Morgan Kaolian Wants Everyone to Enjoy Long Beach West

One of the members of the newly appointed Long Beach West Blue Ribbon Commission, Morgan Kaolian said he became involved in waterfront issues in the 1970s while he filed beach reports for radio station WICC from his airplane on summer weekends.

"When I was flying for the radio station on the weekend, I was overwhelmed by what I saw," he said. "Thousands of boats on the water and people at the beaches."

So in 1978, he started Long Island Sound America (LISA), an organization devoted to promoting the recreational use of Long Island Sound and its many resources. Among the activities sponsored by LISA are sandcastle contests and "The Greatest Bluefish Contest on Earth."

He is no longer the local radio traffic reporter, but Kaolian is still a well known local pilot who runs an aerial photography business and is a member of the Sikorsky Airport Commission. He has lived in Stratford since the early 1980s.

Kaolian said he thinks the commission’s next meeting, when members bring in their ideas for how to use Long Beach West, will be an important one.

"We have to know where everybody’s coming from," he said.

He doesn’t want to waste time producing another report that just sits on a shelf and nobody reads.

"We need to makes sure everybody gets out there and enjoys the beach," he said.

Editor's note: This is the first in a series of articles profiling the members of the Long Beach West Blue Ribbon Commission.