By Victoria Hurley-Schubert, Staff Writer
Two personnel changes and one appointment were made at the Princeton Borough Council meeting on Tuesday night along with several discussions of shared services.
Robert Hough, the head of the Sewer Operating Committee for the borough and township was appointed interim engineer until the end of the year to fill Christopher M. Budzinski’s unexpired term. Mr. Budzinski died suddenly last month.
Mr. Hough, a licensed professional engineer, will continue to be paid jointly by the borough and the township at his current salary of $122,597 as head of the sewer control commission. The borough needs a principal engineer to be able to sign off on projects, release bonds and other such municipal matters.
”Thank you for your confidence and I will do the best I can,” said Mr. Hough after a vote was taken.
The other personnel matter was the promotion of a police officer. Sgt. Robert L. Currier Jr. was appointed to the position of lieutenant. He is now the fourth superior officer in the department of 30 officers. He held the rank of sergeant for 18 of his 25 years on the force.
His appointment was not without objection.
Councilman Roger Martindell, while praising Mr. Currier’s skills and job performance, did not believe the department needed another superior officer, voting against the appointment.
The appointment sparked a discussion about regionally shared police services for specialties such as arson investigators, sex crime units and police dispatching.
Shared services were touched upon again when the council passed a resolution to share public health nurse case management for childhood lead poisoning with the city of Trenton. This will make a regional public health nurse available among all the health departments of Mercer, Middlesex and Somerset counties for free.
In addition, Welmoet Bok van Kammen (CQ) was appointed to the Shade Tree Commission. Ms. Kammen is a retired policy teacher who has lived in Princeton for the past three years.

