Talking with the village’s newest hires

 There have been some changes in the lineup of Rockville Centre officials. 

Although Water Superintendent Kevin Reilly started working with the village in August, he’s been very busy since then. He replaced Harry Weed, who retired in September. Reilly is overseeing many upgrades and changes to the village’s water infrastructure, including the renovation of the tank near South Side High School, which was finished in February after many months of being out of service. 

After months of the position of village administrator being empty, Kathleen Murray has taken over the position. She previously served as deputy village administrator for planning and strategic initiatives and was appointed to the position two weeks ago. (She is not related to Mayor Francis X. Murray.)

The previous village administrator, Keith Spadaro, left in October 2015 for a private-sector job at a financial services firm in New York City. Mayor Murray took over the position temporarily.

The Herald sat down with Reilly and Murray last week to ask some questions about their new jobs and the future of the village. These answers have been edited for length and clarity. 

Herald: You’ve been with the village since August. How’s that been?

Kevin Reilly: It’s been good. It’s been busy. We’ve had a lot of projects that were in the middle of being completed, that we were finally able to complete. And some projects came up and we’re starting some projects now. It’s just an ongoing work.

Herald: Speaking of those projects, could you talk about the water tank near South Side High School?

Reilly: The water tank was taken out of service last year for major rehabilitation and painting. And over the course of a year, they blasted and painted… the inside and outside of the tank. And performed some other necessary upgrades to the tank. After that was done, we went and filled it. We realized that after some going back and forth between the [Nassau County] Health Department, we narrowed it down to that the media in the iron removal plant needed to be replaced.

Herald: Would you say there were particular challenges with that?