MASSENA - The chairman of the Massena Housing Authority’s Board of Commissioners said they’ll likely use two people to fill their executive director position following the death of Patrick J. Regan Jr.

Mr. Regan died early Wednesday morning at Canton-Potsdam Hospital.

“We would name an interim director. It might be a co-director,” W. John Davis said Wednesday.

He suggested that current housing authority employees Marshall Emburey and Kathy Ayotte could fill in effectively until they name a new executive director.

“They’re both qualified to do it in the interim, no problem at all. One is very familiar with the administration, which is Cathy. Marshall does all the maintenance. We have two key people that can keep the operation going until we can find someone,” Mr. Davis said.

He said they had just completed and passed the authority’s budget, and they are “just about at the end of the contract negotiations with the union.

“That will continue. Hopefully it will wrap up soon,” Mr. Davis said.

He said the board would begin work on finding a new executive director, but he expected it to take some time, likely around six months.

“We will start the process here sometime after the funeral where we’ll put out the notice of the job as we did the last time four or five years ago. We’ll do it locally and in some professional publications. We’ll start dong that sometime around the 15th of July, then we’ll start getting them in,” Mr. Davis said.

He said board members will likely appoint a search committee “that will eliminate the obvious ones that aren’t qualified” and then would start reviewing the applications of those who remain.

“Eventually we’ll get it down and start the interview process and end up selecting someone. We’re probably talking a minimum of three months, but six months is probably logical to find someone,” he said.

“We have the ability to continue with the interim until we’re able to go through the process and hire somebody. It’s nothing that we want to rush into, but it’s nothing we want to delay either,” Mr. Davis said. “We’ll go right into the process. Cathy was there the last time and is familiar with what we need to do. I’m sure that we will find someone qualified and hopefully we can do it in six months.”

Mr. Regan had been the housing authority’s executive director for the past five years, replacing John Greene, who retired.

“If I was to sum it up, I would say Pat Regan was a nice guy. He got along well with the employees and the tenants. You can use a lot of different adjectives, but my short one would be he was just a nice guy, he did a nice job. We were happy with Pat, he liked the job, he put a lot of effort into it and he was just a good, effective director. We, the board, the tenants and employees enjoyed him,” according to Mr. Davis, who was informed of Mr. Regan’s death at about 8 a.m. Wednesday

Funeral arrangements for Mr. Regan, 60, a Norwood resident, are incomplete with the Buck Funeral Home in Norwood. Calling hours are tentatively set for 4 to 8 p.m. Friday at the funeral home.

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