A Hillsborough Township municipal employee was recently honored for his efforts to the community.
Hillsborough Township Construction Official John Fiedler was honored in May by the Municipal Construction Officials of New Jersey (MUNCO) as the 2019 Construction Official of the Year.
Officials said that Fieldler was unanimously elected as the 2019 Construction Official of the Year due to “his tireless efforts within the Municipal Construction Officials of New Jersey organization.”
MUNCO is a statewide organization whose membership consists of construction officials throughout New Jersey. The William Connolly Award was created several years ago, named in honor of the author of the New Jersey Uniform Construction Code, which was written and adopted in the 1970s.
For Fiedler, who has been a board member of MUNCO for approximately a decade, the honor from the state organization held much significance to him.
“Having been a MUNCO executive board member for the past 10 years, it is both a privilege and an honor to be recognized with this very prestigious award, and I am humbled to be the 2019 recipient,” Fiedler said.
As a member of the Central Jersey Code Officials Association since 2005, Fiedler is also the chairman of the Finance and Audit Committee and continues to serve on the Scholarship and Nominating Committees.
He served as Chairman of the Municipal Construction Officials Association of New Jersey from May 2010 through April 2013.
Fiedler said his career experience began when he started working in a family carpentry business at a young age.
“Pretty much as soon as I was able to swing a hammer and hold a handful of nails,” he said.
After graduating high school, Fiedler said he attended college for a brief period, but when was 19-years-old, he began a four-year apprenticeship with the local carpenters union.
“It wasn’t until my mid-20s that I took an interest in knowing why things were built the way they were, and what the requirements were for what I was building,” Fiedler said. “The inspiration was a stop-work order.”
While working in the carpenters union, Fiedler said he began taking licensing courses at a local community college. In the summer of 1995, he landed his first part-time municipal job for the borough of Raritan. After more than a year of hard work, the municipality agreed to give him a full-time position.
As Fiedler’s career progressed, he held multiple occupations such as a building inspector for Hillsborough Township; a project superintendent for one of the largest commercial construction companies in the world, Turner Construction; and a building inspector, first with several third-party agencies, until he worked more than four years with Warren Township.
Fielder said that in each of these career opportunities and various positions, he was able to hone in on his skill and knowledge of construction.
“Each job I held, I learned a variety of both construction, and inspection, techniques, methods, and styles,” he said. “And that it isn’t always about how well you know the rules or enforce the State regulations. Sometimes it’s all about your delivery and finding an amicable solution to a problem, no matter the issue.”
While experience in various positions helped Fiedler learn his craft, he said it did not come without precedent. He explained that the process to become a licensed code official in the state comes from multiple hours of training and education.
“What is sometimes overlooked is the amount of ongoing education involved with being a licensed New Jersey Code Official,” he said. “Each license held requires 15 hours of in-class training over a three-year cycle. I hold five licenses so I invest in a lot of training, which is very beneficial.”
Although Fiedler has held a myriad of positions throughout his vocation, many of his career highlights have come working directly as a municipal employee with Hillsborough since 2005. Whether it’s his colleagues or on-site experiences, Fiedler said that working in Hillsborough has provided him with plenty of new opportunities.
“It’s difficult to choose one favorite thing about working for the Township of Hillsborough, because I work with great people and have the support of a great administration,” he said. “From the perspective of a code professional, you couldn’t ask for a better variety of projects to experience in your career. We have representations of every construction type and use group found in our code books, built somewhere in town. Some examples of this include assisted living facilities, multi-family buildings, restaurants, a movie theater, horse arenas and an indoor sports facility.”
When Fiedler took a moment to reminisce on his experiences working in the township, he noted that when the municipality gave him the job, he said it was the biggest opportunity of his code career and was hired as the youngest construction official in New Jersey at the time.
Moving forward, Fiedler said he is going to take the honor in stride and look for new opportunities to not only grow the vocation for himself, but to potentially influence teenagers as well to get interested in the occupation.
“I feel it is important to have more of our youth get interested and involved in the construction trades, beginning at the high school level,” he explained. “It should be offered and encouraged as a viable career choice while considering college options. Additionally, The International Code Council has developed a program called, ‘High School Technical Training Program,’ which has been successfully implemented in Morris County and it would be great to have if offered in Somerset County as well.”
As Fiedler prepares to take on the next step in his career whether he aims to grow his own skills or to influence someone else, he noted that the most important aspect of his career is the affect it has had on him, his family and the community.
“I am happy to have done my small part in making a positive impact in this profession,” he said. “I have found my career in code administration to be both challenging and rewarding, and with the support of my family and employer, I’ve found success in it as well.”