By Philip Sean Curran Staff Writer
An assistant to municipal engineer Robert V. Kiser was named this week to take over from him in July after he retires this summer.
Deanna Stockton, the only candidate that the Princeton Council interviewed for the job, was the first order of business that council members voted on at their meeting Monday. She shook hands with officials, in getting a promotion to lead a department that is seen as one of the most critical in municipal government given the scope and variety of projects it is tasked with managing.
The town looked in-house for Mr. Kiser’s replacement, although it was not immediately known how many others applied for the job in addition to Ms. Stockton. She started working for the then-township in 2000, left for a few years and then returned in 2005. She has been one of Mr. Kiser’s chief lieutenants and seen as being groomed to fill his shoes once he left.
Ms. Stockton, 44, said Tuesday that she takes “great pride” in serving the community. She is a native of California, where she attended Santa Clara University, lived for at time in Oregon and relocated east for her husband’s job. She lives in Montgomery.
Her salary was not disclosed.
Once Mr. Kiser steps away, she will inherit overseeing a series of road improvements around town, the completion of the AvalonBay residential development, a plan to create bike lanes and all the other business that comes through the department.
“I’m very pleased with the decision that council made,” Mr. Kiser said Tuesday by phone. “We have an outstanding engineering department, and I’m sure the leadership and the staff within the department will continue in serving Princeton in an exemplary manner.”
Mr. Kiser hired Ms. Stockton to work for the then-township in 2000, when she was a director of engineering for a consulting firm in Oregon. He said he was impressed with her experience, her ability to manage projects and how she had climbed the ladder in a once male-dominated field at such a young age in her late 20s.
He called her a quick learner with an impressive intellect who has the personality to get along with everyone the department deals with. That will include having to deal with the council, members of the community and major stakeholders, including Princeton University, the largest landowner in town.
As for Mr. Kiser, he is due to retire this summer, ending 33 years as a municipal employee. July 1 will be his last day.
