Welcome to the Winter edition of Road Warriors!
The cold front of January brings with it the beginning of the New York State legislative session, starting with the State of the State address and the proposal of the governor’s executive budget. Projects in the pipeline wait to see if they will get the funding to be greenlit as we head into the Spring letting season.
Our cover feature is the indomitable Terri Elkowitz of VHB Engineering, whose unmatched environmental planning expertise has tentacles in nearly every major construction and development project on Long Island in the last 40 years. Terri speaks of how she dedicated herself to learning the SEQR process, thus making her an indispensable resource on Long Island. Terri is knowledgeable, a great communicator, and a leader in a field that is not an easy one in which to make your mark.
In the rest of this issue, we hear from Representative Nick LaLota, NY-1, about his vision for infrastructure investment on Eastern Long Island; John Cameron, Chairman of the Long Island Regional Planning Council, who offers analysis of needed infrastructure development (and has some thoughts on the proposed Nassau/Suffolk Metropolitan Planning Organization); Jose Dominguez, CEO of the Long Island chapter of the American Red Cross, who, in light of the wildfire disasters in California, talks about fire safety here; a photo feature spread of the inaugural FOREWomen Long Island event that brought together women in infrastructure from across the island; and finally, LICA’s own Marc Herbst questions the state of Long Island planning.
If you have any suggestions (or praise!), drop me a line at jfranchi@licanys.org.
As always, we thank you for the work you do to keep Long Island running. We look forward to a productive season and urge everyone to stay safe out there.
Thank you,
Jaime