Plan nurtures LI's defense, aerospace industry

The thirtysomethings in Long Island's business community know little about the region's once booming aerospace and defense industry, and it's time they did, according to the Association for a Better Long Island.

So the developers group has named one of these young business leaders, Michael Polimeni, 31, to head a committee to build support in the business community for aerospace and defense companies here. One reason ABLI wants to support the industry is that defense contractors often look for industrial space, and the committee will keep abreast of things to know who needs what and when.

But there is another reason as well. ABLI spokesman Gary Lewi said that with employment in aerospace and defense at about 30,000 -- it was about 80,000 in the heyday of the 1980s -- there seems to be a sense the industry is either gone or so small it makes little difference. But the jobs are still among the highest-paying on the Island, and the technology the companies produce is key to the Island's future.

Polimeni, chief operating officer of a Garden City-based developer, the Polimeni Group, said the committee is just getting off the ground.

"We're kind of stockpiling [ideas] as we speak," he said. Among the plans: lobbying Congress on behalf of LI contractors and encouraging kids to study engineering.