By Emily Schopfer
MIDDLETOWN – Anthony Mercantante, Middletown Township’s business administrator and director of Public Safety, has announced his retirement after an over 40-year township career. Mercantante will officially retire Aug. 31, at which time assistant township administrator and township clerk Heidi R. Pieluc will step in as acting administrator.
The Middletown Township Committee unanimously voted July 28 to appoint Timothy J. Cunningham, current business administrator for the City of Camden, to be Mercantante’s successor, starting Oct. 1.
Mercantante said that, after a 46-year career in local government and public service, it was time for him to step back. It will be “good for the town to have a fresh perspective on things,” he said. Mercantante hopes his successor can step in and “shake things up a little bit, but in a good way.”
At Mercantante’s last township committee meeting Aug. 17, Mayor Tony Perry said, “This is a hard day for me, really hard, because after four-plus decades in, and working for, the Township of Middletown, Tony Mercantante… is going to get his well-deserved retirement, after leaving our municipality. So, Ton, congratulations.”
“When I first walked into the township committee in 2017, Tony was obviously one of the first members of the staff that I sat down with and got to understand all the happenings of the township,” Perry said. “Over those now nine years, Tony Mercantante is not only a guy that I got to work alongside for that amount of time, he’s become a mentor to me, he’s become a guy I can rely on… he’s become an incredibly close friend.”
“Tony Mercantante is Middletown. There is not a decision that has been made, from a planning perspective, an administrative perspective, that Tony hasn’t had dealings with in 46 years,” Perry said. As the mayor and the committee gifted Mercantante a 3D-printed map of part of Mid- dletown, Perry joked that Google Earth is going to miss Mercantante the most, since he knows every street, every property, every bit of history in Middletown. Perry and the committee also presented Mercantante with a symbolic key to the city and added “Mercantante Way” to the list of eligi- ble street names in Middletown.
At the Aug. 17 meeting, Perry took some time to highlight major accomplishments in Mercantante’s career, such as the Normandy Park Soccer Complex, Veterans Village, and the establishment of an in-house township engineer, saving the township an estimated $1 million in just its first year, according to Perry. Mercantante also played a significant role in the construction of Middletown’s new town hall, which brought almost all township departments together under one roof.
Perhaps the biggest accomplishment highlighted by Perry was Mercantante’s efforts during Super Storm Sandy in 2012. Despite the destruction of his own home, he spent 12 days at the township’s emergency operations center to aid in recovery efforts and personally assist residents in navigating the difficult rebuilding process.
Following his retirement, Mercantante will be staying in the community. He said he sees himself staying involved, possibly doing “consulting work after a couple months.”
In his long-standing career, Mercantante said the most rewarding thing was that the “quality of life in the town has been maintained.” During his time with Middletown, he said a major focus of his was balancing the township’s growth to make it desirable for new residents with maintaining the town to preserve its character and what existing residents love.
Mercantante feels that his successor Timothy J. Cunningham’s “qualifications will suit him well here,” and his “prior work in the state will be very helpful for the town.” Navigating the relationships between township, county and state can be “quite a quagmire,” said Mercantante, but he feels that Cunningham’s experience in working with the state can only help Middletown.
Perry announced Cunningham’s hiring at the July 28 committee meeting. “After a very lengthy process, one that has gone on for probably close to eight months at this point, we have found our next administrator,” Perry said at the time. Perry referred to Cunningham as “an incredible individual,” adding that “we’re fortunate to have him coming on board.”
In addition to his current role as the business administrator for the City of Camden, Cunningham served as the former director of the Division of Local Government Services at the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs and a public finance attorney, according to the township resolution appointing him.
“I am honored by the Township Committee’s confidence and excited to join the dedicated employees who work every day to serve Middletown’s residents,” Cunningham said in a news release July 29. “Middletown has earned a reputation as one of New Jersey’s premier communities, and I look forward to working collaboratively with the Mayor, Township Committee, municipal staff, and residents to build upon that success. Together, we will continue delivering responsive, efficient, and high-quality municipal services while preparing the Township for the opportunities ahead.”
Beginning Oct. 1, Cunningham’s official title will be township administrator and director of Public Safety, and he will serve in this role for a five-year period. There was no immediate information available on Cunningham’s salary in his new position. In his new role as township administrator, Cunningham will supervise department directors, oversee employee contracts, and work with the township committee to improve “efficiency and the economy of the township,” according to the Middletown Township website. As director of Public Safety, a large part of his role will be overseeing and coordinating departments such as police, fire and emergency services.
This article originally appeared in the August 20-26, 2026 print edition of The Two River Times.
