There’s someone new sitting in the Barnegat mayor’s chair – Pasquale “Pat” Pipi, who was handed the gavel at the Jan. 1 township committee reorganization meeting.

Fredric G. Rubenstein, who won the November election to the all-Republican committee, was sworn in to his first three-year term and was also handed the post of deputy mayor. Rubenstein takes over the seat formerly occupied by Albert Bille, who did not seek re-election to a sixth term.