Efforts to unify Wildomar won a key victory last week when residents of the sprawling community voted overwhelming to form Riverside County’s newest city.

The outcome of the closely-watched election drew cheers from residents as they examined vote tallies and pondered the future of the 24-square-mile rural area that is split by Interstate 15 and flanked by the fast-growing cities of Murrieta and Lake Elsinore.

"This is awesome," said Bridgette Moore, one of five community leaders elected to serve on Wildomar’s first City Council when it takes office. "We woke up today in a new city."

More than 61 percent of residents who cast ballots on Feb. 5 voted to form Riverside County’s 25th city. The vote capped a decade-long incorporation push that gained momentum in recent years in the community of about 27,000 residents.

Many proponents view incorporation, which takes effect July 1, as a way to fend off hungry annexations by neighboring cities.

Advocates also said incorporation would improve local services by stemming the flow of local tax revenues into county coffers. They noted that incorporation would cut the distance residents must travel to attend meetings, obtain building permits and transact other government business.

Two related ballot measures that also passed will help shape the new city’s future. Nearly 57 percent of the voters opted to elect future City Council members by district rather than throughout the new city’s boundary. And five candidates emerged from a crowded field of 14 hopefuls to serve on Wildomar’s first council.

Bob Cashman, who moved to the area in 1979 and served as chairman of the Wildomar Incorporation Now group, finished first with Advertisement

Primus Golf Academy 2,025 votes, roughtly12.5 percent of the ballots cast.

Approximately 11,900 people were eligible to vote on the three Wildomar measures, according to county estimates.

Moore placed second with nearly 11.5 percent of the votes cast and Marsha Swanson was third. Scott Farnam finished fourth and Sheryl Ade captured the fifth council seat with 1,367 votes, roughly 8.5 percent of the ballots cast.

The new city will start operations with a $2.4 million budget cushion, according to a report done by a county boundary-setting agency in August. Those revenues will accrue while the county absorbs the costs of law enforcement and other services to the area during Wildomar’s first year of operations.

That budget cushion will allow Wildomar to open offices and establish its basic organizational structure during the transitional fiscal year, the report said. But its fiscal analysis also cautioned Wildomar council members and staff "to exercise extreme prudence during the first few years of operation."

As for now, the newly elected council members must find offices and decide how and when to hire a city manager, clerk, attorney and other key staff members or consultants.

Meetings must be held to elect council officers and form a city transition team. Council members must also learn key legal procedures and submit reports detailing their business and financial interests.

"I think all five of us have to sit down at some point and start in the same direction," Swanson, a member of the county’s Wildomar Municipal Advisory Committee, said by telephone after the election.

New colleague Farnam said he’s right in step.

"I am ready to go to work," he said.