Administrator's 3 Decades of Service Comes to End

There will be no more Tuesday night meetings for Michael Merdinger.

Merdinger, who is retiring as the township’s administrator and acting clerk, was honored Tuesday by the Township Committee.

For more than three decades, the Flagtown resident has been an active member of the Hillsborough community.

He has been a member of the Flagtown Fire Co. for 36 years and currently serves as its president.

It’s also appropriate that he was honored this week for being a member of the Hillsborough Rotary Club for 31 years. The Rotary Club is holding this week in the parking lot of Lowe’s in the Hillsborough Promenade on Route 206.

But that is not where Merdinger’s service to the Hillsborough community ends.

He was a member of the Township Committee in 1979 and again from 1981 to 1984. He served as mayor in 1984.

Merdinger has also served 17 years on the Planning Board where he was chairman, vice chairman and secretary.

Plus, he has also served on the Hillsborough Municipal Utilities Authority since 1987, with a decade as chairman.

The proclamation by the Township Committee called Merdinger a “dedicated civil servant and volunteer.”

Another former Hillsborough mayor, Anthony Ferrera, will replace Merdinger and will take over the $124,000 post on Monday.

Ferrera served on the Township Committee from 2004 to 2011 and as mayor in 2007 and 2008.

Ferrera was director of the Division of Workforce Portfolio and Contract Management in the state Department of Labor.

Merdinger will leave at the end of August.