Ali Marzban visited Niagara Falls as a tourist a few years ago and was fascinated by the area's potential.

When he returns at the end of January, he will be responsible for enhancing that potential, as the new city engineer.

"Niagara Falls is a beautiful city and my short-term and long-term goals are to devote and dedicate myself to this new job," he said during a telephone interview this week. "The people there are very friendly, and that makes a whole lot of difference."

Marzban was hired by Mayor Paul Dyster after being identified in a nationwide recruitment effort to fill the city engineer position that has been vacant since Jan. 1. The City Council made the hire official earlier this week by approving Marzban's base salary of $93,341, which is $25,341 more than former City Engineer Robert Curtis was making last year. The additional salary cost will be taken out of a contingency account set up in the 2009 budget.

Born in Iran, where he earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Science and Technology, Marzban moved to the U.S. to further his education in the early 1990s. He received a master's degree in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1998. His resume boasts more than 20 years of professional engineering experience, including nine years working in municipal government and 11 years in private engineering firms.

Since 2006, he has served as president and CEO of Pegah City Engineering, a company he created to provide consulting and quality control services for engineering firms and small business owners. The company's operations are based in California.

"He brings a broad range of experience to the job," Dyster said. "We have solid people in place already in our engineering department but we were looking for someone to come in an be a team leader who had some senior experience."

Marzban said he was searching the Internet for job opportunities over the summer and discovered Niagara Falls was without a permanent engineer. His interest peaked after reading Dyster's inauguration speech from last January in which the mayor outlined his plans for improving the city's infrastructure and creating economic development.

"I was very much impressed with his mission statement for the city's future," Marzban said.

Once he takes the new position sometime in late January, Dyster wants Marzban to conduct an assessment of current and potential projects throughout the city, including the planned reconstruction of 72nd Street next year that still needs engineer designs.

Marzban, who is stepping down as CEO of his company to take the job, said he's already started familiarizing himself with the city's infrastructure and demographics.

"I think I am going to be a good asset for the department," he said. "I know I am the most qualified candidate for the position."

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