March 20, 2006

Leigh Fisher Associates

These are the guys working on our 20 year Master Plan. In December of 2004, we had a meeting up the airport but never saw them in 2005 and are waiting for some numbers from the New England Regional Study Plan.

They made the Herald today (http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=130893). Here is are a couple of small portions:


The free-spending Massachusetts Port Authority, fresh off another round of pay raises, recently dropped $154,000 on a self-congratulatory economic impact report that came to the obvious conclusion that Boston’s airport and seaport are economic engines for the region. “It’s absolutely absurd. It’s a complete waste of public money,” John Vitagliano, a former Massport board member, said of the study. The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce kicked in $35,000, putting the total price tag of the 33-page glossy puff piece at $189,000.



California-based airport consultants Leigh Fisher Associates compiled the report based on surveys of local employers and government agencies. The study, which took a year, claims Massport generates $8.7 billion a year in economic activity.


I wonder if the report had anything on ORH and the potential economic spin-off for ORH if there was more commerical service?? More importantly, is there a potential conflict with Leigh Fisher working closely with MassPort doing our Master Plan??

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bill:

It's unlikely that there's a conflict between the Master Plan and the economic impact study. The EIS work is actually a regularly updated exercise performed by most major airports around the country to effectively ascertain the ecomonic benefits they provide to the immediate area and beyond (you'll find a lot of this kind of PR fodder in airport annual reports). In terms of methodology, one task inlcudes an assessment of annual compensation by zip code to understand where the money flows - and yes, there are Massport employee zip codes running from Worcester all the way up to Nashua, NH (lots of MPA employees from everywhere!).

Leigh Fisher is a good company, really - perhaps it's Massport who needs to step up to the plate and wrap up this Master Plan!

Bill Randell said...

Didn't mean to offend Leigh Fisher Associates. All I know is that it would be nice to have a Master Plan in our hands when there are critical decisions that need to happen as ourt current operating agreement expires in 16 months.

Anonymous said...

Bill, do you want me to track down a copy of that report that Leigh Fisher Associates produced for Massport on Logan?