By Amy Batista, Special Writer
CRANBURY – Lt. Giuseppe DeChiara was promoted and sworn in during the Township Committee meeting Monday night.
“Well, tonight we are going to do something a little special,” said Mayor Dan Mulligan. He said that in his six years on the committee, there has not been a swearing-in ceremony at a Township Committee meeting.
Mayor Mulligan administered the oath of office to Lt. DeChiara with his children, Dante, 15, and Clara, 11, by his side. Fellow officers, past chiefs, family, friends and Lt. DeChiara’s wife, Paula, looked on during the ceremony.
Chief Rickey Varga said in an email on Tuesday that Lt. DeChiara is currently a resident of Burlington County, but previously he was raised and lived the majority of his life as a Mercer County resident in Hamilton Township.
Lt. DeChiara attended Saint Anthony’s grammar school from K-8th grade and then graduated from Nottingham High School in 1989 where he played baseball on both the junior varsity and varsity teams. He went on to attend Mercer County Community College, graduating in May of 1992 with an associate’s degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management. Shortly thereafter, he would then attend the Culinary Institute of America located in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Chief Varga said that after securing a job as a chef in Trenton and then in West Windsor, Lt. DeChiara applied to the Burlington County Police Academy’s alternate route program, to which he was accepted.
“He would successfully complete the alternate route program and earn his full Police Training Commission certification in December of 1998,” said Chief Varga.
Lt. DeChiara was hired by the Burlington County Sheriff’s Department in February 1999 and then by the Cranbury Township Police Department less than three months later.
Chief Varga said Lt. DeChiara over the years has become proficient in traffic safety, completing a great deal of certified courses, including crash reconstruction.
Lt. DeChiara was promoted to the rank of sergeant on Oct. 11, 2010.
“I feel very humble and honored to be promoted and know that I work in one of the best towns in New Jersey with some of the best co-workers in the world,” said Lt. DeChiara in an email on Tuesday.
