Fourteen environmental, business, planning, transit and community advocate groups, dubbed the Coalition for the LIRR Third Track, announced its formation at the Mineola train station May 26. The group, over the next year, hopes to push along the Long Island Rail Road's (LIRR) approximate $300 million Main Line Corridor Improvement Project, which seeks to construct another track on the Main Line from Bellerose to Hicksville, improve roadway crossings and make other improvements to the corridor. FULL STORY

The Sewanhaka board of education has appointed Dr. John Williams, superintendent of schools for the city of Scranton, PA, to succeed Dr. George Goldstein as Sewanhaka's chief educational officer. At his retirement dinner, Dr. Goldstein introduced Dr. Williams and praised him as a "distinguished educator, finalist for the position of Pennsylvania Commissioner of Education, and an ideal leader for Sewanhaka in the twenty-first century." FULL STORY