BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Limba - ECPv6.16.5//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://limba.net X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Limba REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20070311T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20071104T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20080309T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20081102T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20090308T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20091101T060000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080104T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080104T000000 DTSTAMP:20080104T050000Z CREATED:20080104T050000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20080104T050000Z UID:4272-1199404800-1199404800@limba.net SUMMARY:Helena Williams\, LIRR President DESCRIPTION: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. \n  \nThe 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. \n  \nHer 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. \nIntra-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.  \n  \nOnce 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. \n  \nRecap and pictures were provided by  \nCraig Plunkett\nCEDX\, UrbanHotspots\, Fire Island Wireless\nVoice:516-672-3146\,Fax:631-824-9019 URL:https://limba.net/calendar/helena-williams-lirr-president/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080111T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080111T000000 DTSTAMP:20080111T050000Z CREATED:20080111T050000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20080111T050000Z UID:4275-1200009600-1200009600@limba.net SUMMARY:Martin Luther King Holiday weekend no meeting DESCRIPTION: URL:https://limba.net/calendar/martin-luther-king-holiday-weekend-no-meeting/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080118T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080118T000000 DTSTAMP:20080118T050000Z CREATED:20080118T050000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20080118T050000Z UID:4274-1200614400-1200614400@limba.net SUMMARY:Victor Yannacone DESCRIPTION: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.\n \nThe 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.\n \nYou 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.\n \n"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  \n \nAha….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.\n \nIt was a very encouraging presentation because the challenge presents enormous development opportunities according to our speaker. URL:https://limba.net/calendar/victor-yannacone/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080125T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080125T000000 DTSTAMP:20080125T050000Z CREATED:20080125T050000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20080125T050000Z UID:4276-1201219200-1201219200@limba.net SUMMARY:John M. Kennedy\, Suffolk County Legislator DESCRIPTION: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. \nToday 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. \nThese 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. \nAccording 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. \nThe 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. URL:https://limba.net/calendar/john-m-kennedy-suffolk-county-legislator/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR