MILLSTONE – The Township Committee members who served as Millstone Township’s mayor and deputy mayor in 2019 have been selected by their colleagues to continue serving in those positions during 2020.
At the committee’s reorganization meeting on Jan. 2, Fiore Masci was elected mayor for a one-year term by his fellow committee members. Nancy Grbelja was elected to a one-year term as deputy mayor.
Under Millstone’s form of government, the mayor and deputy mayor are not directly elected by voters. The mayor and deputy mayor are selected each January by the members of the governing body to serve a one-year term.
After incumbent Al Ferro was sworn in to beginning serving a three-year term he won in the Nov. 5 election, Committeeman Michael Kuczinski nominated Masci to serve as mayor and the nomination was approved by Ferro, Grbelja, Kuczinski, Masci and Committeeman Gary Dorfman.
Dorfman nominated Grbelja to serve as deputy mayor and the motion was approved in a 5-0 vote.
Republicans hold a 5-0 majority on the committee.
Masci joined the Township Committee in 2009 and will serve as mayor for the second consecutive year.
After recognizing the officials present at the meeting and thanking his family and the committee members for their support, Masci praised the township’s employees and professionals for their efforts on behalf of the community.
“Most of us up here, we will sometimes hear the complaints,” he said. “But we really have a great group of people. And that’s not to say, by any stretch of the imagination, that we are perfect because none of us are … but we have a good group of people who work for this town and I hope everybody, from time to time when they go to (the municipal building), thanks them for their service and their work.
“It has been an honor and a very humbling experience to represent this incredible township as mayor. I’m extremely grateful and I look forward to serving the township here for my next and final year. We have so many opportunities and so many great things to look forward to.
“We have the grand opening of Millstone Park. We are going to be maintaining and improving our town’s beauty. We are going to be responsibly managing our growth. We are going to continue to fix our roads.
“We work with Monmouth County and other districts and create shared services to create efficiencies. What it means for our taxpayers is saving money. I might be a little bit biased, but I consider Millstone Township one of the best towns in the state to live in,” Masci said.
Grbelja will serve as deputy mayor for a third consecutive year. She joined the Township Committee in 2004 and is the longest-serving member of the governing body. She has served as mayor nine times, including eight consecutive years from 2006-13.
“This is my 17th year, so I have a lot of history,” she said. “I always have Millstone and the committee at heart and we all work for the best of this community, to keep it the way it is.
“I’m very happy to be a resident of Millstone Township. Coming here is like coming to paradise each and every night. We work very well as a committee. We have our arguments, we have our fights, but our primary concern is always the betterment of Millstone and making it a great place for us to reside in.
“That is what we work on each and every day. We have some changes that are coming up in the next year and we are going to be working very hard together to try to make them better,” Grbelja said.