Limba

Gary Besemer, Long Islanders for Educational Reform
2008-05-30 00:00 (America/New_York)
This past Friday our speaker was Gary Bessemer. Mr Bessemer represents a group called Long Islanders for Educational Reform. Mr Bessemer’s message pointed out some problems that are costing the taxpayers a lot more than our educational system should. His contention is that good stewardship has not been practiced. This was borne out by some of the things that we learned at the meeting.
When comparing the administration costs of similar upscale areas such as, Montgomery County in Virginia we are very top heavy. Administration staffs are excessive and continue to grow. Several school superintendents earn more than the US president, and there are well over 100 of these positions on Long Island, whereas there is only one in Montgomery County. Newsday reporter, John Hildebrand wrote about this earlier this year.
While not bashing unions, he did say that the educational unions call all the shots, and politicians are fearful of bucking the tide. The result is whatever they want, they get. Including 4 to 6% COLA increases while many of the taxpayers are losing wages. Salaries of $100,000 for teachers are commonplace, but that’s not the whole problem. There is no correlation between salaries and teacher competence. In order to fire an obviously bad teacher we must be prepared to spend $300,000 in legal fees. Any citizen that comes to a school board meeting to challenge anything, is ignored and marginalized.
School administrations have no fear, because they know that only 14% of the eligible school district voters actually vote. When a school budget is voted down, the school will take something away from the children, such as band funding, but scheduled increases in salaries happen despite a failed budget. School budgets are often passed by people who have a direct relationship to the school, that is; teachers administrators, and other staff that live in the district
Gary also took on the costs of teaching autistic children, $50,000 per child. He did not object to the program’ but insisted that the local district should not be totally responsible its funding. He noted that autistic group homes set up in a district can stress a budget and should be paid for by the state.
Near the end of the Q&A period we discussed the reason for such low bvudget voting turnout. Most people agreed that they simply did not know when the budget was being voted. There was a suggestion that the school budget should be voted on in November. It would then be just another item to vote on while you were at the ballot box anyway. The audience seemed to like that idea, but someone threw out the fact that the school budget comes up earlier in the year. So….? Change it! Change the budgets so they co-incides with the November election. Bessemer liked the idea.

Karaoke Networking Evening
2008-05-29 00:00
LIMBA will be holding its second Karaoke Networking evening. We will be holding it again at Dave & Busters in Islandia. We have asked the fabulous Anita Bloom to run the Karaoke and perform. She was great the last time and will be again.

Memorial Day weekend -NO MEETING
2008-05-23 00:00

Scott Passeser
2008-05-16 00:00
Scott Passeser, Director of Industrial Outreach for Stony Brook University’s Economic Development programs, spoke at LIMBA this morning
Scott was able to provide some interesting stats on the needed workforce. While we are lamenting the existence of high paid manufacturing jobs there is no shortage of high tech jobs. There is, in fact, a dire need of high tech workers, according to Passeser. There is a projected need of 5 million tech jobs nationwide, but that does not take into account the industries that are transforming themselves into high tech enterprises. In on other words that is just the tip of the iceberg.
In Europe, Scott told us, the government intercedes when critical needs such as trained worker shortages occur. Philosophically, we do not believe in that kind of help to the workforce. And the problems are getting worse. SUNY has always been a leader in graduating computer science majors. Yet today the number of computer science graduates is actually falling over the last three years.
He also informed us that the top 10 jobs that are emerging didn’t even exist 5 years ago. The fields of bio-tech and alternative energy have been around for a long time, but they never employed more than a very small percentage of the population. Today they are among the fastest growing fields of endeavor and the schools cannot keep up with the needs of those industries.
The inability for America to produce the workers that are needed has caused the US to fall into the 19th ranking in broadband coverage. Even Luxemburg is ahead of the US on that score. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the only way to go is up.
Scott spoke about the transforming effects that The Center for Excellence in Wireless Information Technology ( www.cewit.org) and the Advanced Energy and Research Center at SUNY Stony Brook (www.aertc.org) will bring. They are creating emerging technologies that are desperate for people to understand them and work in those fields. Learn more about the technology efforts that are being conducted at SUNY using the links above

Nassau County DA Kathleen Rice
2008-05-09 00:00
This morning our speaker was Nassau County District Attorney, Kathleen Rice. Kathleen has all the youthful enthusiasm we get from newly elected officials. She told us that she never remembers having political ambitions growing up, and her ambition today is to serve two terms and leave. That’s a promise often made and rarely kept. In her case however, she may be intellectually honest about that., given that she has moved from one success to another in the past.
She spoke about the failure of law enforcement in the area of "white collar crime." According to Ms. Rice white collar crime is not some innocuous crime we can easily ignore. The effects on society are damaging to family lives of the victims. We don’t know how much family violence, divorce, and suicide are attributable to say, a collapse of ENRON. We may not know exactly but we know there is wide spread pain. Rice said her office treats white collar crime as a serious problem, and has addressed it appropriately.
Another big issue with this DA is DWI. Kathleen stated that the innocent victim has no control over the reckless behavior of a drunk driver. We can do all the right things and still be killed by an irresponsible drunk. She gave the example of the drunk driver that drove the wrong way on the Meadowbrook Parkway killing the little girl and the limo chauffeur. DA’s can do a lot in this area and she challenged the audience not to be inured to the consequences just because of the frequency.
Guns, drugs, and gangs are a scourge to some communities. Rice’s answer that situation is the enlistment of the community while at the same time boosting police presence in the area. By this means the community residents are empowered by taking charge. Once there is a feeling that we are all in this together, they can maintain the safety of the area even after the police presence subsides to normal patrols.
Related to community involvement is the "weed and seed" program. Here the residents clean up a play area removing trash and debris and then plant flowers and shrubs to enhance an area. And because the community as a whole had so much invested, there is a tendency to protect that rehabilitated playground. DA Rice says that the program has been quite successful.

Marie Zere and panel-Commercial Real Estate Perspective
2008-05-02 00:00
This morning we had a panel discussion on real estate led by Marie Zere of Zere Real Estate. The other participants were Ted Sasso president of Renaissance Real Estate Service and Don Gallagher president of Gallagher Associates
Sasso began by telling us there is more office & commercial space on Long Island than in all of Boston, making Long Island larger entity than most cities. With all that large space is in limited supply. A bright spot according to Sasso is that downtowns are flourishing. They are doing well for various reasons, among them is the choice of lifestyle, and energy conservation. From an owners perspective rents are slowly climbing, but the net profits are being squeezed by costs. Financing is available, but not at the asking prices of many properties.
Marie Zere’s take on the real estate scene is that it is still a sellers market, but the commercial will eventually suffer some of the problems being experienced in the residential sector. She went on to state that the higher end residential market in the Hampton’s experienced a 7% drop in prices recently, while at the same time the luxury part of the spectrum, $3million plus is still on the rise. She told us that small companies are reducing their need for space because some, or all, of their staff people can work electronically. With transportation fuels being what they are, there is even more pressure on companies and individuals to work from their computers at home. Zere spoke about the concept of cond-ing a residence, essentially making it a two family house. And she advocated for a more robust program of accessory apartments.
We learned that there is a lot of activity in small retail space, medical buildings, and restaurant settings. On the other hand deals are more tenuous and can easily fall apart in the 11th hour. We also learned today that real estate comprises 40% of the Long Island economy.
Gallagher, who has enormous experience in IDA bonds, said that the use of IDA Bonds are happening less and less. There are several factors for this, among them is these are more complex dealings, and since all financing is cheaper the IDA’s are less attractive.

Hon. Ed Romaine, Suffolk County Legislator
2008-04-25 00:00
Suffolk County legislator, Ed Romaine was our speaker this morning. Mr. Romaine is adamant that the need for sewers must be recognized and addressed. There are issues where the the county executive and him differ, but this is not one of them. Ed gave us some back-round on why county government has been gun shy about going ahead with sewers, but despite any previous reluctance, there is a consensus that we must move forward.
According to Romaine new development is severely constrained without this infrastructure asset in place. He noted that developers were required to build small sewer systems on the premises of their projects over the years and the result is a hodgepodge of 182 sewer districts that do not connect with each other, and are expensive to maintain. Romaine suggested that these sewer districts are an on-going expense and should be turned over to the county and maintained in a larger county owned system that the county can fully integrate, and operate at a lower cost. Having a good system will allow for housing density instead of continuing the sprawl development we have seen in the past. That in turn will make affordable housing possible.
Mr Romaine pointed out that sales tax revenues are diminished, and the county relies heavily on those taxes. There is a more stable property tax, but that only accounts for $50 million in a budget of 2.3 Billion, therefore sales taxes are of paramount importance.
The county has been on a pay-as-you-go basis. According to Romaine County Executive Levy is asking the legislature to approve borrowing to support the operating budget. Romaine isn’t buying it. Nor is he very happy with the proposal to capitalize the tobacco settlement monies.Under this scenario the county would give up about $25 million a year for a cash settlement. On the other hand he would be willing to securitize tax liens because that would be collecting money from the past and not eating into on-going future revenues. These issues are somewhat esoteric, and sometimes difficult to understand, but they are important.
Mr. Romaine was also critical of Mr. Levy’s proposed county land sale in Yaphank. Mostly because there has been no public discussion. In a discussion with me after the meeting Ed was critical of President Bush’s economic stimulus plan, saying it would be much better to invest in infrastructure. Putting people to work solves myriad problems. Of course, we at LIMBA, have been saying that all along.

Theresa Rizzuto, MacArthur Airport manager
2008-04-18 00:00
This morning we had the distinct pleasure of greeting the new Commissioner of Long Island MacArthur Airport (LIMA), Teresa Rizzuto. Her disarmingly modest and self-deprecating manner temporarily masks the display of a deep knowledge of the airline industry, garnered through over two decades of experience. That experience started with slinging eighty pound bags as a ramp service worker for United Airlines (UAL) in 1992. In that day, the petite powerhouse needed to lift twice as many bags as her male counterparts to be taken seriously. After having gained entry to the business through UAL’s diversity program, her hard work and talent drove her up the ranks, eventually supervising UAL’s operations at Newark Airport, in charge of a $30 million dollar budget, and a terminal that served six airlines.
She capped her stay at UAL with an assignment as hub manager at Dulles International in Washington DC, leading a staff of 1,600. Taking some time off the flight line in 1993, she stepped into her family’s orthotics business in Freeport in the role of Operations VP, before bringing here fashionably-shod feet to LI MacArthur Airport in February of this year. Her talk opened with a recap of her experience and an expression of delight at coming back to Long Island after her stint in the Garden State, followed up by a description of the economic importance that LIMA has to the Town of Islip and Long Island. The meat of her presentation concerned the plans that she and the Town have to revitalize the airport, which has been underutilized in recent history. Some of her goals are adding carriers, redeveloping the west side of the airport, ( where I once took BOCES Airframe and Powerplant vocational courses, longer ago than I care to remember), renovating the western portion of the main terminal, adding wi-fi to the airport, and marketing LIMA as a more convenient alternative to the Port Authority Airports.
Ms. Rizzuto also wants to accomplish these goals while keeping the airport the good neighbor that it is today. She emphasized the necessity of picking the right carriers to partner with, that will be in it for the long haul, and be a true partners, where the destination compliments the carrier.
Once again, the Q and A was lively, and I will summarize and paraphrase here:
Q: What are the largest kinds of aircraft that we could expect to see?
A: LIMA is capable of handling large aircraft such as the 767 and 777, but it would probably not be economical for carriers to use those types at LIMA. Most likely, we could see the mid range Airbuses, and 757s, and the forthcoming 787 Dreamliner.
Q: What is keeping LIMA from becoming an International Airport?
A: A chicken and egg problem. Customs needs to establish a facility here for clearance, and needs the traffic to justify it, and the carriers need the clearance facility. A novel approach would be to introduce flights to and from Pre-Clearance locations, such as the US Virgin Islands, Shannon Airport in
Ireland, and several other locations. These possibilities are being researched.
Q: What impact does the Port Authority’s marketing of Stewart Airport have on LIMA?
A: Stewart’s marketing machine is in full gear, and they have a longer runway, having been a former Air Force Base. LIMA has better transportation infrastructure surrounding it, such as the LIRR and is closer to NYC than Stewart. The Port Authority also has deeper pockets to promote and improve Stewart.
Q: Why is it more expensive to fly out of LIMA?
A: The carriers generally run smaller aircraft out of LIMA, and as such have to spread expenses over fewer seats than those run out of the Port Authority airports. One of our audience members contributed the suggestion that the cheaper price of a NYC airport ticket is offset by the expense ( car service )
and aggravation ( traffic ) of getting into a Port Authority airport, and no real savings is realized.
Q: What do you see for the airline industry in the near future?
A: The industry is completing another life cycle, where there will be a few carriers left after the mergers of Delta and Northwest, plus she sees some other large carrier mergers in the offing. After that, there will be another period
where startups working the seams of the industry come alive and grow.
Ms. Rizzuto’s visit was warmly received by our group and we look forward to her fantastic attitude infusing the airport with a long overdue shot of enthusiasm and accomplishment. We look forward to her next visit, where I’m sure she will regale us with tales of airport improvements, and adventures in the airline industry.
Recap by Craig Plunkett of Fire Island Wireless.
Pictured: Bill Miller, Teresa Rizzuto and Craig Plunkett

Terrell Cass, President WLIW Channel 21
2008-04-11 00:00
Our invited speaker this morning was Terrel Cass, the president and General Manager of WLIW channel 21. He is a dyed-in-the-wool television executive with a long and deep backround in Public Television. In his stewardship role at WLIW he has presided over a remarkable change in technology and production capabilities. WLIW is the third most watched public television station in the nation, and produces many original programs for distribution to other public stations.
He began by discussing the diversity of media that is available to us. And while the diversity of delivering information has expanded dramatically, we have sufferred a paucity of good content. He panned internet sites like You-tube and Myspace as well as those dumb-ass (my words) "reality" shows. Showing people eating worms were not among his favorites. An audience volunteered that daytime soaps be included. Terrel said soaps are a "cultural oasis" compared to what’s out there.
Cass then went on to speak about the political landscape changing in the ways that issues are brought to the people and how money is raised. He implied that there were pluses and minuses in modern day media as it relates to politics.
His societal concerns were discussed and he had little good to say about the trend, while conceding that programs like "John Adams" were excellent. The News Hour" with Jim Lehrer is a good example of in-depth news. This model has been emulated by programs like 20/20 but the usual good reporting on news has been relagated to cheap entertainment because good reporting doesn’t come cheap. WLIW also owns the US distribution rights to BBC World News. BBC offers Americans a better window on the world in that it is not American-centric. Lastly, we discussed the ethic series productions and the productions of "Visions" A series that has taken us to many places in the world with the most sophisticated and breathtaking aerial photography

Ken Morelly, President, LIFT
2008-04-04 00:00
The Long Island Forum for Technology (LIFT) has been a strong advocate and facilitator for the benefit of technology driven companies on Long Island. There are many services available to these tech companies under the guidance of LIFT professionals. Join us at LIMBA and hear from President Morelly of LIFT, and learn more.
Ernie Fazio

Irwin Kellner PhD. What's Next?
2008-03-28 00:00
Dr Kellner is always an interesting participant at LIMBA. We get good insights on the local and national economy. Please join us.
Ernie Fazio

Good Friday No Meeting
2008-03-21 00:00

Strategic Alliances with SUNY institutions-LarryWeber PhD
2008-03-14 00:00
This morning our speaker was Lawrence Weber PhD. Recently Larry assumed a position at SUNY Stony Brook in business development. The topic was "Strategic Alliances with Sony Brook University."
The university created a unit that forms cooperative situations with innovators and established businesses to develop marketable ideas. The premise is that most of the people that have ideas may be missing an important ingredient. Sometimes it is research money, or staffing, or sophisticated equipment needed to carry out the research that is needed to develop a product or procedure.
After discussing the needs and the terms of cooperation the university will enter into a written agreement with the innovator. All the questions of patent ownership, responsibilities of the parties, and other concerns should come up at that point. Usually the university retains a portion of the ownership. The royalties are then re-fed back to the university and used to further new research. Faculty and graduate students work hand in hand with the innovator
There are a number of successful joint ventures that have resulted in millions of dollars coming back to the university, but most of those millions are the result of the success of one drug. In the meantime there are many efforts that came to fruition in terms of a granted patent. However they, for one reason or another never resulted in any earnings. These patents may be useful to someone else if that person can see the value. If that is the case, they can be, by agreement, be released to another person or company. These patents can be viewed by the public on line. If you see a marketable use for any of these patents, the university will gladly enter into an agreement to release them.
This unit is a powerful engine for research and development on Long Island and has been under the leadership of Dr. Yacov Shamash since its inception.

Steve Levy- County Executive
2008-03-07 00:00
Members and friends:
Friday our speaker was Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy. Mr. Levy, as most of you know, is a very engaging speaker. He began by reviewing the financing of the budget and pointed out that a relatively large decrease in county taxes makes a small impact on the taxes we pay, because most of our taxes are absorbed by the school districts.

Having made that point, he stressed the need to reduce or contain taxes is important on every level. His efforts at redeploying the police from desk jobs to street jobs put more police in effective crime fighting duties and fewer desk assignments. The desk assignments were filled with less critically skilled civilians that drew commensurately lower pay

Services vs. taxes is the balance that an executive must constantly make. Should we retain or expand services at the cost of raising taxes? IASked Levy. n the days of Long Island’s economic expansion that question was less of a dilemma. With a wildly expanding economy we can and did expand services, and that money was well spent., according to Levy. Today we have circumstances that demand that we spend the taxpayers money wisely. We must not make living here so expensive that we lose our tax base and further exacerbate the problem. “Don’t sacrifice the good for the sake of the (unachievable) perfect” was his closing remark on that topic.

He gave the example of having the County operate a nursing home. According to Levy the County loses $11 Million per year on that nursing home. Mr. Levy says that the private sector can do that same job cheaper even if it 100% funded by taxpayer money.

Providing major infrastructure is now more difficult because in the past state and federal monies provided 87% of the funding, today it is zero. Bubkis, if you will (bubkis has been described as a big zero with rim removed).

Optimistically, as Steve was winding down his talk, he cited our capacity to be the energy-centric region of the country, creating thousands of jobs in the emerging green energy industry. Coupling the various research and learning centers such as Brookhaven Labs, SUNY Stony Brook, and Cold Spring Harbor Labs, with major industrial entities, such as Keyspan/National Grid, we can win the global battle for energy independence and create those high paying jobs. He also had similar remarks about the developments in wireless communications that are being advanced at Stony Brook
Ernie Fazio

Polemeni Tunnel Discussion- Vincent Polemeni
2008-02-29 00:00

Kevin Law, Chairman LIPA -Repowering and other issues
2008-02-22 00:00
This morning’s meeting was blessed with snow. I say blessed because we had a filled room, and many people showed up "out of the blue". Accommodating those people and every person who indicated he or she would come, would not have been possible. Our speaker was Kevin Law, the recently appointed President and CEO of LIPA.

Mr. Law began by giving the audience an overview of what LIPA does and explained that the poles and distribution facilities are owned by LIPA, but the generating facilities are not. To add further to the confusion the LIPA trucks are manned by Keyspan/Grid employees, the trucks belong to LIPA, but the employees wear LIPA helmets. Ya got it? It’s pretty confusing.

Then Kevin explained the structure of the cost of power. 55% of your bill is dedicated to paying for the fuel that is used to produce electric. 13% is used to pay interest on the debt, and another 11% is used to pay taxes or payments in lieu of taxes. Taxes on a municipal power company are unusual. Other municipal power companies do not pay taxes, but to mollify the effected local school districts, these concessions were made.

As difficult as may be to accept, much of our LIPA bills are immutable. The good news is that while some municipal bonds are being hit with high interest rates at this time, LIPA has not experienced this because of the way the contracts were written.
Repowering is an agenda item for LIMBA because modern plants pollute a lot less while producing more power. But according to Mr. Law repowering is a very expensive proposition and at best, could only be achieve incrementally.

Going forward LIPA will investigate conservation measures that may include time of day metering. Conservation is counter-intuitive to a utility company, so rates may actually increase while total billing may fall. As an example a consumer who lowers his consumption by 50%, may lower his billing by only 30%. That would bode well for the consumer without undermining the financial structure of the utility.

According to Law, alternative energy sources will be investigated with renewed vigor, solar, wind, geothermal, bio-fuels are all worthy of a new look.

Lastly, Kevin stated that the gifts to charity are not condoned by state law, and they will be discontinued without regard to the merit of these organizations.

Presidents Day weekend NO MEETING
2008-02-15 00:00

James Moore “Redevelopment Challenges and Opportunities”.
2008-02-08 00:00
This morning our speaker was Dr James Moore of HDR Engineering. HDR is a nationwide firm that employs 6700 people throughout the country and will open an office on Long Island in a few weeks.

The nature of their work is large scale projects, and they encompass buildings, roads, and rail systems.
Dr Moore began with the statement that estimated cost of bringing present infrastructure into class A status is $2 trillion. Yes, that’s trillion. In addition there are numerous opportunities for urban rebuilding. Moore stated that we have seen numerous pictures of visionary refurbishing and there is a long divide between pictures and reality. The reason according to Moore is the conventional zoning we have adopted will not let us get there. A whole new systemic approach is needed to make real progress.

Dr Moore explained in some detail the problems of zoning. We build parking lots near office buildings and then mandate that no housing can be built in the same relative space. If we had multi dwelling housing across from the office buildings the parking spaces would be used by the residents when the business day was closed and the residents returned to their homes. In addition any such mixed use campus must have transit interwoven into the fabric of the community. Sewers are also needed for a comprehensive plan.

It’s not that we are overbuilt, but that we are dumbly built (my words, not his). I brought up to Dr Moore an experience I had in London in 1985. While on a tour bus we passed a cemetery where 65,000 people who perished during the plague were buried. I said to the tour guide "while 65,000 people is a large number in relative terms with the size of London, it does not seem like a large proportion of the population." He informed me that there were only 100,000 people in London at that time. London was "overcrowded", but overcrowding is relative to the infrastructure you have to support the population.

Our present land use policies makes our present day Long Island overcrowded. There are ample redesign possibilities that would render being stuck in traffic a most unusual occurrence. Unusual because either a car was not needed to get to where you want to go, as in downtown living such as Northport or Great Neck or easy and frequent inner city transit as we have in New York City.

The picture painted by James Moore was very encouraging. He showed numerous examples of redevelopment schemes that worked in other cities. He also warned that one size does not fit all. Each situation needs to be looked at considering its unique geography, and desired outcomes.

Long Islanders who wish to maintain open space, need to plan the space they want to use more thoughtfully.
In that way we will have ample living spaces, mobility, and easy access to entertainment and commercial centers.

Open Round Table Discussion
2008-02-01 00:00
Members and friends

Our meeting this morning was a round table discussion that was as interesting as any meeting we have had. We reviewed the three active LIMBA agenda items, namely;

Repowering Electric Generating Plants
Increased Rail Freight
New Ferry Service to CT

The public conversation on REPOWERING has changed substantially. Instead of discrediting the idea, LIPA is going to study repowering and publish a report on feasibility. The Barrett facility will in all likelihood be repowered. Other facilities such as Northport and Port Jefferson pose different problems, but these plants also could, with proper planning, be repowered according to former LILCO VP, Matt Cordaro. The discussion continued encompassing cost, reduced emission, and fuel flexibility. In that context Broadwater came into the conversation. Dr Cordaro stated that he knew the technology of liquefied natural gas and considered it safe. He then posed the question "If the environmental people want the plants repowered using natural gas, where do we expect to get that gas?

INCREASED RAIL FREIGHT- With less than 2% of our freight coming into Long Island on rail, we are essentially left out of the national system. According to rail freight company, Fred Krebs, we could raise that percentage to 10% and remove 325,000 tractor trailers from our roads each year. This improved service does not rely on the planned 3rd track on the main line, but it does require some work on track and bridge infrastructure amounting to about $60 million. This is not a daunting amount, but our public officials have failed to secure those funds. Another requirement is a rail/truck transload facility such as the one that is planned for Brentwood. There is local opposition to the transload operation, but that can be overcome if an access road can be built to service it. The price tag on that item is $104 million. Costly? Yes, but is it going to get cheaper if we wait? I don’t think so. The politicians need to show some leadership here and get it done.

NEW FERRIES TO CT. The LIMBA proposed ferry route from Shoreham to New Haven has caught the attention of the people on the North Fork. Those people object to the heavy traffic on their narrow, over-trafficked country road leading to the Orient Point Ferry. The traffic that will feed the proposed Shoreham ferry point will be isolated from residences and business. They have vowed to press for the establishing a new ferry system to relieve what is a legitimate problem. The new ferry system will use new surface effect technology that is not presently being used anywhere but the US Navy. This will be a high speed, high volume, ferry technology that will be at least twice as energy efficient as present equipment. Nobody wants to be inconvenienced and I don’t blame them. The providers of the new service must be able to provide a service that minimizes or eliminates perceived problems, and we believe they have. The ferry proposal is available in the library on the website.

John M. Kennedy, Suffolk County Legislator
2008-01-25 00:00
Suffolk County Legislator John Kennedy spoke at LIMBA this morning. The topic was expanding the sewers systems in the county. Suffolk County aborted its efforts to create a comprehensive sewer system when the Southwest Sewer district was completed during the 70’s. There were many problems when that system was built and politicians were circumspect about opening up that can of worms. Now we are at an impasse, and we recognize the need to expand sewers.
Today we are dealing with the restrictions on growth that not having sewers imposes on us. It is not that sewers were not built since that time, but the sewers that were built were small. Now we have 22 sewer districts in Suffolk that do not connect to each other.
These systems have failed to meet the needs of commerce and industry. The limitations also dictate how housing can be constructed. Building houses on 2 acre plots, 1/2 acre plots, or even 1/4 plots, does not get you to the point where you can have "affordable housing" because the real estate is so valuable. Without adequate sewers we cannot achieve clustered, and therefore, affordable housing.
According to Mr. Kennedy we have to plan to tie those existing sewer districts together, upgrading them to tertiary status, and expanding them. This could be achieved under the auspices of a sewer authority, similar to how the Suffolk County Water Authority is organized.
The looming question we have now is, how do we finance an ambitious sewer plan? When the Southwest Sewer District was built, more than 90% was paid by the state and federal government. Presently we do not have that largess on which to rely.

Victor Yannacone
2008-01-18 00:00
This morning’s topic raised a few eyebrows, "Global Warming Fact or Fiction." Our speaker was respected attorney and environmentalist Victor Yannacone. Victor has numerous credits to his name including being a founding member of the "Environmental Defense Fund" and lead attorney on the Agent Orange legal suit in support of Viet Nam era soldiers.

The title of his address was a little misleading. The argument presented was that the activities of human beings are not the cause of global warming. The larger impact on the phenomenon are other naturally occurring forces. There is a problem, but to ham string the United States with rules that will inhibit economic growth, is not fair because developing countries such as China and India are not bound by the same rules. Moreover, according to Yannacone, human activity accounts for only about 1% of the greenhouse gasses. I challenged Yannacone’s premise when he said that the same phenomenon has occurred numerous times over the life of the planet. I reminded him that the ice cores from which we get our data on CO 2 goes back 700,000 years, and that data suggests that the CO 2 has been dramatically higher since the industrial revolution.

You can take issue with his premise, and I did, but what he went on to say was more interesting. Conservation and alternative fuels need to be a major part of our future. He then brought the story back home. He did not cede his original proposition, but stated we must reduce our use of fossil fuels by a better use facilities we have. The Long Island Railroad should have at least one tie that binds the three track systems together. He suggested the Port Jefferson Medford and Patchogue could be tied together to create a loop. This would make the railroad more useful for intra-island transit. Housing should be more clustered and in a mixed use grouping.

"The present model under which Long Island operates is dead." The entire country needs to build the equivalent of the interstate highway system to deliver our electrical power. Building a robust rail system and electrical transmission system will substantially mitigate the greenhouse gasses that people talk about, but Yannacone was approaching some of the same conclusions without the vitriol that is usually directed to the Hummer owners

Aha….we have an ally after all. LIMBA has been advocating for a robust rail freight system for years. We now get less than 2% of our freight by rail. If we increased that amount to 10%, we would take 325,000 tractor trailers off the highways each year.

It was a very encouraging presentation because the challenge presents enormous development opportunities according to our speaker.

Martin Luther King Holiday weekend no meeting
2008-01-11 00:00

Helena Williams, LIRR President
2008-01-04 00:00
Helena Williams, newest, and first female President of the LIRR came to LIMBA today to give us an update on her first six months at the throttle of the nation’s busiest commuter railroad. Drew Scott of News 12 was in attendance and snagged a post-meeting interview. Ms. Williams has a long career in public service, from positions in New York City Government, Nassau County, and running the Long Island Bus division of the MTA. Her enthusiasm for the job is evident, and it is an exciting time to be at the LIRR, working on the first expansion of the system in over a hundred years, East Side Access (ESA). Her approach has focused on three key areas, safety, security, and service reliability. Her talk today was focused on the third area, reliability. She said that this was what has arisen most in her interactions with customers.

The two projects that will have the biggest impacts on service reliability will be ESA and the third track on the mainline between Floral Park and Hicksville. Ms. Williams is not a career railroader, but her demeanor, carriage, and experience appear to make her the right person for the job at the right time. For ESA to be a success, supporting projects in the region must also be implemented successfully, and the attempts by her predecessors to move these forward have met with ferocious resistance from those unwilling to shoulder burdens for the greater good. Her recommendation of Conquering Gotham as a reference bodes well for her prospects in completing the supporting projects. In presenting these projects, she spoke of sharing benefits and burdens on a bi-county, regional basis. To put it in a nutshell, ESA brings huge benefits to both counties, but Nassau must bear the burden of Main Line Corridor Improvements ( MLCI – third track ), and Suffolk must bear the burden of a new train storage yard somewhere. The third supporting project, trackwork in Jamaica, imposes burdens on the existing ridership, having to have things juggled while trackwork takes place within the space and time envelope already owned by the railroad.

Her description of the review process and emphasis on the railroad’s acceptance and integration of community feedback into the plans for MLCI, and a plausible description of road traffic conditions if the supporting projects don’t take place indicate that an understanding of the landscape and a recognition that different sales approach is necessary has arrived in Jamaica station on Track #1. A quick overview with light detail of some trouble spots and how MLCI can solve them shows an engaged manager with both strategic and tactical skills. All those skills will be called upon to guide the nation’s busiest railroad, running 728 daily trains with just about 1200 pieces of rolling stock carrying 289,000 customers per day.
Intra-island service was another highlight of her talk, where she described the integrated project to deal with County Road 39 construction. The LIRR’s shuttle service between Speonk and Montauk was a large, but not the only part, of this effort. She gave kudos to the East End planners that brought together van and carpooling services from LIRR stations to end destinations, plus communication facilities as a model for future projects. She emphasized the integration part of the equation, where the LIRR is part of a holistic approach to transportation, and transportation oriented development.

Once again, we had a lively Q & A session, which covered the prospects for additional shuttle service projects and the Moynihan Station/Farley Post Office project, which prompted a declaration by Ms. Williams that we should have her back for another meeting just to discuss the issues surrounding that particular item. We look forward to another informative Friday morning visit from Madame President.

Recap and pictures were provided by
Craig Plunkett
CEDX, UrbanHotspots, Fire Island Wireless
Voice:516-672-3146,Fax:631-824-9019

No Meeting-Holiday week
2007-12-28 00:00

Holiday Recess No Meeting
2007-12-21 00:00

LIMBA Holiday Breakfast
2007-12-14 00:00
The Holiday Gathering was held today and our performers were Jim Graseck on his magical violin, and Vince Dantona & George (George is a puppet).

Jim began by playing for the guests as they entered the room and until we settled in after having breakfast. His violin ability and variety of music is astounding. I sang a few songs with him and then we introduced the ventriloquist. Vince was fed a few names of people who were expected to attend and then he singled them out for a little shtick. I had hired Vince a few years ago for another Holiday party so I had seen his routine, but he was as fresh and funny this time as it was the last time. It’s been a while since I laughed as hard.

Jim Graseck has a humorous take on music and the violin in much the same way that Victor Borge had with the piano. He is classically trained and will break out in conversation with his audience while playing the most intricate piece, and never miss a note. He came back and closed out the morning with a some more holiday music and ethnic music that included Danny Boy, The Tarantella, Maleguena, A polka, and several others.

Both of these talented performers are native to Long Island and it was a pleasure to have them.
Thanks to the support of Terry Townsend, Waldo Cabrera of Islip.TV, and Doreen Guma of Adcount Direct we were able to help fund and advertise a wonderful event

Robert Catell, Chairman, Keyspan
2007-12-07 00:00
This morning our speaker Bob Catell, Chairman of the new utility entity National Grid US, gave us a recap of the transition to our new situation. In Mr. Catell’s opinion there are now opportunities that are available to the utility and the service area that would not have otherwise existed. For example the costly repowering of existing plants are more viable if the company has the resources, and it does. That does not imply that repowering is the most advantageous way of retiring old plant equipment. In some cases it may be better to build a brand new state-of-the-art plant on a new location.

Another item was the transporting of power from Canada to downstate. While Canada has ample power available to sell, the transmission lines are presently inadequate to handle the added demand. National Grid owns some of the upstate companies that would benefit from the additional, clean and abundant Hydro Quebec power. Now, National Grid owns the downstate market that was serviced by Keyspan. With that in mind it makes economic sense to invest large sums of capital in transmission lines to service all of their companies.

The subject of synergy was discussed as well. By avoiding duplicative systems there is an opportunity to save money. But there is also an opportunity to have more cross-trained personnel to help when there is a disaster. Presumably when disaster strikes, it does not disable all parts of the system equally. Trained people from New England can migrate to the effected area. The utilities have done this in the past, but now the utility will now have control over training of all of the crafts people. Thereby insuring that there is enough
personnel with the required multiple skills.

The topic of Islander East Pipeline was brought up, and although that project has been challenged by the state of Connecticut it looks probable those issues will be resolved. Broadwater was also discussed and Bob admitted that Broadwater would be helpful in servicing the needs of the region, but that issue is more murky.

Catell discussed the Advanced Energy Research program that will operate out of SUNY Stony Brook. That facility has the prospect of changing dramatically the nature of electric power production, distribution and use, as well as many other facets of the energy picture. Mr. Catell and Shirley Strum Kenny are co-chairs of that facility. We wish them well.
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Frank MacKay, Independence Party, National Chairman
2007-11-30 00:00
Members and friends
All that we try to accomplish at LIMBA is dependent on creating the political climate so that it can happen. However we do not declare any allegiance to any political party. But today we examined under the tutelage of Frank MacKay, National Chairman of the Independence Party, the workings of the political parties. We examined the effect that the so-called minor parties have on the political process.

Frank had us look at some recent elections to make his point that a "minor" party endorsement is not only helpful, it is often pivotal. In New York City where some voters "would rather cut off their right arm than pull a lever that said Republican" according to Frank, these people did pull the third party lever and Mr. Bloomberg, the Republican was voted into office. The number of people that voted on the Independence line was greater than the difference between the Republican and the Democratic votes. That Independence line was needed to put Michael Bloomberg in office.

In 1992 Ross Perot, despite running a miserable campaign, garnered 19% of the vote and Bill Clinton, won over George Bush with a mere plurality. In 2000 Ralph Nader created the same scenario and sank the campaign of Al Gore.

We then discussed the current politics at the presidential level and the contempt the public has for the president and the congress. With the president’s approval rating at 30% and the Congress at 11% MacKay thinks a third party candidate, such as Mayor Bloomberg, would have an excellent chance of winning.

To Frank’s way of thinking, social issues are not part of the process, "we don’t wear clerical collars in politics" MacKay said, "discuss those matters with people who do wear those collars. Politics to MacKay is more about political process. Election reform is the most important issue if you are interested in preserving democracy. The Independence Party recently opened their primaries to every citizen that is registered to vote in every state in the Union, and was subsequently sued by the major parties. The Independence Party won that tussle.

Ernie Fazio

Pictured: Independence Party, National Chairman, Frank MacKay, and Ernie Fazio

Thanksgiving Holiday -No Meeting
2007-11-23 00:00

Karaoke Night at LIMBA 5:30 PM (No morning mtg)
2007-11-15 00:00
Karaoke will begin Thursday afterwork at 5:30. The great Anita Bloom will preside. She is a knock-out of a performer, and runs a great show for the audience/singers.
Venue is not yet determined.
