By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Princeton plans to hire the next municipal engineer before current engineer Robert V. Kiser retires this summer, with the job search limited to employees within the town’s engineering department, administrator Marc D. Dashield said Monday.
“It will be an internal search,” Mr. Dashield said at Mayor Liz Lempert’s press conference. There are four engineers in the department, not counting Mr. Kiser.
Mr. Dashield explained the job search would be limited to in-house candidates “because we’ve got great personnel within this organization.”
“It’s one of the few times,” he continued, “where you can do a search where there’s, you know, you’ve got a great talent pool right here. So we want to start here first.”
The town council will have to approve the choice, a decision that officials are expected to make in the next 60 to 90 days. Mr. Kiser is leaving July 1.
“I can’t tell you when exactly,” Mr. Dashield said, “but we’re trying to make sure we appoint someone before” Mr. Kiser leaves.
Mr. Kiser announced his retirement in January. He began working for the then-township in 1983 and transitioned to the merged town to lead the consolidated engineering department. The town has spoken of his vast institutional knowledge that will be hard to replace.
“We’re surely going to miss Bob, he’s just such a force,” said Council President Lance Liverman at the press conference. “I don’t know how we’re going to find anyone to come to close to his experience and knowledge.”
