The Hillsborough Township Committee dedicated a portion of their January meeting to honor a local engineer.
At a Jan. 14 meeting, the Hillsborough Township Committee recognized Neil Van Cleef, founder of Van Cleef Engineering Associates, and honored him with a proclamation for having been recognized by the Boy Scouts of America Patriots’ Path Council at their Toast to Scouting Awards Dinner on Nov. 21.
“The Hillsborough Township Committee congratulates Neil Van Cleef for the honor bestowed upon him by the Boy Scouts of America,” Hillsborough Township Mayor Doug Tomson said in a statement.
Officials said this award recognizes recipients for their community service as demonstrated by their leadership and interests within the community, and for their embodiment of the values of the century-old “Scout Oath and Law” in their personal and professional lives.
Partners of Van Cleef Engineering Associates, Cindy Norfleet, Van Cleef’s daughter, and Mike Ford, attended the meeting to accept the honorary proclamation on Van Cleef’s behalf.
According to municipal officials, VanCleef has supported multiple local organizations including the Boy Scouts of America, Adult Day Care Center, Steeplechase Medical Center, Hillsborough Raiders, Hunterdon Medical Center, Raritan Recreation, Raritan Valley Community College, Resource Center of Somerset, Somerset County 4H Association, Rotary Club of Hillsborough, Project Graduation, and the Hillsborough Baseball League.
Van Cleef founded his engineering firm in 1972, and it has grown to 12 offices throughout New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware with more than 190 employees, and has been ranked as one of the top engineering firms in New Jersey.
Additionally, Van Cleef has served as Director of the MidAtlantic Chapter of AAA and on the boards of Team Capital and Montgomery National Bank.
Shortly after Tomson honored Norfleet and Ford with the proclamation, Norfleet explained that Van Cleef could not be in attendance for the meeting given a recent vacation he took, but was honored to share her experiences working with him.
“Anyone who knows Neil [Van Cleef], knows that he is a man of few words, and I will uphold that tradition,” Norfleet said. “I know that if he were here tonight, he would say he is the luckiest man in the world to have grown up in Hillsborough Township, and is proud to give back to organizations like the Boy Scouts.”
In September, Van Cleef’s office building on Railsedge Road and Brower Lane also received approval for a minor subdivision approval from the township planning board.
The decision came from the Hillsborough planners at a Sept. 5 meeting, where Van Cleef sought minor subdivision approval to adjust an existing lot line to reconfigure two lots of property situated near 10 Railsedge Road and 32 Brower Lane.
The property in discussion for the application is the current site of the Van Cleef Engineering Associates office complex in Hillsborough.
According to the submitted application, no new site improvements or changes were proposed as part of the application on properties in the central residential or gateway zoning districts.
Officials explained that approval of the lot line adjustment would make the property a fully conforming lot in the township’s central residential zone and that there is no proposed construction at this time, but did mention there may be future additional work done on the office lot.
