Two vacant seats on the Toms River Township Council are now filled: former at-large interim councilman Alfonso Manforti will serve Ward 4 and local engineer Jeffrey Carr will serve Ward 3.

The two men were selected after the Toms River Council interviewed five individuals nominated for the two respective seats by the township Republican club.

Carr, who has lived in Toms River for about 30 years, said he was motivated to seek the Ward 3 spot to better serve a township he loves.

"I have two children, and now a grandson, who all live in town," he said. "This is our home, and I just wanted to make sure it was the best home it could be."

He said he hopes the council spot will be a chance to do that, to "keep Toms River great, to maintain all the things about it that make it a great place to live."

Carr said that in his engineering career, he's worked on and with government agencies such as the state Department of Environmental Protection, and hopes to use some of those experiences.

Manforti, who also grew up in Toms River and has a chiropractice practice on Lakehurst Road, previously served on the council for a portion of 2011, to fill the vacancy left by Melanie Donohue-Appleby.

A special election will be held this November for the spots that Manforti and Carr now hold.

Their vacancies were created by Gregory McGuckin's election to state Assembly and to Maurice "Mo" Hill's move from the Ward 3 seat to the at-large seat won in the Nov. 2011 election.