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Light Rain Molloy breaks ground on Public Square
By ALEX COSTELLO
Holding gold shovels wrapped with purple bows and wearing white hard hats emblazoned with the school’s logo, Molloy College dignitaries braved a biting wind on Sept. 30 at a ceremony to break ground on the college’s new Public Square.
“We are here today to celebrate what is a beginning,” said Molloy President Dr. Drew Bogner. “The Public Square and the buildings that will follow will take us into an even better future.”
The square is part of the first phase of the college’s new Facility Master Plan, which the school initiated in 2004. The plan outlines long-term changes for Molloy, most of which focus on buildings on its grounds. The first phase includes the Public Square as well as the school’s first dormitory, for which Bogner believes the school will be breaking ground in March 2010.
At the ceremony, Bogner said that the Public Square will live up to its name, and be a central hub for the campus and the community as well. It will have meeting areas, classrooms and a theater.
More than 150 people attended the groundbreaking, including faculty, staff and students as well as the school’s benefactors. Among the crowd were Diocese of Rockville Centre Bishop William Murphy, state Sen. Dean Skelos, Assemblyman Bob Barra, Town of Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray, Rockville Centre Mayor Mary Bossart, Deputy Mayor Chuck Joyce, Trustee Dave Krasula, newly-elected trustees Kevin Glynn, Ed Oppenheimer and Village Justice Kevin McDonough.
“This is a great day for all of us in Rockville Centre,” Skelos said. “Molloy has been a part of the fabric that makes Rockville Centre the great place to live that it is.”
The funding for the project came from a six-year-long fundraising effort by the school that raised over $19 million — about $13 million in personal donations and the rest in government grants. Bogner thanked all of the largest contributors, including Madison National Bank CEO Daniel Murphy and the bank’s director, Gerald Kaiser, both of whom are members of the college’s board of trustees. Murphy and Kaiser donated $1.75 million for the naming rights to the theater, which will be called the Madison National Bank Theater.
