To help garner support in opposing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority/Long Island Rail Road's (MTA/LIRR) Main Line Corridor Improvements Project, which, among other things, suggests adding an additional track to the LIRR Main Line, Floral Park Mayor Phil Guarnieri shed some light on the topic at the Village of Garden City's Dec. 1 board meeting. Floral Park Trustee Tom Tweedy, liaison to Floral Park's Third Track Task Force, Dennis McEnery, a task force member; and Ginny Appel, Floral Park's village administrator, also attended the meeting.

Among those at the forefront in opposing the additional track, Mayor Guarnieri offered insight into the proposal, which has left many fearing for their homes and speculating the track will allow for increased freight along the Main Line.

"Garden City has been very supportive of us in this fight against the MTA/LIRR expansion," Mayor Guarnieri said. "We are extremely pleased to have [Garden City] as an ally in this great enterprise of ours."

Mayor Guarnieri continued, adding, "Garden City possesses a largely educated and affluent population and they have, unmistakably, an orientation to the future, which is always necessary for progress. I think we all share the ethos that the future is not something to be awaited for but something to be achieved. That's why we're trying to cooperate together in something I think is very key. Also like Garden City, most of our issues have at their core a history and policy of land use, which is mostly developed ... Land really is the basis of our wealth here and our well-being."

He noted that the proposed electrified 11.5-mile track greatly concerns Floral Park, which already has four tracks running through it. "The MTA/LIRR is almost an invisible government in the sense that it has a nearly $5 billion budget and 23 members, 17 of which are voting members, who are all appointed," he explained. "We were very concerned that in building this additional track there wouldn't be a democratic expression of the people. We didn't want to leave our future in the hands of something decided by a bureaucratic fiat."

The Village of Floral Park first sought to get the facts. Mayor Guarnieri invited MTA/LIRR officials to a public meeting in Floral Park, in which they came to discuss their reason behind an additional track - to increase the reverse commute from Manhattan to Long Island, especially eastern Long Island.

Mayor Guarnieri, members of Floral Park's village board as well as residents, however, don't buy it. Floral Park experienced in June 1962 a track elevation on Tulip Avenue, which Mayor Guarnieri noted caused much disruption. Heavy traffic conditions existed, some local businesses could no longer support themselves and were forced to close and properties were taken. Mayor Guarnieri believes the Main Line Corridor Improvements Project is of Olympian proportions and would take even longer to complete. "We saw no upshot for our village and quite frankly, we didn't see any positives for our sister villages either," he admitted.

As a result, Floral Park officials formed a task force consisting of various business, civic and community leaders to network with other communities like Garden City, Mineola and Stewart Manor, to form a coalition in order to develop a grassroots effort. "We found the key to fighting this project was that we had to make it part of a democratic process," he added. "We wanted our public officials, who appoint the MTA members, to have a say in all of this."

Local politicians, including Senators Kemp Hannon and Michael Balboni, Town of Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray, Legislators Vincent Muscarella and Rich Nicolello, Assemblyman Tom Alfano and others have since publicly opposed the project. "We put it in the democratic arena by marshaling public sentiment," Mayor Guarnieri continued. "Those able to marshal public sentiment have more power than those who legislate and make laws. Our country is still about what the first three words in the Constitution state: We the People. What we showed in this whole process was that we the people are the ones who really have the power to get our public officials to create the leverage we need to get the MTA/LIRR to listen to us."

Mayor Guarnieri also noted that the Capital Review Board, in an unprecedented move, is not allowing the MTA/LIRR to spend any of the monies until they come back a second time and provide a specific plan. While Mayor Guarnieri admits it wasn't a home run, he does believe progress is being made.

The MTA/LIRR is the oldest railroad in America, charted in 1834. Mayor Guarnieri reiterated that the affected communities - Garden City, Floral Park, South Floral Park, Bellerose, Stewart Manor, Mineola, New Hyde Park, Westbury, New Cassel and Hicksville - are not opposed to railroads and recognize their importance to each of the communities. "This is not a question of 'not in my backyard.' This is a question of 'enough in our backyard.' We already have a number of tracks going though, which is serving our community adequately. So this isn't some innate antagonism against the LIRR," he reassured.

He credited Garden City officials for the suggested approach to the issue: Favor the elimination of all of the proposed on-grade crossings for obvious safety reasons but do not approve the need for an additional Main Line track. "I thank [Garden City] Mayor [Gerard] Lundquist and [Garden City] Trustee Nick Episcopia for coming up with that suggestion. I think it was very effective at the [scoping] meetings," Mayor Guarnieri said.