Limba

Hon. Jon Cooper, Suffolk County Legislator
2009-08-21 00:00 (America/New_York)
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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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-

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.

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)

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.

Good Friday - No Meeting
2009-04-10 00:00

Bob Yaro, Pres of NY Reguinal Plan Association
2009-04-03 00:00
Since 1920 The NY Regional Plan Association has been instrumental in bringing most of New York City’s major infrastructure to reality. In recent years the RPA has reached out to the adjacent areas in New Jersey, Long Island and Connecticut. to promote ideas that dovetail with the infrastructure of the entire region. I have asked Mr. Yaro to discuss some of the efforts that impact Long Island. Please join us for what should be an interesting meeting.

Steve Dierker Assoc Laboratory director-Light Source Project
2009-03-27 00:00
Our speaker this morning was Dr Steven Dierker Associate Director of Brookhaven National Laboratories. The topic of discussion was the new National Synchrotron Light Source II. This project has been in the planning stage for a long time. The NLSL II will be working with light in the X-ray range. The promise of the research that will be performed with this technology is mind boggling, starting with the physical size of the instrument.

The total commitment in dollars is just under $1 billion. Last week $170million was designated for the initial construction. This will result in 850 construction jobs. The site was already prepared for the work, so this is a truly shovel ready project. The full time staff at this facility will be 500 high paying, high skilled jobs. The economic impact is very significant. But the real excitement is the prospects of the work product that will result.

A few years ago I was reading that the number of these machines were being built in various other countries, notably Switzerland and China, and that technology was surpassing the capacity of our original research equipment. This new Synchrotron Light generator is 10,000 times brighter than anything that has been built anywhere in the world. This machine is, as the cliché states, “a game changer.” The same can be said of the futures it will be bring about. The ability to manipulate matter on a nano-scale means the ability to create batteries for the energy use of future. The ability to create new materials holds out the hope that we can build stronger, and lighter airplanes and surface transportation vehicles which in turn means that less energy will be needed to move those vehicles.

But the Challenging experimentation is not limited to any one field. Advances in medicine are expected in studying Alzheimer’s and many other maladies. We expect to be able to arrange the structures of photovoltaic cells that produce electric current from the sun to generate many times the power than present technology will allow.

The immediate prospects of local busnesses benefiting is encouraged by the lab. They will need the services of a wide variety of providers. The different department heads were named, so that people in the room could contact the appropriate people that would be familiar with a particular need.

BNL needs us, and we need them. This commitment from the federal government will advance science in a way that has not existed since the 60’s, and we have a great opportunity.

Ernie Fazio

Alan Doctor- CUNY Center for Advanced Technology
2009-03-20 00:00
Alan Doctor was our speaker at LIMBA this morning. Alan is the Director for Business Development at CUNY Center for Advanced Technology. The unit assists businesses that are developing new techniques.

Mr. Doctor outlined the requirements that allow a business to get assistance. The economic impact is what is important. If it can be shown that a large economic impact can be made, than the chances of getting help is increased. For each $1 provided the return has been $30.

There are 15 separate units of CUNY-CAT around the state. Each one has a separate focus. The one that Alan Doctor is affiliated specializes in photonics. Projects range from the mundane to the exotic. He mentioned a project that is developing “laser tissue welding,” a process the promises plastic surgery without scars.

When CUNY-CAT works with a client company they find an appropriate university to work with. The level of assistance they give a company can be substantial. It usually is about 50%. For small companies it may be as high as 80% while a very large company may only get 20%

CUNY is the 3rd largest university in the country and the largest city university.

SPIR (Small Business Innovative Research) when providing funds does so in phases. In phase I provides $100,000 to flesh out a good idea. Phase II provides $1,000,000 for product development. The third phase is commercialization. To be selected for Phase I, a panel rates the idea. Because there are usually more requests than money to fund them, the most promising technologies will survive, and be funded. Having successfully shown the viability of an idea, getting Phase II is a lot easier.

State Senator Brian Foley
2009-03-13 00:00
Mr. Foley began by reviewing the origins of the revenue shortfalls. The reduction in income tax receipts derived from mega-bucks bonuses on Wall Street, and reduced sales taxes being among the causes. We did not discuss any remedies, because frankly, there are none on the horizon.

The Senator went on to review some of the positives that we have going in the state and locally. One of those bright spots is The Center for Advanced Technology, which has been granted $120 million from the federal stimulation fund. Another helpful agency has been the Empire Zones, which he considered extremely helpful to Long Island’s economy. He also cited the IDA program but pointed out that while the IDA program has worked well on Long Island it needs reform upstate.

The federal stimulus plan will address the needs of the MacArthur hub. New designs are being drawn for the area to make the train and airport connections more efficient. I have no details to report here.

One of the questions from the audience addressed the available money for energy efficiency. Mr. Foley indicated that there would be increased funds for that purpose

Brian was asked about the cost of K through 12 education costs, and how do we support a system that is not cost conscious. The senator answered the question from the point of view that better funding methods are needed. He suggested that more money should come from the state. I countered that the problem is centered on out of control costs. Getting more money from the state is nice, but the careless inefficient operations, along with 126 school districts and their overpaid administrators are the problem.

Editorial note; The burden of property taxes, which are at least 70% attributable to school taxes, has been heaped on the people of Long Island. The load is difficult in a good economy and totally unsustainable in troubled times. Yet these unchecked bureaucracies are like little fiefdoms that are answerable to no one. School boards are intimately intertwined with schools they are charged with overseeing. Teachers from adjoining districts and vendors to the schools on boards are hardly the watchdogs we need. Enough is enough, and Atlas is about to shrug.
Ernie Fazio

Steve Levy, County Executive
2009-03-06 00:00
This morning our speaker, County Executive Steve Levy began by taking back to where he believes the problems of under funding began.

The county depends on having sales taxes. A 1-cent reduction in sales taxes causes a revenue loss of $12million. “Governments provide everything to everybody when times are good. The real problem comes when executives in politics need to make hard decisions. When that happens you need to maintain the intestinal fortitude to do what you feel is right.”

Mr. Levy cited the removal of regular police from the highways and replacing them with sheriff officers. These sheriffs are police trained personnel and are now patrolling the Long Island Expressway, but they earn about $42,000 less than a year than Suffolk County police. That savings amounted to $8 million. It also caused the police union to launch a campaign against him. He felt he had to hold his ground and not give in.

He likened controlling taxes as being compassionate. “How compassionate is it if taxes drive people out of their homes? He asked. According to Levy, there needs to be sacrifices made by the public employees. It is more important to serve the much larger public.

Mr. Levy also brought up the matter of the county getting out of the nursing home business. “This need can be better served by the private sector, we’re just not that good at controlling costs”

In general Steve expressed the opinion that public employees should be at no competitive advantage when compared to the private sector. “Handing over a check for $200,000 to pay a retiring police officer for his unused sick days is crazy. It does not happen in business.”

Mr. Levy supports the investment in infrastructure. He cited the improvements on County Rd 39, near Southampton. CR 39 had been a bottleneck for years. It took 40 minutes to travel 4 miles. Money was not available from the state to increase the overall width of the highway. Levy said we’ll reduce the lane size and rebuild the highway with our own funds. The planned lanes of 13 feet were built to a standard of 11 feet. Now the traffic delays are greatly reduced.

Another infrastructure issue is the bus system. He would like to expand it. The state cites low ridership of the existing service for withholding funds. His reply, “expand service and ridership will increase”

During the Q&A Levy was asked if should have a payroll tax to fund schools. “If you were stating from scratch that could be an answer, but the system in place would be difficult to replace”
Ernie Fazio

Helena Williams, Presiden LIRR (TBC)
2009-03-05 00:00
Ms Williams will bring us up to date on initiatives that will have been announced at that time. Please join us.

Ginny Fields- 5th Dist & Mike Fitzpatrick 7th dist NY Assem
2009-02-27 00:00
This morning we had a slightly different format. The speakers gave us their take on the state of the schools and what a perverse effect taxes have had on our region. 5th Assembly representative Ginny Fields and 7th Assembly representative Mike Fitzpatrick gave us opening statements on school taxes and the reason for out of control costs. Presently Long Islanders are the second highest taxed citizens in the nation.

They pointed out to us that 70% of our property taxes are used for schools. That percentage has risen from about 40% back in the 70’s. The schools will tell you that the cost is high because the quality of education is high. At the same time Suffolk Community College and SUNY reports that 30% of new students need remedial reading. Obviously there is an inconsistency in these numbers.

The speakers were asked about the driving forces underlying the increases. The reasons are many. One of the reasons is that all of the education employees are still in Defined Benefit Plan pensions. The economic realities have caused private companies to abandon DBP pensions years ago. To satisfy the needs of these plans in economic bad times means considerably higher costs to the taxpayer, and as a result we can expect another whopping increase in school taxes next year, according to Mr. Fitzpatrick.

Another problem is fraud and waste. Let’s talk about waste first. The need to have as much administration in our schools as we do is not justified by any argument that the school administrators can give us. It was pointed out the Fire Island School district has 78 students and has a superintendent all its own. That superintendent gets paid $178,000 per year plus pension, plus health benefits, sick days, personal days and all of the other benefits usually awarded. The total cost of that person is probably $228,000. If you divide that number by the number of pupils (78). That comes out to over $2900 per student before you pay for a principal’s salary, teachers, building repairs, property insurance, heat, power, and all other costs.

One of the people in the audience had a copy of the Sayville teacher’s union contract. The contract reflected a 28% increase over the next four years. This is an unconscionable disregard for the taxpayers.

Another reason for out of control cost is lack of countervailing power. Unions and management agreements work best when the parties are of similar power. The question is; who is there to tell the unions no?

The school districts will tell you that the ludicrous number of districts (126) is needed to maintain control, but recent revelations by Newsday that uncovered numerous phony pensions demonstrated that school districts have no incentive to run a clean operation. Fraud simply does not matter as long as they can stick the taxpayer with the bill.

If you were in the audience this morning you know I covered only the most salient points. The real picture is worse.

## Ernie Fazio ##

Thomas DiNapoli NY State Comptoller- Confirmed
2009-02-20 00:00
With the state budget resraints and the accumulated needs of the state, how are going to move forward? This and other questions will come up at our meeting.
We need to know what sacrifices can and will be made. Please join us to hear from Mr. DiNapoli. Tom is a hard working and thoughtful elected official. Please join us.
Ernie Fazio

Presidents Day weekend-No Meeting
2009-02-13 00:00
