New officers, new laws

The Rockville Centre village board swore in four new police officers, passed three local laws and signed cooperative agreements with the school district on Monday.

The four new officers — Ken Robokoff, Dennis Clark, Eric Hores and Scott Hockney — all come to the RVCPD with previous experience. They also help fill out the ranks of the department, which has been somewhat short-staffed following a string of retirements last year, raising the number of officers to 51.

"Our interview process is very tough," said Police Commissioner Charles Gennario.

"We stole all four officers from the New York City Police Department," Gennario joked. Hockney had 10 years with the NYPD, while Hores had nine, Clark had eight and Robokoff had seven years. "There's over 35 years of experience standing up here," Gennario said. Hockney and Clark are also veterans of the U.S. Army.

'We're finally here'

Following in the footsteps of the Board of Education, the village board voted to sign two cooperative agreements with the school district. "Well, we're finally here," said Trustee David Krasula.

The signing of the agreements marks the end of more than a year of discussions and threats between the village and school district. A municipal agreement provides for a sharing of services by the two entities — including allowing the village to use school facilities for its annual summer recreation program, and allowing the school district to use village fields for its sports teams.

A second agreement outlines the use of parking at Fireman's Memorial Field. It states that student parking will no longer be allowed there, and also that the school district will be responsible for simple maintenance of the parking field.

"Reaching these agreements was not a simple matter," said Mayor Mary Bossart. "We believe we now have fair agreements in place."

New laws