Sharon Cates-Williams, Suffolk County’s chief information officer, is leaving her post at the end of the month to take a position in the state’s information technology department.
Cates-Williams, 47, of Medford, said she will become the deputy chief information officer for the Delivery Services Group of the New York State Office for Technology. She said the move had been in the works for a couple of months
Cates-Williams, who joined County Executive Steve Levy’s administration in 2005, will leave as the county is in the midst of constructing a trial run for its countywide wireless Internet project.
The project’s trial along a 2.5-mile stretch of Route 110 was initially scheduled ....
....to launch in January. It is now slated to begin this summer, Cates-Williams and Levy spokesman Mark Smith said today.
Legis. Wayne Horsley (D-Babylon), who with Cates-Williams is a co-chairman of Suffolk’s Wireless Commission, said the trial is set to launch as soon as agreements are reached to place wireless transmitters on Long Island Power Authority poles in the Towns of Huntington and Babylon and in the Village of Amityville.
Horsley said he hopes the trial launches before the summer.
“This has been dragging on too long,” he said. “If people are going to be taking this project seriously, we have to get this project up and running.”
Cates-Williams, who earned $113,819 with the county, said she is excited about moving to Albany.
"I think I was just recognized for the work I've been doing down here," she said.