‘We’ll continue to fight for our values’

Editor’s note: Sussex County Board of County Commissioners Director Dawn Fantasia and Commissioner Chris Carney made statements mde in support of their candidacy at their campaign kick-off at Mattar’s Bistro in Allamuchy last month.

Carney filled the unexpired term of Commissioner Joshua Hertzberg after Hertzberg returned to serve on the Sparta Township Council. Carney previously served on the Frankford Township Committee for two years and was Frankford Township’s mayor in 2020.

Prior to serving on the board, Fantasia, who is employed as a principal in a Bergen County charter school, served on Franklin Borough’s Council, including as its council president.

The primary will be held on June 8.

Commissioners Director Dawn Fantasia:

“We (the Commissioners) had to do so much fancy footwork to be able to fill those gaps (without the CARES funding) to serve the needs of our residents. We are in a situation where Sussex County was consistently on the defensive, but no more, now we’re on the offensive. The Murphy Administration has also shortchanged Sussex County in what it receives in Covid vaccines, closed state parks during the pandemic and shuttered one-third of the state’s businesses.”

“We’ll continue to fight for our values that make us who we are, and this Commissioner Board will never go down in history as one that kept their mouths shut. If you value what Sussex County offers and what Warren County offers and what this corner of the state offers New Jersey, we need each and every one of you.”

Commissioner Chris Carney:

“We need to be united as a whole. That’s what I want to continue to do, is to get things done. I won’t take grief from anybody and I have a backbone.”

Carney said as a union employee himself, he, Fantasia and the other commissioners are seeking to have individuals with skilled trades hired directly by the county, to save the taxpayers money: “That’s what we’re about, being conservatives in Sussex County and saving some money for everybody.”