Good Friday - No Meeting
2009-04-10 00:00 (America/New_York)

RPA Meeting in NY - No LIMBA meeting
2009-04-17 00:00
LIMBA participates in the Regional Plan Association’s annual meeting. LIMBA members may attend. It is an all day meeting with important national speakers. Fees will be announced.

Drs Gordon Danby and Jim Powell-Maglev inventors
2009-04-24 00:00
This morning’s meeting was a little different from what we are used to. It was a presentation on MAGLEV (magnetically levitated transportation system). Along with it came a lesson in history and lost opportunity. MAGLEV is a track vehicle that has many desirable facets. It was invented here on Long Island in the middle of the last century by Drs Gordon Danby and Jim Powell. Both of these brilliant men of science, though aged are still alive, and still inventing. The system was championed by Senator Moynihan in the late 80’s. Mr. Moynihan appropriated $750 million in the Senate, but the legislation was bottled up in committee in the House, and it died there.
Dr Danby was with us this morning. He created the presentation that we used, and I helped him deliver the message. The message was far-reaching and profound. Essentially the message was, we have at our disposal a technology that can and will revolutionize transportation systems in the world. More importantly, the basic technology is a proven concept. It has been built by the Japanese and the Chinese using the knowledge that was put forth in the original invention. Those systems work magnificently, but they were, and are, expensive to build. This morning the discussion was about Second Generation MAGLEV.
The new version of MAGLEV overcomes the expense of the original system by the use of more recently invented technology that makes the new system possible. In fact the track construction cost is about the same as conventional rail and substantially less than for what is being termed High Speed Rail (HSR). In addition HSR will never carry freight because the high speed and weight factors will not support the pounding that wheels and steel deliver to the roadbed. HSR is already a nightmare of constant maintenance. The Japanese have 3,000 track workers making track adjustments every night. The MAGLEV has no direct contact with the guideway, therefore there is virtually no maintenance. Weather is not a factor either. Magnetic fields are not affected by ice because ice is magnetically transparent. All switching on MAGLEV is done electronically, and there are no moving mechanical devices to get fouled by ice or debris.
Among the cognoscenti there appears to be a belief that electrification of rail transport is the way to go, but the trend is evident in auto transportation as well. These inventors have opened doors of possibilities that were unheard of even 20 years ago, and certainly since the original MAGLEV design that they pioneered. Our only hope is that the vision that caused Senator Moynihan to support this technology is repeated in some modern day political people or we will be snookered again by China, Japan, Germany or India. Unfortunately Mr. Moynihan’s health deteriorated before he could see this through. On the other hand, it’s a new day!

This event is sponsored by Robert Bender and the Association for Facility Engineers (AFE)

Richard Kessel, President & CEO NY Power Authority
2009-05-01 00:00
Richard Kessel has had an interesting career. Today he addressed the LIMBA audience as the President and CEO of the New York Power Authority. NYPA, Kessel told us, is the largest public power company in the nation. He sees his role as a reformer of that authority.
He revisited briefly his tenure at LIPA. The original mandate for LIPA was quite narrow, but under his tenure 2000 megawatts were added to the system and alternative energy was advanced further than any other power company. Now, Kessel said, it is to change NYPA in similar basic ways.
NYPA was where Trooper-gate was hatched. NYPA has it’s own police force that was used to create that scandal. That police force has since been disbanded. NYPA has an airplane, but Kessel uses commercial flights where he can. Now the plane is used by operational employees to access places in the state that are not commercially served.
He told us that there will be a strong focus in breathing some life into the economy of upstate New York. That may not be a message that Long Islanders want to hear, but the economy in rural New York is desperate. ALCOA was all but washed up in Messina NY, and NYPA worked out a deal that allows ALCOA to preserve some of those jobs. As far as GM is concerned upstate, it’s gone!
The Economic Development section of NYPA will be completely revamped. The “Power for Jobs” program will be revamped as well. Presently a client like Fotunoff’s, which is going out of business, was a PFJ recipient cannot have its allocation transferred to another business entity. Kessel promises that will be changed.
Kessel promises to introduce wind and solar projects to NYPA. He is negotiating with the concerned communities that are adjacent to the Great Lakes to form a wind power agreement to place turbines on Lake Erie and or Lake Ontario
At NYPA Kessel wants to embark on large scale central solar, rather than the roof program. Roofs are OK, but he feels the course NYPA should take is the large-scale programs. (Sacramento Municipal Utility District did this year ago.)
In New York City a new high volume power cable will be built from Bergen County New Jersey to 49th street in Manhattan. There will probably be more such links to tie the region together, but the biggest link-up will be a robust transmission line coming from Canada. This line will use existing right-of-ways precluding a difficult permitting process. This line will make low cost Hydro-Quebec power available to downstate.
These are ambitious plans, but given the aggressive leadership he showed at LIPA, Kessel is believable.

Helena Williams, Pres. LIRR
2009-05-08 00:00
Reflecting its concern with island-wide issues, Chairman Ernie Fazio today announced that LIMBA is updating the words behind the acronym. LIMBA, henceforth will be known as Long Island Metro Business Action. Having grown beyond its initial mandate, it is time for the organization to adopt a more suitable moniker for its mission. In keeping with this theme, our speaker this morning was the formidable, yet personable Helena Williams, President of the Long Island Rail Road, since 2007. Since the days of Andrew Jackson, the LIRR has been bringing passengers to and fro on Long Island, and connecting it to the rest of these United States, for a hundred and seventy-five years. Helena came to give us an update on the LIRR and MTA’s situation and vision for the future. Happily this was her second consecutive! visit to LIMBA in her current position.
Whenever an LIRR president comes to speak at LIMBA, something always happens, either within the Rail Road, or its parent agency. Today was no exception, Helena speaking before us on the morning after MTA Executive Director Lee Sandler’s resignation. Usually, it’s a change in management at the LIRR, fortunately for us and wisely for the Rail Road, Helena is still batting cleanup there. Her update began with a review of the LIRR’s operating metrics, proudly pointing out the all-time record performance of 96.65% of trains arriving on time for April of 2009. The LIRR also carried a record amount of passengers in 2008, 87.4 million riders. The economic downturn has reduced those numbers recently, weekend and off-peak ridership declining by 7% from the same period last year. Customer satisfaction continues to be important with an emphasis on staff responding to customers with a courteous and efficient demeanor.

The big news was a snapshot of recent events at the MTA, with the agency’s largest source of revenue, the Mortgage Recording Tax, tanking to the tune of $230MM. Helena described the work of the Ravitch commission, and its recommendations, defending the choice of the most palatable of bad medicines, the payroll tax. Illustrating the choices between East River tolls and the payroll tax, the tolls were a non-starter. As painful as the payroll tax is, it is a necessary evil to get the MTA back on a sound financial footing.

In this environment, the LIRR faces enormous challenges to keep up it’s record setting performance, neatly segueing into a description of the next 5 year capital plan, which right now is only funded for two years. It is extremely important to keep the capital program going to upgrade the railroad so it can meet the vision of the future by replacing components like the 1910 vintage switch control system at Jamaica. This vision revolves around East Side Access, the ambitious plan to bring the LIRR into Commodore Vanderbilt’s magnificent Grand Central Terminal. Several capital projects support that vision:

Main Line Corridor third track

Double tracking between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma
Jamaica Throughput improvements and platform extensions
New Yards/ Electrification
Fleet Expansion with M9 cars

Given the state of the capital plan, the best projects to move that vision along are the Jamaica improvements and double tracking the stretch between Route 110 and Ronkonkoma’s Long Island MacArthur Airport. Double track will improve the situation at both ends of the corridor and in between. Besides removing the obvious bottleneck that a single track brings, doubling the rails enables reverse commuting, and perhaps reopening the Republic station at Rt.110, creating the Wyandanch intermodal project and supporting Central Islip’s Heartland development. The initial electrification between Hicksville and Ronkonkoma, completed in 1986, was planned with double track in mind, so the track just needs to be built, the rights of way are already in possession, and the electrical system was built to handle the second track. This project provides the most bang for the buck, able to be implemented re! latively quickly, and with little controversy. Still expensive at $450 MM, this represents an expense of $36 million/mile with 12.6 miles remaining to be double tracked.
Helena and her staff have been working with local, state, and the federal government to develop these plans and obtain funding for them in these challenging times. Closing her remarks with an exhortation for us to share the vision of the LIRR as an engine of growth and vitality for the region, she provides a welcome optimistic viewpoint tempered with the pragmatism necessary for these times.
The Q and A was once again insightful, and valuable. LIMBA provides the opportunity to interact with the movers and shakers of the region on an intimate basis, no better way to spend a Friday morning, we always learn something.
A question was asked about whether the 3rd track on the main line would help move freight on the island, and her response was that the best way to increase freight on Long Island was to remove the bottleneck of crossing the Hudson River somehow. There are several plans afoot to improve this, from the long awaited cross harbor tunnel, to improvements on the cross harbor carfloat operation.
Competition in car building came up, and Helena reported that Korean firms were beginning to enter the market to compete with Kawasaki and Bombardier, the two existing suppliers.
The stimulus program came up, and Helena was somewhat dismayed that High Speed Rail, instead of Commuter Rail was getting the focus, but still happy about Rail travel getting attention.
The Q and A ended with more of a statement than a question. We have to keep the focus on mass transit so that we keep the region competitive. There are two important supports for economic development among many. Telecommunications and Transportation to move people easily and efficiently. Both these supports need to be accessible and affordable to the general population. San Francisco’s BART and Dallas’ DART are good examples of putting federal funds to work in supporting that vision.
Reprt written by–
Craig Plunkett-

Senator Ken LaValle
2009-05-15 00:00
The economic news from our speaker, State Senator Ken LaValle, was not particularly good. On the other hand, we knew that the economy is in stress. We asked the senator to talk about taxes and he did. The tax cap that was introduced under the last Albany administration resulted in property tax increases that ranged from between 2% and 3 ½ % instead of the 4,5.and 6% increases we saw in the past. This is good of course, but not good enough as the economy declines dramatically.
I posed a question based on a situation discovered by a LIMBA member. It was the case of the Fire Island school district comprised 78 children. The superintendent of that school district has a salary and benefit package of $228,000. That works out to approximately $3,000 per pupil, before you buy the first pencil. I asked the senator how we could tolerate that insanity. He shook his head in disbelief and admitted that was troubling.
Mr. LaValle thought that were easier fixes that did not require school consolidation, but rather services consolidation. That has been done to some small degree, and probably will expand. School consolidation, according to LaValle’s constituents would result in the loss of the local identity as far as teams and bands are concerned. To me this argument does not ring true. The teams and bands could continue to exist, but the multiple administrative beaurocracy would be trimmed down.
LaValle said school costs and other issues can be changed for the better by employing a process that was similar to the one used to create the Pine Barrens. That would be the process “Dispute Resolution.”
He then spoke about reduced revenues. Revenues are so reduced that the hospital at Stony Brook will receive about $50 million less this year. The effect will be reduced programs, and some services could be terminated. In addition to that loss there has been a loss of funds available for “Empire Zones.” These empire zones create businesses that would not otherwise survive, and gives them an opportunity to grow.
An important mission for the senator is to strengthen the institutions that Long Island is noted for, such as, SUNY Stony Brook, Brookhaven National Labs, and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Presently there is an effort to tie these gold mines of intellectual activities into a cohesive unit, thus creating a technological juggernaut.
He reported to the LIMBA audience that the new Energy Center at Stony Brook will be named as a “Center of Excellence” These institutions have an economic impact that is enormous. He stated that impact was about $4.6 billion for Stony Brook. It becomes easy to see why education is so important to Long Island.
Ernie Fazio

Mark Alessi NY State Assemblyman (TBC)
2009-05-21 00:00
Topic – not confirmed

No meeting- Memorial Day Weekend celebrated
2009-05-22 00:00

Brookhaven National Laboratory- on site meeting
2009-05-29 00:00
This morning’s LIMBA meeting was a little unusual. We had an off-site meeting that was hosted by Brookhaven National Laboratories at their location.
BNL is an enormously important research center that prides itself as being the home base of 6 Nobel Prize winners. This is more than any other National Research Center except for Lawrence Livermore in California and they include Nobel Laureates from Berkeley
We started off with a video overview of the facility at Berkner Hall. The past scientific accomplishments and important international cooperation was discussed. The Laboratory is open to scientific research that comes from around the world. The science that is discovered there is open for any one to see, except for projects that are wholly reimbursed to the Lab by the research companies that frequently use the lab’s equipment.
In the days of my schooling microscopes that can see things on a molecular scale were thought to be impossible to build. Today we take it for granted, although an electron microscope does not come cheap, about $1.3million.
We visited the new Nano Center where nanotechnology is being developed in various fields. Nano will be important in medicine, material development, energy, and applications that have not yet been thought of. When I asked; “Where is all this science taking us? Our guide, Dr Sherman answered “If we knew exactly what we were doing we wouldn’t be scientists”
When the new National Synchrotron Light Source II is built it will be a valuable asset in developing nano- science. (We recently had Dr. Steve Dierker visit us at LIMBA to discuss the possibilities of that machine) This new light source will be 10,000 times brighter than any other similar machine that has been built in the world.
On the campus there is an accelerator building, which consists of a large ring, where matter is accelerated and guided by magnetic fields and destroyed under precise conditions to learn more about the nature of the universe. This apparatus has been in service for many years and has been the source of many important discoveries.
Out of these continued efforts, which have been going on here since 1947, we can expect to see developments in science that will allow us to produce lighter and stronger automobiles, advancements in medicine, building technology, energy technology, and materials development.
I cannot be anything but optimistic about the future, as long as we keep putting resources into the science we find here. Long Islanders have a gem in their backyard.
Ernie Fazio

Robert Yaro, Pres Regional Plan NY
2009-06-05 00:00
We had the pleasure of welcoming to our June 5th meeting, Robert Yaro, head of the Regional Plan Association. Robert gave a talk and engaged in Q & A about the important role that Long Island plays in the tri-state region, and the RPA’s goals for the region in general. Introducing the RPA to the meeting, he described its mission as a mix of about 80% NYC regional, and 20% national issues, where the RPA is promulgating the notion of Mega-Regions, linked together by metropolises, such as the Northeast Corridor from Boston to Washington, connected by efficient transportation and
telecommunication systems.
Rail, both commuter and high-speed intercity, is an important component of the RPA’s planning toolset. Founded in 1922 with the goals of improving mobility within the NYC region, it has expanded its view to meeting global and regional environmental goals around the transformation of urban and suburban centers. The RPA’s first plan, published in 1929, envisioned the George Washington and Verrazano Narrows bridges, JFK Airport, the Merritt Parkway, and the Long Island and Palisades Parks and Parkway systems.
The next plan, of 1968, called for the restoration of mass transit systems, through the creation of the MTA, put forth ideas for open space preservation, and the revitalization of urban areas through the focus on a network of centers, both urban and suburban.
The third plan of 1996, called for seamless mass transit and a greensward network through the region. It contained concepts for the JFK and Newark AirTrains, East Side Access to Grand Central Terminal for the LIRR, and the completion of the 2nd Avenue subway.
In talking about Long Island, it is important to remember that it is tied to NYC, physically, economically, and geo-politically. The last 50 years of its development has been car-centered, and it needs to refocus on mass transit. The RPA’s past work for Long Island has involved the Parks and Parkway system, the original concept of a Nassau Hub, LIRR electrification to Ronkonkoma, and the promotion of East Side Access. The current work includes continual support for the completion of ESA, the Pine Barrens commission and management plan, along with the newly created Long Island Sound Stewardship Act.
Mr. Yaro described some of Long Island’s assets as an excellent quality of life, safe communities, and a superior education system from elementary through graduate institutions. A highly skilled workforce, extraordinary natural beauty, the nation’s largest commuter rail network and membership in the NY metro economy that is larger than the GDP of many large developed countries round out the lineup.
The long island paradox, is that there is a brain drain of this skill, and 901 units of government at all levels, one for every 3,000 residents. He posited that it is the last remaining medieval English system of governance left in the Western Hemisphere. Long Island is also out of developable land, suffering from job losses, at the mercy of climate change, hamstrung by housing expense, choked by traffic, and is one of the most segregated areas of the United States.
As a non-profit regional think tank, the RPA promotes long-term, regionally centered planning among elected officials, and planning development agencies. To that end, they have developed Long Island 2035, a vision for Long Island based on the successes of Salt Lake City and Portland, Oregon. It is a plan to help deal with the expected 460,000 new residents and 250,000 additional jobs. It is promoting this plan by working with many regional players, such as NYMTC and the Long Island Regional Planning Commission. Long Island must acknowledge the need for higher density development and get its
politicians to develop a regional focus, rather than hold to the traditional parochial ways. The Empire State Transportation Alliance is an important vehicle to move the plan forward, components of which include the LIRR’s third track program, East Side Access, and regionalizing the balkanized bus systems existing.
Closing with a description of the Nissequogue Action Plan as a blue print for protecting other environmentally significant areas, it contains a set of 110 concrete goals and actions for implementing groups, geared toward incrementally improving the area, which can be replicated across the region.
As usual, the Q&A was pointed, leading off with questioning whether ESA was in jeopardy of not being finished. Robert’s response was that there’s a paradox, if you don’t finish it, then billions in Federal funds already spent towards its construction must be returned to Washington. What the real issue is here is the lack of a complete 5 year capital plan.
The RPA’s opinion of the Lighthouse project was asked. The answer was in general it is a good concept, but incomplete without transit connections.

Once again, another well spent Friday morning with an engaging speaker that is influential on our daily lives and in the directing of our region.
###
Written by Craig Plunkett

Interim Suffolk Community College President, George Gatta
2009-06-12 00:00

Round Table Discussion
2009-06-19 00:00
Members and friends,
Our round table discusion revisited some of the goals to see where we are, and then we discussed the Long Island Economy from the various points of veiw from each of the people attending

The goal of repowering the power plants appears to be heading toward the building of new power plants at new sites rather than changing out the old infrastructure at existing sites, with one or two exceptions, but the result will be the same in terms of efficiency and cleaner air.
There has been no progress on our proposed high speed ferry to Connectticut. There is, however another route being explored from Port Jefferson to New Haven by an existing ferry company
The Long Island Rail Road is planning to buy new diesel locomotives for the east end of Long Island. I met with the LIRR staff with Gordon Danby and Jim Powell, the inventors of MagLev and suggested that the new design may make MagLev a credible alternative. The LIRR is studying the idea.
We dicussed the economy and the first hand reports from the people in the room. We noted how the present economy is effecting each of us. Most of the remarks were pesemistic. The not for profits reported that they were feeling a lot of pain.
Health care was discussed and the prospect of universal health-care was lauded by some, and feared by others. But even in this small group good ideas came out. Among those ideas were medical malpractice suits being capped, and medical malpractice compensation boards. A medical malpractice compensation board would pay awards according to a reasonable assesment of the financial loss to the agreived party, instead of the unpredictable liabilities in the usual law suit, where a deserving party may get nothing or gets an award that is totally unreasonable.

Ernie Fazio, Chairman

NY Parks Dept Commissioner, Carol Ash (TBC)
2009-06-26 00:00
Ms Ash has not yet confirmed her appearance at LIMBA

4Th july wekend -NO MEETING
2009-07-03 00:00

Hofstra Med School Dr Lawrence Smith, Dean
2009-07-10 00:00
Members and Friends
Dr. Lawrence Smith was our speaker this morning and he is the new Dean of the Hofstra Medical School. The medical school is being established under a joint venture with Northshore LIJ. It was conceived during a fortuitous breakfast between Northshore’s president, Michael Dowling, and Hofstra’s president, Dr. Stuart Rabinowit.

Dr Smith began by describing the long drift the field of medicine has taken. The community based general practitioner has been replaced by an ever increasing number of specialists. The trend has divided the patient doctor relationship and presently, while there is not a shortage of doctors in the region, there is a shortage of family practitioners.

The new school is a 50/50 partnership between the two respected entities. According to Dr. Smith the "Ivory Tower" concept of medical research facilities will not be the guiding vision of the new school.
Smith, who has been on the education side of medicine, said new techniques in teaching medical proffessionals of all levels will be the emphasis. The school will have a world class "Simulation Center." Simulators will be fashioned after those created for the airline industry. When "flying" a simulator you can crash the plane because you made an error, and you can walk out of the room and go to lunch with on one being killed. The simulation facility will allow medical students to initiate procedures on very life-like manequins. Errors in procedures may cause the "patient" to "die" and the feeling for the doctor will be very real, but again, a real person does not die.
In the present and past models an intern doctor worked under the supervision of an experienced doctor, learning all he could, but when it came time to work on his own first patient, it was essentially a new experience. By learning on these fake patients that are programed to react the same way a real patient would, the doctor has already had many successful training excersizes. This facility will be the largest simulator trainning facility upon the schools openning. The facility, overall, will be in the mid-size of all such facilities in the country. These are ambitious plans, but because of the size and strength of the founding entities, it can be acheived. There is no scarcity of scientific knowlege in the region when you consider the resources of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratories and the universities of Long Island. In addition the planners are learning about successful medical schools around ! the country and around the world and employing those methods that are proven winners.
Dr Smith told us that there is a scarce of knowledge in dealing with the suburban elderly, while we know a lot about city dwelling elderly. This is an area that will be explored by the school. The physical plant will be 11 acres adjacent to Hofstra and the Lighthouse Development project.
This plan for a new medical school on Long Island is very exciting in various ways, and the economic impact will be formidable.

Panel Discussion on the Funding of Not For Profits
2009-07-17 00:00
Today we had a panel discussion that dealt with the challenges of the not-for-profit sector. The economy has hit almost every segnment of the buisiness community and the results have created a daunting situation for charitable organizations.
Participating in the discussion were Michael Cooney-United Way, Diane Amorosa-American Red Cross, Jovanna Little- Leslie Munzer Neurological Institute, Paul Pachter- Long Island Cares, and Michael Stoltz-Clubhouse of Suffolk.
Some of these charities depend on recurring grants from government, but local and state governments have been experiencing unprecedented revenue problems of their own. Some charities have endowments funded by the benefactor and others are funding themselves through the generousity of the general public through fund drives. All of them in fact depend on each of these sources in varying degrees.
The question posed this morning asked what are these various units doing to survive these challenging economic times. We know that all of these funding channels are not what they have been in the past. Even those charities that are blessed with substantial endowments are not seeing the returns they were receivcing in the past. Indeed some lost substantial sums of money which may never be recovered. With job losses, the individual donor is contributing less or not at all.
On top of this the need for most of these services rises dramatically with a faltering economy. Between 280,000 and 300,000 people on Long Island (about 10%) needing some degree of food assistance program it is clear we are doing something wrong.
The answers we got ran from the obvious to the more creative. In one case some staff was let go. Of course that further burdens the remaining staff at a time when there is great need. Most of the focus was on seeing where they could obtain services and products more economically, relying on volunteers where possible, and jetisoning less productive programs.
In the case of Long Island Cares they have partnered with a radio station that has a target demographic that ranges from 20 to 34 years old. At first glance that would seem to be counter-intuitive since we traditionally look to the established and economicly secure segment of the population, but their plan is to engage this part of the population and keep them in the fold as they grow and prosper themselves.
In the end the conversation led us to the way we are all very much squeezed by the high taxes of this balkanized Long Island. The school districts are killing our ability to pay for almost everything else, partly because teachers are highly paid, but more because schools are over administrated. The 127 school districts and the army of administrators that are employed are redundant and prohibitivly costly.
Another drain on our overall dollars are the Taj-Mahal firehouse that abound all over Long Island and they are costing us dearly. A more rational system would dictate a fire force that was designed for the kind of fires we usually need to fight. We have fire fighting equipment to fight fires in buildings we do not have on Long Island.
These charities, that we all recognize as needed, are scrambling for what scraps are left after the politically well connected entities gorge themselves on our tax dollars. Theese taxes are forcing people to leave for cheap places to live. One man told me he’s moving to Waco Texas because he can live nicely on his social security. I guess what he meant was he could afford to eat. To most of us think living nicely means living right here on Long Island, and yes, eating too.
Man! If we only had some leadership.

vacation week no meeting
2009-07-24 00:00

Paul Victor, President NY & Atlantic RR
2009-07-31 00:00
Members and Friends
This morning our guest speaker was Paul Victor, president of NY & Atlantic Rail road. NY&A is the freight rail company that serves Long Island. Paul is a real railroad man having worked in various capacities in railroads across the country, as well as South America and Africa
Long Island is the "end of the line" for many of the nationwide fright lines that operate in the US, and NY&A facilitates the operations of all that come here.
The products that are carried best by rail are heavy loads such as rock, building materials and construction debris. But there are also a lot of shipments in consumables too. Beer is a big item and it is transported in from as far away as Mexico.
The railroad calls itself a "green industry" by virtue of the fact that so little fuel is used to move the materials it carries, while displacing thousands of trucks. Mr. Victor told us that fuel costs are one of their smallest expenses.
And speaking of expenses, the personnel needed to run the operation is incredibly small. Thirty nine people run the whole operation. The personnel are all cross-trained. The president himself must have thorough knowledge of the system including the ability to run a train as an engineer, and he will occasionally.
He explained the relationship that NY&L has with the LIRR. They must take a second position on the rails, giving priority to passenger train operations.
In the Q&A portion we discussed the limitations the freight had in terms of weight allowances and clearances. Some of these limits have been corrected since Mr. Victor’s predecessor spoke at LIMBA. Other items are still outstanding.
The proposed building of a tunnel into Brooklyn (Congressman Nadler’s concept) will serve the freight system well, but that is many years off. More immediate benefits will be realized by the refurbishing of the "float system" that was recently taken over by the NY Port Authority. PA of NY purchased the rail company that comes to the shoreline on the Jersey side. From there cars are floated to Brooklyn where they enter the established rail system that comes to Long Island
To have a fully functioning rail system the height requirements in all tunnels and bridges must be 22′. This will allow freight cars to flow seamlessly in out of the city and Long Island and complete a journey any where in the country without having to reload on smaller freight cars. Are we there yet? No, but we’ll keep you posted. Mr. Victor said he would be happy to return next year to give us an update.
This meeting was sponsored by Brian Dolan and HDR Engineering
Ernie Fazio

Dr. Matthew C. Cordaro, Dean, Townsend Bus. Dowling College
2009-08-07 00:00
Matt Cordaro has been known to the audience at LIMBA for as long anybody who attends can remember. Dr. Cordaro has assumed many roles in his life, and as the case with many talented and well educated people he keeps getting asked to do more. After many years as a high level power utility executive he went into the acedemic arena, taking a position at the CW Post campus of LIU where he created The Center for Management Analysis.
Recently he embarked on a new role as Dean of the Townsend School of Business at Dowling College. Each leader brings to a job a vision of what can and should be done. This morning Matt shared his thoughts with the LIMBA audience
The school has specialty programs in business encompassing healthcare, corporate finance, construction management and other business specialties. These disciplines benefit by having practioners of those specialties teaching in those courses. According to Cordaro, that is not always the case at other schools, but it is at Dowling.
There are benefits of an intimate learning experience to students because they are comfortable in their environment. Dowling according to Matt provides that environment.
The school also has distance learning programs, and accelerated courses. There are discounted programs that are partially supported by the area corporations. The school is also financially advantageous to the students with the cost of education being very competitive.
The business school is planning a trading center where students can learn how Wall Street works. Matt will preside over that function, having created one at LIU. As far as exporing the contoversial, Dowling has been doing that over the years, Cordaro plans to continue in that tradition, especially as it pertains to his expertise in the energy generation and distribution field. He will continue to write, and comment on those issues, in conjunction with the corriculum.

Hon. Judge Salvatore Alamia-Topic- Restorative Justice
2009-08-14 00:00
Members and Friends
We certainly took a departure from our usual programming this morning. Our speaker was district court judge Hon. Salvatore Alamia.
Judge Alamia is engaged in the area of “restorative justice”. He emphasized the crimes arising from drug use and crimes related to drugs. Bringing these people back into society is sometimes considered “coddling”. That was his term, but not his opinion.
Judge Alamia stressed that the need to reintegrate offenders was not only possible but also practical. Citing the cost and detrimental effects on the violator and society are enormous.
The better solution to “lock ’em up and get them out of here” is having people who have broken the law, to acknowledge their crime, serve the appropriate penalty and place them back in society. According to the judge, we already incarcerate more citizens than most other nations. The goal is to limit the number of required incarcerations.
He cited the councils that existed among the American Indians. They would place all the participants in a circle and that circle expressed an equality of the participants. The elders would discuss remedies to the bad behavior they were judging and how to re-integrate the offender. In a simple society this makes sense, but there is also an application for our own lives.
In modern society there are always multiple “victims”. The family of the offender suffers the embarrassment, and cost of legal defense. The neighbors feel less secure in their homes, and of course, there is the direct victim of a crime. The perpetrator of a crime is affected by his actions too, but he is a less sympathetic figure. Never the less, he has to be considered, if for no other reason than to prevent a repeat performance. In restorative justice these interested parties are assembled for the purpose of closure of the matter, with reasonable reassurance that the crime would not be repeated.
Ernie Fazio

Hon. Jon Cooper, Suffolk County Legislator
2009-08-21 00:00
Members and Friends

Suffolk County legislator and Majority Leader Jon Cooper was our speaker at LIMBA this morning. In Jon’s introduction of himself he stressed that he was a small business owner and had the sensibilities of a person who understood business. He also has been motivated to serve in public office. It is a role he savors, and would like to continue. He has been in the legislature for 10 years, but will be term limited after 12 years. Will he seek higher office? He may think about it, but not for now.
Jon has been a champion of Business Improvement Districts (BID’s), and promoting doing business locally. Money spent locally has a multiplier effect of 4. In other words for each dollar spent in the community there will be 3 additional dollars realized by other businesses in the area.
Mr. Cooper spoke about the conflicts that leadership brings. He had learned that certain drugs and supplements using ephedrine were causing deaths. He proposed a ban on the sale of these products in Suffolk County. He learned that the two largest manufacturers of these substances were in located in Suffolk. At the same time he was the charged with improving the business climate in the committee he led in the legislature. He chose to ban the production.
Jon reminded us that he was an early supporter of Barack Obama for president. I was at the meeting where Jon announced his support. I told him I just rolled my eyes in disbelief, but he thought Obama could win, and he was right
When asked what he sees as the biggest issue facing Suffolk, he did not hesitate to say that the $120 million deficit is a huge problem and getting worse due to take backs by the state government adding another $14 million to the deficit.
On the other hand he sees the great opportunity on Long Island being green technology development. He subscribes to the vision set forth earlier by congressman Steve Israel. That vision would see Long Island as The go-to place for these new and still developing technologies.
Mr. Cooper lamented the recent loss of OSI Pharmeceuticals, and without going into any detail, stated that Long Island, politically dropped the ball on that one. He also indicated that the loss will probably preclude Long Island from being a leader in that field of science
Ernie Fazio

Peter Maniscalco-Should LIPA buy Nat Grid generating assets?
2009-08-28 00:00
Members and Friends

Our speaker this morning was Peter Maniscalco. Peter has been an energy policy analyst for more than 30 years. This and his experience as a professor of environmental ethics has honed his sense of what can happen if the right questions are not asked.
The topic was; What questions should be asked when deciding on monumental changes in policy? LIPA is considering the purchase of the old LILCO plants that were later owned by Keyspan and are now owned by the British company National Grid.
Let me begin by saying that, when LIPA VP Bruce Germano was asked about the purchase of the plants at an HIA meeting he indicated that only the Barret plant was being considered for purchase at this time.
Having said that LIPA’s financial consultant Lazard is trying to determine the financial viability of buying all the plants. They are also are in the process of hiring a firm to determine the envirnmental liabilities. The environmental section will not be completed within the time frame LIPA set. Here is the question that situation raises. How can they determine financial aspects without knowing the cost of envirnmental liabilities? With asbestos issues, the cost cold be substantial.
The question was raised about the old gas manufacturing sites. The environmental liabilities on these sites are known although the costs for clean-up are probably not known. When the question was asked about those sites being included in any sale, we had the benefit of having National Grid’s Ed Carr in the room, and he assured us that none of those sites were on the same footprint of the electric generating plants, and therefore would not be included.
To our speaker, and to some of the people in our audience, there was a disturbing lack of transparency in the process, and the time frame was too compressed to make a meaningful evaluation of the benefits of a LIPA purchase. The fear expressed is that one day we will wake up and read about the completed deal in the papers, and it may not be a good deal for the ratepayers and taxpayers.
Here are a few more questions posed after the meeting in an email from Shelly Sackstein;
What did LIPA know a number of years ago that caused them to not exercise their previous options to purchase the Keyspan power plants?

If LIPA did not previously exercise their options to purchase those same power plants, what has Grid or Keyspan done in the intervening years to make those power more attractive for LIPA to now acquire them ?
If the previous LIPA decision was to not purchase the Keyspan power plants, why did LIPA vote to spend additional ratepayer money to hire, (once again with no RFP or bid process), financial consultants to once again evaluate the same transaction?

Peter Maniscalco came to this meeting with no preconceived notion that some nefarious plan was being hatched, but serious questions have yet to asked and answered. I was encouraged by the participation of so many diverse, and well informed individuals and organizations especially Action Long Island, Shelly Sackstein, LIA Energy Committe Chairman Harry Davitian, NYPIRG’s Todd Stebbins, and National Grid’s Ed Carr.

Labor Day wekend NO MEETING
2009-09-04 00:00

Ken Morelly, Pres LIFT
2009-09-11 00:00
This morning our speaker at LIMBA was Ken Morelly, President of Long Island Forum for Technology (LIFT). LIFT has been the agency on Long Island that has helped the small, and not so small technology companies in their pursuit of bringing their products and services to market. The services provided has has a remarkable record of being helpful.
This morning the emphasis was on the Homeland Security Center that LIFT has been in charge of organizing. The major players in this effort are Globecom, Siemens, and LIFT. The center is an elaborate array of comunications that provide information and coordination among the various entities that would be involved in major events such as a Katrina level huricane. FEMA, the US Coast Guard, The National Weather Service, the Suffolk and Nassau Offices of Emergency Management, and fire and police departments are all part of the mix.
The security of the unit is understandably robust with three levels of security being needed to enter the heart of the operations. But this is not just an emergency center that gears up only for the "big event". It is a working research center where the participating companies and government entities are constantly talking to each other and developing stratagies and products that compliment each others efforts.
The possibilities and opporetunities that are, and will be created by this effort are in some ways obvious. On the other hand, once we embark on ambitios plans there is a serendipity that brings us to new levels of curiosity and discovery.
Mr Morelly spent some time on discussing "green jobs". LIFT is putting efforts into developing these jobs and while all of the classifications of green jobs look a lot like the crafts we have known, they are now being applied to the green technologies. A welder or an electrician working on a solar array is now part of the green technology as much as the worker who designs and invents the the green apparatus.
On a less optimistic note we are seeinfg a shortage of engineers, and that shortage has a lot to do with the cost of living on Long Island. The wages on Long Island have in the past been higher than the rest of the nation. We are now seeing a convergence where Long Islanders earn salaries that are similar to other parts of the country while their cost of living is much higher.
To see entire meeting click here

Bruce Germano, LIPA- Smart Grid Initiatives
2009-09-18 00:00
Our speaker this morning was LIPA VP, Bruce Germano. Bruce opened his talk this morning by recounting his experiences with Smart Grid technology dating back to 2002. Back then, we were thinking Smart Grids, but there wasn’t a name for them. With time, new definitions emerged, of a power network that has intelligence built into it, with the ability to control pushed further out to the edge of the network. Currently, there are limitations in the power system that prevent that control being extended.
According to Bruce, a smart grid is a communications network overlaid on to the power network, giving customers the ability to decide the best time to use power based on price signaling. A Smart Grid helps bring down peak load demand. It enables a customer and a utility to understand and control demand on a real-time basis. In 2002 this was just a dream, but advances in technology are making it possible. Utilities are looking for ways to provide customer choice and one of these ways is to introduce a Smart Grid.
To facilitate that LIPA, in concert with Stony Brook University and SUNY-Farmingdale, is seeking stimulus funding to implement a Smart Grid technology pilot project. There are a lot of technology gaps to be filled, but if a go, the project has the following three goals:

Smart Grid Demonstration – Show that the technology to connect customer s to markets in real time is feasible, and allow them to control their demand according to price signals they receive.
Green Job Creation – The deployment Smart Grid technology will require specialized skills and custom assembly of hardware and software to build the sensor networks required and the software backend to communicate the information gathered and control signals sent.
Green Skill Training – To move beyond a pilot phase, the original lessons of the project have to be translated into repeatable steps. Developing the work force to implement Smart Grid technology on a wide scale will require educating a large number of subject matter experts that can grow the grid commercially.

The vehicle to achieve these goals is the building of a smart energy corridor along Route 110 from the Long Island Expressway, down to the southern border of Republic Airport. This area brings together a lot of partners and ties together many existing efforts. A diverse mix of customer types exists along the corridor, with commercial, industrial, residential, and municipal located there. SBU is looking into two areas, load modeling systems, and the communications security risks associated with remote control. SUNY-Farmingdale is bringing their exiting energy research labs, plus their investigations into sensor technology.
The technology gaps are being filled, but it is an evolutionary process and all the pieces are not in place yet. Many big players like IBM, GE and Hitron are aiming to compete in this space. Appliances manufacturers are integrating communications and control into consumer devices, allowing the owner to program the timer for the cheapest time to use electricity. The opportunity to evolve electric meters to support this exists, but there are no standards for Smart Grids and their devices.
The Department of Energy published 15 characteristics of a Smart Grid, and the National Institute of Standards is developing those specifications for devices and systems to interoperate. Stability of the system is paramount, as we don’t want the repeat of another 2003 blackout, which was caused by a cascading system failure of the grid’s control structures.
Bruce wrapped up by letting us know that the stimulus application was filed about two weeks ago, along with thousands of other applications, and is waiting for the federal government to get through the review process.
Opening the floor to questions, Ernie opened the session by asking if Smart Grid technology will eliminate the need for new power plants, and would Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles help our situation. Bruce responded by reminding us of Long Island’s insatiable need for electricity, and noting that although PHEV’s may help smooth out demand peaks, they increase total demand on the grid because they are getting their stored energy from the grid rather than burning fuel.
John Howell asked if every building by default be able to participate in the smart grid. Bruce projected that the meter connecting the business would be smart and able to participate, but it would be up to the building owner to install the controls necessary to implement variable price consumption strategies.
Pat Halpin of the Suffolk County Water Authority asked if there will be incentives for customers to interrupt their power and use off peak power. A discussion of the various ways pricing regimes could be constructed followed, with the net result being, we’ll see when we get there.
The ensuing discussion concluded yet another well spent Friday morning at LIMBA, where you get to meet a diverse set of leaders from across Long Island industries and organizations, and learn something valuable in an hour as you start the last day of the work week.
Todays recap was written by Craig Plunkett
Pro-Image Studios will tape our meetings and the Q&A that follows. That video will be available through streaming video on LIMBA’s website
Here is this week http://www.proimagegroupinc.com/limba/9-18-09

Carol Ash, NY State Parks Comissioner
2009-09-25 00:00
We had the pleasure of hearing from the NYS Commissioner of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, Carol Ash. Pro Image Studios recorded the video of her talk and the Q&A, which can be found here: Ms. Ash is a long time champion of downstate parks and the environment. Her most recent past position was Executive Director of the Palisades Interstate Parks Commission, and her full biography can be found on the NYS Parks website. Commissioner Ash, a tireless advocate for the parks system and it’s constituency, gave us a rundown of what is happening with the state park system, that was both sobering and optimistic. The 28 parks and one state! historic site ( Walt Whitman’s home ) on Long Island are some of the jewels in the system.. Mentioning Ken Burns’ newest epic on the formation of the National Parks System, she let us know that the model for the NPS was the Adirondack State Park, created by then Governor Teddy Roosevelt, and that New York state has always been a pioneer in the development of parks and historic preservation.
One of the misconceptions that Ms. Ash came to dispel is that the expense of Parks is a drag on the economy, and that investment in them performs poorly. Citing a University of Massachusetts study, she posited that parks are linchpins of local economies, that produce a 5-1 return on dollars invested in park improvements. On Long Island, that translates to a $410MM boost to the local economy, supporting about 4000 private sector jobs. The Long Island region has the highest parks attendance of the state. 40% of park revenue is generated by tourists, the US Opens in 2002 and 2009 brought in over $10MM to Long Island’s economy, in spite of the dismally rainy conditions in ’09.
With that, she began her pitch for continued investments in park infrastructure to keep those tourists coming. Times are tough, money is tight, but upgrades need to be done. There is an estimated $650MM backlog of deferred work overdue in the parks to keep them in shape. This year, the legislature has allocated $200MM towards that. Later today, she will attend a ribbon cutting at Brentwood State Park, where part of that $200MM will go to create state of the art professional quality soccer, baseball , and lacrosse fields, in an economically disadvantaged community. Disappointingly, the NYS parks system is not eligible for Federal Stimulus Funds, but in a creative partnership with the Department of Labor, the Parks department was able to obtain $3.3MM to start a Civilian Conservation Corps in the Long Island and Niagar! a regions. The first phase was to put 90 kids through a training program where they did basic maintenance projects throughout the regional parks. The second phase will take the stars of that phase, and move them into a more skilled trade learning program, having them work on more sophisticated tasks.
Despite these tough times, the Parks department was able to hold the line on the $8.00 per car entry fee for the parks, and the $56.00 Empire Passport is still a good bargain. In this time of staycations, park usage is going up.
The Q&A portion of the program was lively, with some advocates from the Kings Park community and allies of the Trump at Jones Beach project in attendance. One of the great things about LIMBA is the ability for local folks to talk to people of influence and hear their opinions and concerns, and in turn be heard.
Ms. Ash couldn’t say much about the Trump project due to the ongoing litigation, and it was clear from the audience questions that they were much in favor of the project.
A question about which parks paid their ways, was met with the response that the Golf Courses and Campgrounds are the revenue stars, supporting the rest of the system.
The discussion around Kings Park was summarized by her stance of embracing the local advocates and taking a long look at the issues, and finding the real costs of remediating the site. The first phase of the study is done, the second is due to complete in about 18 months.
On the question of raising revenue, the department is trying to find sponsorships for the Empire State Games, working with the “I love NY” people to market the parks more, and looking at creating public-private partnerships similar to the California Parks Foundation, and the Central Park Conservancy.
Yet another productive Friday morning at LIMBA, where regular folks get to meet movers and shakers that directly affect our lives..
Complete video of this meeting is available

No LIMBA meeting
2009-10-02 00:00
There will be a meeting of the Long Island Business Development Council at Montauk. LIMBA will be participating. Therefore there will be no meeting on Oct 2nd

Tom Cilmi- Candidate 10th Suffolk Legislator Dist
2009-10-09 00:00
Members and Friends,
This morning our speaker was Tom Cilmi. Tom is running for the Suffolk County Legislature in the 10th district.
That post is now held Cameron Alden. Mr. Alden is a Republican who is leaving because of term limits. Mr. Cilmi is also a Republican.
Cilmi is a political newcomer, however he did work in the campaign of Rick Lazio in 1992. Presently he owns a small printing company which he has owned for the last 12 years. He has a fairly impressive record of community involvment and he sees governing in terms of management practices that can always be improved.
The issues of Long Island are pretty much the same whether you are Democrat or Republican according to Cilmi. Taxes, bureaucracy, public safety and protection of the environment are the issues. How we improve things is the mission.
One of the issues Mr. Cilmi spoke about was public safety. We now have fewer policemen than we have had in the recent past. He would like to augment the force since the quality of life issues require adequate policing.
Taxes and bureaucracy have a detrimental effect on business, particularly small business. The small business owner simply does not have the time or the money to wade through the labyrinth of regulations.
Ultimately we must create efficiencies rather than expect government to get smaller, in much the same way that Toyota approaches their ability to improve outcomes.
To watch a video replay, click here.

Marcia Bystryn, Pres NY League Conservation Voters
2009-10-16 00:00
This morning our speaker was Marcia Bystryn, President of The New York League of Conservation Voters. Ms Bystryn explained the role of the organization to the LIMBA audience. NYLCV Education Fund examines conservation issues in a non-partisan forum creating a body of information to be used by voters when electing public officials. Among the issues are Smart Growth, Energy Conservation & Climate Action, Transportation, Natural Resource Protection, and Open Space Preservation.
Sometimes the issues have a conflict with each other. In those cases an opinion will come out in favor of the greater good. For example; we don’t want to lose parkland but if a ferry point needs to be built to remove traffic from the roads, they may opt to sacrifice a small area for that purpose.
The New York League of Conservation Voters is affiliated with a national version and Ms Bystryn is a member of the national board. Her organization has the ear of all the politically important office holders because under their charter they are able to fund political campaigns. Choosing a political figure to support has a lot less to do with party affiliation than it does with policy goals. In short if a person running for office has goals that are congruent with NYLCV’s agenda, they have a good chance at getting monetary support.
Marcia appears to be keenly aware of the needs of Long Island’s transportation needs such as; Increased rail freight, LIRR Third Track, Bayonne to Brooklyn Tunnel, and intermodal transfer yards. We brought up the possibility of supporting the building of MAGLEV and after a brief explanation she was very interested.
We came away from this morning’s meeting that Long Island has found a new ally.
To view the video, please click here: http://www.proimagegroupinc.com/limba/10-16-09/

VHB Engineering Rob. Eshbacher - Infrastructure Issues
2009-10-23 00:00
This morning our speaker was Robert Eschbacher of VHB Engineering. He and his firm specialize in infrastructure engineering. After a brief description of what infrastructure consisted of, Mr. Eschbacher read a report card on the state of repair of existing infrastructure. Roads, bridges, aviation facilities, rail, and several other categories were cited. The grade for bridges was the best at C, with an average being D.
The cost of repairing, replacing and adding the new infrastructure that we presently need is $2.2trillion. As enormous as that number is, it may be conservative.
It was a disheartening realization the America has fallen so far behind, while other modern societies are in much better physical shape, and each year we get further behind.
In the Q&A portion of the meeting questions of solving problems suggested that we are probably never going to build our way out of a road deficit. If we do not embrace new transportation and city planning we will always be behind in our needs.
This was not an uplifting and hopeful picture being painted for us. On the other hand if we don’t look at these problems honestly, we will be less likely to be successful in the future.
When we built the Erie Canal in NY State it was a boon to business. When we built the railroads we brought the country together and developed the west. When we built the Interstate Highway we facilitated commerce on a new scale. We are no longer thinking in those terms, and that’s a shame.
On the other hand all of the problems we have, present themselves as great opportunities to build great systems that work.
Ernie Fazio
To watch the video of this presentation, please click HERE.
Pro-Image Studios are having a large networking event — see http://proimagegroupinc.com/network1.jpg
