When the Cranbury Township Committee convened for its annual reorganization meeting committee members elected Mike Ferrante as the township’s new mayor.
Ferrante was elected mayor for 2021 at a reorganization meeting on Jan. 4. He succeeds Township Committeeman Matt Scott, who served as mayor in 2020.
“2020 was a tough year for our country and many in our community. I am grateful for the advancement in the sciences that has brought forth the efficacious vaccines in nine months,” Ferrante said in his remarks. “In 2020, despite the pandemic and all of its disruptions, we continued to make progress as a township. We switched to zoom township committee meetings, which have the side benefit of a lot more transparency and engagement with our residents.”
Additional progress highlighted by Ferrante included completion of seven out of 10 master plan action items.
“Thanks to Evelyn Spann for spearheading that. In the spring we initiated a lake dredging project that had to be paused before it could begin, also in 2020 thanks to Barbara Rogers’ efforts Cranbury was awarded a grant to do a complete streets bicycle audit,” he added. “We also found out at long last that Cranbury was awarded a matching grant from the New Jersey Construction Bond Act in which $2.4 million in state funds will match donations from residents over the past 10 years.”
2021 is seen by Ferrante as an important year for the township to execute on key projects and steward taxpayer funds wisely.
“We will restart and finish the Brainerd Lake dredging project, break ground on a new library and plan to start taking action on the bike network recommendations. These are all projects that will require good project management to stay on track and deliver in 2021,” he said. “We will also continue to make progress on the remaining master plan recommendations.
Cranbury also has a new deputy mayor after Rogers was nominated and elected to fill the position previously held in 2020 by Ferrante.
“I appreciate the vote of confidence from my fellow Township Committee members nominating and voting for me for deputy mayor. I’m looking forward to continue working with Township Committee members and the residents of Cranbury in a collaborative way,” Rogers said a statement. “Mike (Ferrante) is a fantastic team member and manager. He will be a terrific mayor who will continue guiding Cranbury through these disruptive times and also leading the large initiatives such as lake dredging and library building coming up this year.”
Rogers added that she is happy to back up Ferrante in his mayoral duties whenever it is needed and to continue leading Cranbury forward in a sustainable way.
Cranbury Township’s five-member committee consists of Mayor Mike Ferrante, Deputy Mayor Barbara Rogers, Township Committeewoman Evelyn Spann, Township Committeeman Matt Scott and Township Committeeman Jay Taylor.