Howard bids farewell, Kathleen Baxley sworn in

“I have one more presentation tonight,” Rockville Centre Mayor Francis Murray said nearly an hour into Monday night’s village board meeting. “I’ll try and get through this.”

He stepped up to the podium, where he offered an emotional sendoff to Nancy Howard, who announced last month that she would be stepping down as deputy mayor.

“Tonight you will notice that there are only three trustees sitting up on my side,” Murray told the residents in attendance. “That’s because tonight, we say goodbye and pay tribute to not just a public official, but to a special friend and member of our family.”

Howard was the village’s deputy mayor since 2011, and served as a liaison to the Rockville Centre Fire Department, the Sandel Senior Center, the Martin Luther King Center and the village’s recreation center. Representatives from each, the mayor and trustees Emilio Grillo, Michael Sepe and Edward Oppenheimer thanked Howard for her service, and presented her with gifts.

Howard’s pending resignation had come after her husband, David, accepted a job as the chief executive officer of Brightline — a railway transit system being developed in Florida — in March. Howard had said at the May 1 meeting that she planned to move to Miami in June.

“I can’t possibly express how much this experience has been my privilege and my blessing,” Howard said at Monday’s meeting. “…To watch this community rally around each other in big ways and in quiet ways is remarkable, and that’s what makes this a very special place. …I hope the residents of this community know that I will miss them dearly. It’s been a privilege to raise my family here, and we are all the better for that.”

Following the farewell, which concluded with a standing ovation, Kathleen Baxley was introduced and sworn in as Howard’s replacement. Baxley, a South Side High School graduate, works at the United Church’s nursery school, and has served on PTA boards in the Rockville Centre School District, as well as on the board for the Rockville Centre Education Foundation, the RVC Breast Cancer Coalition and the Sponsors of the Arts. She has also been a Girl Scout leader for more than a decade, and served as a Cub Scout den leader for five years.

“Kathleen’s vast experience, knowledge of our village and devotion to Rockville Centre makes her the most qualified person for this job,” Murray said.

“I’m just excited, and I’m looking forward to serving the residents of Rockville Centre,” Baxley told the Herald after the meeting. “I’m honored to be asked, and I’m looking forward to working with the trustees and the mayor.”