BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Limba - ECPv6.16.5//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Limba 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: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 BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20100314T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20101107T060000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20090508T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20090508T000000 DTSTAMP:20090508T040000Z CREATED:20090508T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20090508T040000Z UID:4343-1241740800-1241740800@limba.net SUMMARY:Helena Williams\, Pres. LIRR DESCRIPTION: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.  \nWhenever 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.  \n\nThe 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.\n\nIn 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:\n\nMain Line Corridor third track \n\nDouble tracking between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma\nJamaica Throughput improvements and platform extensions\nNew Yards/ Electrification\nFleet Expansion with M9 cars\n\nGiven 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. \nHelena 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. \nThe 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. \nA 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. \nCompetition 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. \nThe 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. \nThe 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. \nReprt written by– \nCraig Plunkett- URL:https://limba.net/calendar/helena-williams-pres-lirr/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20090515T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20090515T000000 DTSTAMP:20090515T040000Z CREATED:20090515T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20090515T040000Z UID:4348-1242345600-1242345600@limba.net SUMMARY:Senator Ken LaValle DESCRIPTION: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. \nI 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. \nMr. 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. \nLaValle 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.” \nHe 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. \nAn 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. \nHe 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. \n Ernie Fazio URL:https://limba.net/calendar/senator-ken-lavalle/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20090521T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20090521T000000 DTSTAMP:20090521T040000Z CREATED:20090521T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20090521T040000Z UID:4404-1242864000-1242864000@limba.net SUMMARY:Mark Alessi NY State Assemblyman (TBC) DESCRIPTION:Topic – not confirmed URL:https://limba.net/calendar/mark-alessi-ny-state-assemblyman-tbc/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20090522T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20090522T000000 DTSTAMP:20090522T040000Z CREATED:20090522T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20090522T040000Z UID:4340-1242950400-1242950400@limba.net SUMMARY:No meeting- Memorial Day Weekend celebrated DESCRIPTION: URL:https://limba.net/calendar/no-meeting-memorial-day-weekend-celebrated/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20090529T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20090529T000000 DTSTAMP:20090529T040000Z CREATED:20090529T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20090529T040000Z UID:4353-1243555200-1243555200@limba.net SUMMARY:Brookhaven National Laboratory- on site meeting DESCRIPTION: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. \nBNL 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 \nWe 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. \nIn 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. \nWe 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” \nWhen 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. \nOn 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. \nOut 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.  \nI 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. \nErnie Fazio URL:https://limba.net/calendar/brookhaven-national-laboratory-on-site-meeting/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR