East Hampton Hires New Village Administrator

     East Hampton Village has appointed a replacement for Larry Cantwell, the village administrator for the past 30 years, Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. announced at a village board meeting on Friday.

     Rebecca Molinaro, the clerk-treasurer of the Village of Westhampton Beach, will assume the role on May 1. Mr. Cantwell and Ms. Molinaro will work together until Mr. Cantwell's retirement in July.

     Ms. Molinaro has a master's degree in public policy and 10 years of government experience as executive assistant to Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele. She has served in her present role for the past three years. Ms. Molinaro said Friday that she and her daughter, Emma McGrory, will relocate from Remsenburg to East Hampton. Her starting salary, said the mayor, will be $95,000 per year.

     "Becky's education and work experience is directly within the area of expertise required for the position of village administrator and this makes her an outstanding choice to carry on the tradition of good work by Larry," the mayor said in a prepared statement.

     The incoming village administrator said after the meeting that she is "very excited and thrilled" about her upcoming post. In governing on a local level, she said, "the response is tangible and almost immediate." She said her hiring gives her "an amazing opportunity to become part of it."

     Mayor Rickenbach and Ms. Molinaro discussed the considerable similarities between the villages, which include a year-round population that swells in size with an influx of summer residents and visitors, issues of storms and coastal erosion and, especially in recent years, the need to be familiar with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

     The mayor described Ms. Molinaro as "a professional lady and a class act," and predicted "an extremely smooth and transparent transition."