NYMTC and the Nassau Cnty. Planning Dept. officials held a hearing on funding for a Nassau (LI) Hub Major Investment Study. However, neither agency provided any information about the substance of the study, the modes that would be examined or the public outreach process in advance of a hearing. At the hearing itself, Nassau and NYMTC officials gave only a generic explanation of the MIS process. Yet because citizens spoke to a stenographer who took notes "for the record," community activists are concerned that the content-free hearing will nevertheless be used as the required MIS hearing for federal funding.

Long Island Neighborhood Network, which formed the Nassau Hub Citizens Advisory Committee to watchdog the initial concept study released over a year ago, was thanked by civic associations for making them aware of the hearing.

Despite lack of information, citizens presented several useful comments. First, they stated that the scope of the MIS should cover more than just the 2.9 mile Hub (Hofstra Univ., the Roosevelt Field Shopping center, the Nassau Coliseum and Nassau Community College). Further, they said that the light rail/people mover system plan was poorly crafted. They called for better connections with other transport services in Nassau, not just the Hub and said that the loop system does not accomplish that goal. They suggested that an existing right-of-way be used to connect the nearby Mineola RR line of the LIRR to Hub destinations. Bert Donnelly, president of the Garden City Chamber of Commerce noted, "The [current] Hub proposal constitutes an amusement park solution to a serious urban congestion problem."