May 31, 2012… Gov. Andrew Cuomo appointed three new U.S. Commissioners to the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission, the bi-national board that oversees three international bridges over the Niagara River.
They are Kathleen Neville, a public relations professional and former executive director of Shea’s Performing Arts Center in Buffalo; Russell Quarantello, a Lewiston resident and business manager of IBEW Local #237; and Francis Soda, a retired social studies teacher at Niagara Falls High School and a Niagara Falls resident.
Each serves at the governor’s behest for an undetermined duration, as does the fourth American commissioner.
The new Commissioners replace Norma Higgs, Patrick Brown and Linda DiPasquale, all of whom lived in Niagara County and represented Western New York. They join Commission Vice-Chair Thomas G. Pryce and the four Canadian Commissioners; Michael Goodale, Chair; Ernest Smith; Janice Thomson; and Kenneth Loucks.
“We are pleased to have the three new Commissioners join us in our mission to facilitate commerce and the movement of goods and people safely and efficiently across our international border,” said Goodale. “Their varied backgrounds and experiences will help immeasurably with the work the Commission must accomplish in the next few years.”
The Commission operates the Lewiston-Queenston, Rainbow and NEXUS-only Whirlpool bridges. The Commission was created by a joint resolution of the 1938 U.S. Congress. The Extra Provincial Corporations Act of the Province of Ontario, Canada licenses the NFBC. Canada and the U.S. are equally represented on the eight-member Board of Commissioners.
Established to finance, construct and operate the Rainbow Bridge, the Commission proved sufficiently efficient and effective to assume responsibilities for the Whirlpool Rapids and Lewiston-Queenston bridges as well. The Commission builds and maintains facilities for Customs and Immigration functions on both sides of the border. The NFBC is self-supportive, largely through tolls and private-sector Customs broker leases. The Commission is federally chartered to conduct international commercial financial transactions and issue federal (U.S.) tax-exempt bonds.
No other single factor contributes more to tourism growth – indeed the export trade economy overall – than the NFBC’s three bridges. Niagara Falls crossings rank second only to Kennedy International Airport as the busiest port of entry between the United States and Canada. If you are about to travel over the Niagara River Gorge, your vehicle will take one of about 7.8 million passages expected this year on NFBC bridges.
Trade traversing the U.S.-Canada border exceeds $1 billion per day. Niagara Falls crossings ring up $26 billion per year. That’s $3 million rolling over the three bridges every hour. More than 500,000 U.S. and Canadian jobs depend on export traffic traveling across NFBC connectors.
Neville, who operates Neville Consultants, was senior vice president at Hill and Knowlton Public Relations in New York City and worked for Ketchum Public Relations in Washington, D.C. She was also an associate member of the Niagara County Convention and Visitors Bureau. The former television and radio broadcaster graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology and received a graduate fellowship in English/communications from Niagara University.
Quarantello is a master electrician who worked for numerous electric contractors over the years and also at Carborundum Co., Viatran Corp., and the U.S. Small Business Administration. He was elected to his position as the union local’s principal officer in 2007.
Soda retired in 2010 after a 41-year teaching career. He holds a BA and MA from Niagara University and an MS from Buffalo State College. He taught at Niagara Falls High School for 23 years and is also an adjunct at Erie Community College and Niagara University. A former Niagara Falls City Council member, twice, he also served on the Love Canal Area Revitalization Agency.