experiences to date. Islip is a town of about 330,000 people, with many challenges and bumps in the road, some of which were discussed today. Phil is a super busy fellow handling the day to day issues of government in a progressive town. Rather than a standard stump speech, the session was conducted mostly as a Q and A session. He brought some key people in his administration to help him address some of the questions posed today. The most frequent ones were prompted by the largest asset that the town has, MacArthur Airport. There are two developments regarding the airport, the resolution of the concrete apron problems at the new terminal, and the west side redevelopment project.
The apron problems are in the beginning stages of being resolved, and they will be because the problem is putting a crimp in the ability for the airport to be better utilized. Phil would like to see the marketing focus of the airport be changed to start selling it to carriers instead of passengers, to attract a more diverse base of airlines. The Smithtown Avenue side of the airport will get a makeover, which is in the planning stages of finding a new home for the existing businesses there, and then making way for new structures.
In the Q & A portion of the meeting, Charlie Widener’s question about the Plumber’s Examining Board prompted a long give and take about the day to day machinations of government, the challenges of two-party politics in a town long dominated by one party, and the difficulty of separating the actions necessary for the greater good from the impacts on the narrow groups sometimes affected. This is going to be an issue when talking about the ground leases on the islands of the Great South Bay that are in Islip, Captree, Sexton, and Havemeyer Islands, as the families that have deep roots on the islands will have to pay quite a bit more to lease that ground, as the market value of the leases has grown substantially since they were last priced.
Walter Bernstein brought up the question of addressing the "Youth Drain" on Long Island by reducing the cost of living through regional consolidation of government departments. Phil addressed this by describing the "Collisions of Power" that happen when you actually try to make changes. The higher the dollars at stake, the better the advocates are at arguing for the status quo. It is apparent that there are savings to be had, but what is the correct formula to achieve it, is the question.
The last question was regarding how the working relationships are going between the new guy in town and the traditional incumbents that are still a large part of town government. After being the first Democrat elected in the town in 35 years, Phil has done a few things to upset the apple carts, but he feels that he is there to do his job, and that they have a mostly good working relationship. Out of every twenty resolutions brought to a vote, nineteen are unanimously agreed on, but that twentieth one that has a sticking point is usually a high profile issue that is attractive to the news media. Phil says he isn’t needlessly confrontational, but won’t back down when he feels his convictions are challenged. His formula is to say what you are going to do, and do it.
When we have a LIMBA meeting that has a focus on a person in the public eye rather than a subject focus, we always get a good sense of the person that is unobtainable by reading press accounts. You hear the person, get to talk to them, and really get a feel for their character. Our thanks are extended to the affable and plain spoken Mr. Nolan in coming out to talk to our group about his town and his agenda in governing it.
Pictured, left to right: Al Werner, Gene Murphy, Bill Mannix, Ernie Fazio, Phil Nolan, and Gina La Vecchia
Video supplied by MyLITV.Com:

Phillip Cardinale, Supervisor, Town of Riverhead
2007-04-27 00:00
This morning Riverhead Town Supervisor Phil Cardinale made a presentation on the planning and restoration projects in Riverhead. There are a number of things being planned, including riverfront improvements, Calverton airport redevelopment, and Rt 58 transportation improvements.
In the downtown Main Street, which is relatively small, there are plans for the restoration of the theater. Mr. Cardinale would like to see the parking be located on the north side of Main Street, leaving the riverfront available for park-like amenities. A three part zoning plan would accommodate retail, commercial, and residential uses in the downtown area.
Much of the cost that would ordinarily be borne by the municipality, is being shouldered by the winning redevelopment company. That company, Apollo, is a multi-billion dollar company that will have an opportunity to earn back some of their outlay from other development companies that may appear in the next three years. This arrangement has been applauded by the supervisor because all the risk falls on the shoulders of the developer.
Later in his presentation Mr Cardinale gave us some insight on the redevelopment of Calverton. There appears to be no attempt to destroy the excellent runways at the airport. We told him that this was important to us, because they can accommodate any size aircraft and would be essential if their were an emergency that warranted their use. The airport development will be multiple use. They expect to build out 7.5 million square feet in industrial park space, and commercial space.
I asked about rail freight, and light rail for passenger movement. There has been some planning and thought on that issue, but other than a rail spur in Calverton, I did not get the impression that that planning had been given high priority.

Wayne Horsley, Suffolk Legislator
2007-05-04 00:00
On May 4th, we had the privilege of Suffolk County Legislator Wayne Horsley give us a perspective of how important sewers are to the ecology and economic growth of Long Island. Wayne apologized for picking such an unsavory topic to be the subject of a breakfast meeting, but as usual, the large crowd of LIMBA faithful ate it up. With his perspective as an adjunct professor of Modern World History at St. John’s university, we got some ancient history as well. The earliest known sewers were found in the Indus valley, around 3300-1700 BC, but Suffolk County still is not widely sewered in this modern age. To preserve the open space that is left by concentrating development, we need sewers. The recent development of the Route 110 corridor’s new hotel and pharmaceutical plants would not have been possible without connecting them to the Southwest Sewer District.There are 1.5 Million people in Suffolk County, 400,000 of them are served with sewers. This is distributed among the Southwest Sewer District (SWSD), and about 22 other smaller plants sprinkled around the county. The new Tanger retail development in Deer Park, on the old AIL Property, will be connected to the SWSD, consuming .5% of the total daily capacity of 30.5 million gallons. The development is expected to generate 250 million in spending by completion. Without the district connection the development would not be possible at all. The benefits of sewering are clear, so are the obstacles.Money is the foremost barrier. Sewers are expensive and disruptive to put in. Back in the day, 87% of the projects were funded by the State and Federal governments. Plus, the history of corruption that is one of the legacies of the SWSD is always present when you talk about sewers on Long Island. The total cost to build the district was over a billion dollars, but the district is functioning well today. To overcome the stigma of sewers, Wayne is forming a “Sewer Club” with Mark Herbst of the Long Island Contractors Association to help Long Island learn to love sewers.Wayne closed with a short discussion on the issue of Coal Gas Plant cleanups, the addressing of which he is trying to make a condition of the National Grid/Keyspan merger process. Vincent Frigeria of Keyspan gave us some details on the work that is being done to clean up the Clinton Avenue site in Bay Shore.The Q & A session was fruitful, touching on “What else can we bury, along with the sewer lines?” “What are the treatment plant siting issues?”, and “How do we focus on the ecological benefits, rather than the history of corruption?” An altogether appetizing session about an unsavory subject. Another well-spent Friday morning at LIMBA.

Larry Austin, Chairman of the LI philharmonic
2007-05-11 00:00
The Long Island Philharmonic at LIMBA

Larry Austin, chairman of Austin Travel and The Long Island Philharmonic Board of Directors, came by to give us an update on the Philharmonic close to the finale of their 28th season. Larry is a past president of LIMBA, like the Philharmonic, a long running show. The final two concerts of the season will take place at the Staller Center on Saturday, May 19th, and at the Tilles Center, Sunday, May 20th. Mr. Austin opened with the story of how he got involved with the Philharmonic, relating stories about its founder, Harry Chapin, and his philosophy of having a base for the classical performing arts on Long Island, consisting of the Eglevsky ballet, the Philharmonic, and the PAF playhouse. The philharmonic has had its ups and downs, over the years, with the past three being on an uptrend, on the way to erasing what was a $900,000 deficit when Mr. Austin took over as director. David Wiley is the current music director, producing an eclectic program of classical symphony pieces, pops concerts and children’s outreach in the schools.

The Philharmonic also takes pride in both its stability, having only 4 music directors over its history, and its quality of those directors. Marin Alsop, the current music director of the Baltimore Symphony, was the director from 1989 to 1995, leaving after winning a MacArthur Fellowship. The turnaround in the fortunes of the Philharmonic has been led on the creative side by Mr. Wiley and the business side by the stewardship of Mr. Austin and the excecutive director, Stephen Belth. Corporate and governmental sponsorship has been instrumental in turning things around, with Sen. Hilary Clinton’s steadfast support, along with State Senator Carl Marcellino, having delivered grants at both the federal and state level. UBS made a generous 5-year challenge grant of $250,000, which was matched by individual donors such as Charles Dolan, David Lerner, Marvin Sussman, and Billy Joel. Mr. Austin let us know about the formation of a Chairman’s council, in an effort to form a larger core group of supporters.The Q and A session was mostly a bunch of suggestions from the audience on how to help build the community of the philharmonic, modeling some aspects on the success of the Gateway Playhouse, and the adoption of iPod culture in an effort to stay connected with the audience and draw them out to live performances. The final concerts in the season will be Great Moments In Opera, with a full chorus. This morning’s meeting was sponsored by www.Islip.tv and Waldo Cabrera. There is a wealth of local information at that website.

Hon. Steve Bellone, Supv Town of Babylon
2007-05-18 00:00
This morning’s speaker was Town of Babylon Supervisor Steve Bellone. Mr. Bellone began by telling us of his efforts to bring green thinking to the town. The town has ordered Hi-Brid vehicles for it’s fleet, and is installing green technologies in all it’s new construction. Babylon is setting an example according to Bellone. The rationale for the Supervisor appears to be, that setting an example of what should be done is more productive than preaching, or even the legislation Babylon has embraced requiring Energy Star building standards.

The town will oversee the building of an energy self sustaining house. Steve did not go into a lot of details on the technologies that would be used in the house, but it will be opened when completed for the purpose of displaying to the public what can be accomplished. Solar photovoltaic, solar thermal, geothermal heating and cooling, heat sinks, and orientation to the sun are all possibilities.

Mr. Bellone did not speak favorably of the LIPA plan to build a wind farm in the ocean off Fire Island and Jones Beach. Esthetics were not the motivating argument against the LIPA Wind Farm. Steve’s Point was that the wind farm would be for less productive than advertised. The LIPA plan calls for the installation of enough windmills to generate 140 megawatts, but because of the variances in wind conditions the average output could be very low, 25% of the stated amount. If that is true the average cost/KW to produce this electric would even be much higher than even the much criticized Shoreham Nuclear plant.

Designing downtowns that have apartments over retail space such as we have in Babylon, Northport, Patchogue and other places are being considered by Bellone for places like Wyandanch, Copaigue and other places in Babylon town. These arrangements are friendly to pedestrians and allow for the density that is required to house our citizens while still capturing open space for posterity.

Public transportation, and class A building office building proposals on Rt 110 south of Conklin Street were also discussed. Mr. Bellone laid out a very ambitious vision for Babylon.

NO MEETING Memorial Day celebrated
2007-05-25 00:00

Ray Kenny, acting President, LIRR
2007-06-01 00:00
This morning we had a presentation from the acting president of the LIRR.
Mr Ray Kenny started with an overview of the railroads performance
records. The performance can be summarized here by saying that the best
year on record was 2002 at 94% for on time trains. Currently we are on
schedule to do slightly better than that. Customer satisfaction is
presently at 6.6 out of a possible 10.
We spent some time on customer accidents particularly accidents caused
by the platform gap. The immediate response to the gap problem is
creating public awareness of the possible danger. But Kenny realizes
that that is not enough. He then explained the technical fixes that
may be used, including moveable platforms and the hazards associated
with that fix. Weather, signaling, and high speed trains through a
station are all things that must be considered.
What I considered to be the most important part of the presentation was
the future developments of the railroad.
We discussed East Side Access, Third Track on the LIRR main line, and
the community resistance to any changes.
East Side Access would allow LIRR trains to go into Grand Central
Station. By having that access, the LIRR could route an additional 300
trains per day. Presently 736 trains enter Penn Station. With the East
Side Access the total number of trains would be 1056. This would have a
very large impact on the road use of cars, as mant more people convert
their traveling habits to rails.
The Third Track on the main line would allow the possibility of moving
passengers in the opposite direction, that is going to Long Island. As
long Island creates more jobs, the employers of Long Island, and workers
in the city will have better access to each other.
These projects are so large, they are reminiscent of our fathers and
grandfathers efforts to build this region. Their efforts have served us
well when you think of the bridges, tunnels, and subways our forebears
created.
The leadership that has been shown in New York City and at the state
level has been better in recent years than the long malaise we have seen
in the past. Frankly it is exciting and encouraging.
