New Windermere officials say it was time to step up

Fifth-generation Windermere resident Andy Williams ran for the Windermere Town Council in 2018 to serve the community in which he grew up. 

The desire for stewardship, including organizational and financial stewardship, is at the forefront of Williams’ mind. 

His service is about bringing positive change while preserving the town, he said. 

So when Mayor Jim O’Brien was contemplating stepping down, Williams offered to “step up if needed.”

“I look around and look at our town, and our volunteers are what drives our community,” Williams said. 

The time has come.

O’Brien is stepping down as mayor, and Williams will become Windermere’s next mayor in March.

With Williams’ seat empty, CT Allen stepped up to run. 

An election is not necessary, because the three open seats for the Town Council were qualified without opposition. Council member Brandi Haines will continue to serve in her seat. 

Longtime love for Windermere

Williams’ time as mayor will be adding to a long-standing family legacy in Windermere. His grandfather and his namesake, Loren Robertson “Andy” Williams, was a former mayor of Windermere in the early 1950s. 

“I hope he’s looking down on me — and same with my grandmother, my father — and that I’m making him proud,” Williams said. 

He lives in the home in which he grew up, and his daughter, Loren Abigail Williams, has the opportunity to have a similar childhood living next to her grandparents as Williams did. 

Williams’ family history in Windermere started when his great-great-grandparents, John W. and Amelia McMurtrey, were some of the earliest settlers who opened a store on Main Street. 

Despite his grandfather serving as mayor, Williams never saw becoming mayor, let alone serving on the Town Council, in his future. 

“I just wanted to do my part, and I didn’t even really know what that looked like in 2018,” he said. “But when Jim said he was done, I looked around and said, ‘I’m probably the right choice.’ I have the most seniority, I have the most experience in town, and there wasn’t a long line of people jumping up and down to do it.”

Allen came to Windermere in 1990 to be with her now-husband, Rick Allen. She had returned from opening a resort in California and was looking for her long-term home. Rick Allen’s mother lived in Windermere, and they wanted to live close to her. 

“I love this town,” Allen said. “I’ve seen it go through a few transitions administratively, but it’s never lost its small-town appeal.”

The balance of maintaining the essence of the small town while progressing into the future is what had drawn her to the town even more, she said. 

Allen is most known in town for her involvement in Windermere Wine & Dine. She was a part of the group of seven Windermere Elementary School parents that created the Mustang Education Fund and started the annual fundraiser. The event has grown to be one of the most popular in town and a must-attend event for hundreds. 

With Windermere Wine & Dine now under the leadership of the West Orange Foundation, Allen said now was the time to take a turn on the Town Council. 

“I like engaging in where we live, and I also think it’s modeling for my kids that you give back,” she said. “It was my turn to step up. I would encourage everybody to take a spin up there, because … it opens your mind on how hard it is to run a small town and to keep 3,000 residents happy while moving a small town into the future.”

She also chaired the Centennial Committee, which organized events and initiatives to celebrate the town’s 100-year history since it was incorporated. She said she wanted to be a part of the committee because she thought it was going to be a memorable year for residents. Having the legacy benches and trees, centennial lanterns and oral histories of people in town as part of the celebration gives her immense pride. 

“We left a footprint from the centennial on a lot of people,” she said. 

Both Williams and Allen plan to use their experience to guide them into this next chapter. 

Williams said he wants to take what he’s learned from O’Brien, who he said gave the town a “path to move forward with change and not just be status quo,” and add a little bit of his personality and ideas to continue to progress the town. He said just as O’Brien served as mayor a little differently than former Mayor Gary Bruhn, he will lead slightly different than O’Brien.  

Both Williams and Allen want to lead in a way in which everyone can have their opinions, agree to disagree and leave town meetings with understanding and respect for others. 

“Everybody has opinions, but I want to get us back to a place where we have all those debates and discussions with an open mind,” Allen said.

Through her work with Windermere Wine & Dine and serving on the Centennial Committee, Allen said she was able to meet many people in town as well as work closely with town staff and administration. She’s learned to listen to the ideas and opinions of others and create solutions and compromises that can move an organization forward. 

Focused on the future

Both Williams and Allen have goals as they start their new positions in March.

They plan to focus on encouraging more people to volunteer for different facets of the town, including advisory committees and running for town council seats and mayor. 

Williams said he doesn’t plan to be mayor for several terms like his predecessors. O’Brien served since 2019, stepping in after Bruhn, who served for more than a decade. He said both mayors were excellent at their jobs and left a legacy on the town,  but he wants to see more people engaged in serving the town, whether as mayor or Town Council members. 

“I don’t think I’ll be mayor in eight years,” he said. “I would like to see mayor being more like a four-year term, where we’ve got good people cycling through the position, same with town council. We have great volunteers throughout the town, but it’s a small number when you look at how many residents we have. How do we bolster those committees, get people more involved.”

Williams wants people to know serving on council or town committees doesn’t need to be a chore or time-consuming but rather an opportunity to contribute to the town and be a part of something bigger than themselves. 

“We don’t want to leave any of our committees lacking for good, quality leaders or people with the knowledge to keep those committees moving forward and making the right decisions,” Williams said. “I want to see somebody ready and willing to move up, whether it’s from an advisory committee into council or council up to being mayor.”

In the same vein, Allen would like to see more residents engaged in town matters and attending council meetings to be informed and provide feedback on projects at their inception rather than further into the projects’ progress.

“I’m really coming in wanting more voices in that room,” Allen said.