Sussex County Republicans choose Jill Space to fill board of commissioners vacancy

Jill Space was unanimously selected to fill a vacancy on the five-member Board of County Commissioners during Saturday's Sussex County Republican Committee convention.

Space was sworn in shortly after she was selected to fill the unexpired term of Sylvia Petillo, who resigned from the board last month when she moved to nearby Warren County.

Prior to the appointment, Space was already on the ballot as one of two Republican candidates running for a full, three-year term on the November ballot.

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The election came at a nominating convention of the county committee members selected in each of the election districts in Sussex County.

The convention also elected Nick D'Agostino of Wantage as the county's representative on the state Republican Committee. He replaces William Hayden who resigned to run for the second, three-year term as county commissioner.

Space and Hayden are the only candidates on the June 7 primary ballot for county commissioner and will be the Republican candidates in the November election.

Prior to the convention, Space resigned as the vice chairperson of the Republican committee. Kelly Hart, who was executive director of the committee, was selected by the convention as the new vice chairperson.

Space is the wife of Parker Space, the assemblyman from District 24 which includes all of Sussex and parts of Morris and Warren counties. She is also the county's committee representative to the state GOP committee.

Petillo, who was in the last year of her second term on the Board of Commissioners, announced in early April that she was resigning. She and her husband, Ron, are retiring and sold their Hopatcong home. They moved to a second home in Allamuchy, Warren County.

After being sworn in by County Clerk Jeff Parrot, Space called on her experience running Space Farms Zoo & Museum as good preparation for working with budgets.

Current couty Administrator Greg Poff has accepted the post as administrator for Randolph Township and will be leaving the Sussex County job by July 1. Space said prime consideration will be an administrator "with a conservative mindset."

Under state law, the political party of the person who vacated a county elected position selects a replacement through a vote of the county committee. That body is made up of representatives of each of the voting districts within the county.

This article originally appeared on New Jersey Herald: Jill Space to fill vacancy on Sussex County Board of Commissioners