celebrate | wellington
Inaugural Wellington Village Council members Michael McDonough, Tom Wenham, Kathy Foster, Dr. Carmine Priore and Paul Adams at the council’s first meeting in March 1996.
Inaugural Council Members Proud Of The Village That Wellington Has Become BY M. DENNIS TAYLOR
On March 28, 1996 — 25 years ago this month — the inaugural Wellington Village Council met for the first time. The new village’s elected leaders took the reins and set Wellington on a course of self-governance that it remains on to this day. As amazing as it might sound today, Wellington’s incorporation was a controversial idea, and a vote to create the new village passed in November 1995 by a slim margin. Then, a total of 27 people ran for the five seats on the inaugural council. In the end, all but one of the winners had previously served on the board of Wellington’s pre-incorporation government, the Acme Im-
provement District. Those early voters, it seems, put a high value on proven service and experience. On that first council were the late Paul Adams, a commercial real estate executive, and the late Michael McDonough, an attorney. However, three of those inaugural council members are still alive and have been enshrined on the Wellington Founder’s Plaque, honored as elder statesmen who were instrumental in the development of the community. They are Kathy Foster, Dr. Carmine Priore and Tom Wenham, who spoke with Wellington The Magazine regarding those early days in village history.
Foster came to Wellington in 1979 when there were just 700 people in the community. “We just loved it,” she recalled, but tragedy struck after they had been in the area for just 15 months. “My youngest son became ill and died of spinal meningitis. We had no hospitals here and had to go to Miami. The community really rallied around us.” From this terrible experience, Foster bonded with the community that embraced her and became a leading voice among the fast-growing population of residents. Opening K. Foster Design in 1983, she joined the newly established chamber of commerce and women’s club. wellington the magazine | march 2021
77