Blues come in twos

At Monday’s Board of Trustees meeting, two new police officers joined the ranks and two current officers were promoted to sergeant, replacing two longtime sergeants who are preparing to retire.

The new recruits come to the village with experience in the New York City Police Department, which Police Commissioner Charles Gennario said would be a great help. “It’s very exciting to have new members joining our department,” he said. “Fresh new blood is always appreciated and accepted, and we need their assistance very much.”

The first of the recruits, Anthony Federico, 32, was raised in Middle Village, Queens, the third child of Italian immigrants. After graduating from Forest Hills High School in 1999, he attended Queensborough Community College at night while working for a moving company. In 2005, he joined the NYPD.

Federico began his service in New York patrolling the 102nd and 103rd precincts. In October 2007 he was assigned to the Queens South automobile theft unit, and in January 2012 he was transferred to the juvenile justice division, where he investigated youth gangs by monitoring Facebook accounts of suspected members.

In addition to his police work, Federico studied for a degree in criminal justice at John Jay College. He married his college sweetheart in June 2012.

Like Federico, Dominic Scicutella, 39, also comes to the village after service in the NYPD. He was raised in Ozone Park, Queens, one of six children, and moved to Massapequa with his family when he was 17.

After graduating from Massapequa High School, Scicutella studied at Dowling College, and worked for FedEx Express for 15 years before joining the NYPD in July 2012, and being assigned to patrol the 113th precinct in Jamaica, Queens. He has been married since 2004, and his wife, Dena, has been a member of the Nassau County Police Department for eight years. In 2009 they welcomed identical twin boys, Marco and Dean.

The two retiring sergeants, Edward Calder and Robert Heinemann, have served in the RVCPD for 18 and 10 years, respectively. Their retirement packages, Gennario noted, are already covered, as three officer retirement packages are included in each year’s village budget.

The new officers were sworn in at the meeting, and two current officers, Paul Pope and James Giovanniello, were promoted to sergeant.

“I’m very excited about these two promotions,” said Gennario. “Both of them have been very productive members as police officers, and they come to the supervisory ranks with a tremendous amount of experience.”