SOURCE:
By Michael Dobie
The general aggravation of bad weather became very specific for 30 Long Islanders gathered Tuesday morning at the Melville park ‘n’ ride on the Long Island Expressway. It was 6 a.m., and members of the Long Island Lobby Coalition were waiting in the cold and slush for the bus that would take them to Albany for their annual Long Island Lobbying Day — a bus that never came.
“We called the bus company 11 times before they picked up,” Citizens Campaign for the Environment executive director Adrienne Esposito told The Point.
That was when the group learned the driver had hit a patch of black ice somewhere on Long Island, flew off the road and into a ditch. The bus company said it probably could get the driver there in about two hours, but the group called off the trip.
“We said that won’t work, it’ll be the height of rush hour, we’ll miss all the Senate and Assembly meetings,” Esposito said.
By midmorning, they were busy rescheduling the spate of confirmed meetings with 18 Assembly members and seven state senators as well as a contingent of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s staff.
The group — which included CCE, the Long Island Federation of Labor, AARP, various chambers of commerce and civic organizations, and others — had an ambitious agenda to push. Among the topics — and this is but a small selection — were small business assistance, bus funding for both counties, offshore wind, reducing packaging waste, Hochul’s housing plan, universal school meals, sewers in Hempstead, and a Huntington Station land transfer.
While the group hopes the bus going off the road is not a metaphor for its lobbying campaign, Esposito acknowledged that the new date, March 14, is deeper into the state budget season than usual.
“Sooner would have been better but it was certainly beyond our control,” she said. “We were heartbroken but we’re not deterred.”
As with many weather stories, this one also had a silver lining. Said Esposito: “Next time, we’ll probably have even more people.”