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WELLINGTON Join Us In Celebrating 20 Years of Excellence!
Visionary Leaders Helped Wellington Grow Into The Community It Is Today By Julie Unger
Join Us In Celebrating The Village Of Wellington |
20 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE
Time sure flies when you’re building a community. It was just 20 year ago that Wellington made the jump from a collection of neighborhoods to an incorporated community. Since then, it has been two decades of amazing growth — topping 60,000 residents this year — and impressive milestones. The winter equestrian capital of the world boasts A-rated schools, great shopping, amazing parks and spectacular amenities, such as the brand-new Wellington Community Center.
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After a razor-thin incorporation referendum in November 1995, the Village of Wellington was officially born on Dec. 31, 1995. Official governmental operations commenced after the village’s first election in March 1996. On March 28, 1996, the inaugural Wellington Village Council took the oath of office. One of its first acts was to choose the community’s first mayor — a (Below) Important Wellington milestones through the years.
september 2016 | wellington the magazine
role that was awarded to Kathy Foster. Foster was not new to local government. In 1990, she was elected to a seat on the Acme Improvement District Board of Supervisors, Wellington’s preincorporation government. She was a natural choice to be the village’s first mayor, at a time when “mayor” was a title appointed from among the five elected council members.
Foster, who served as mayor from 1996 to 1998, has fond memories of the village’s early days. “We spent almost the entire first few years concentrating on developing a comprehensive plan for the overall village that would hold up over time and protect the individual lifestyles of the various communities,” she recalled. “We were nine separate subdivisions that were bundled together to become the Village of Wellington. It was our promise to the community that everyone’s lifestyle would be protected and that we would try our best to make sure that the lifestyle that they enjoyed was not negatively impacted in the years to come.” Wellington became the first municipality in Florida to create an equestrian preserve area in its comprehensive plan, she added. “I’m thrilled to say that, 20 years later, it still holds up, and at buildout, which is right around the corner, the ideas and the concepts that the first council put in place hold true today,”
(Right) Former Mayor Tom Wenham, former Mayor Kathy Foster, Mayor Anne Gerwig, former Mayor Darell Bowen and former Mayor Dr. Carmine Priore. Not shown: Former Mayor Bob Margolis.
PHOTO BY ABNER PEDRAZA