The relay race to Wildomar cityhood was fueled by pure grassroots energy with baton hand-offs passed between dedicated volunteers through the years.

New transplants joined the old-timers in a civic marathon ending in the unofficial birth of the 25th city in Riverside County at the ballot box on Feb. 5.

Since its founding in 1886 when three pioneers, William Collier, Donald Graham and Margaret Collier, combined the first syllables of their names to create "Wildomar," local residents have championed the causes for the 123-year-old rural town situated between the cities of Lake Elsinore to the north and Murrieta to the south.

With the finish line finally crossed and campaign signs removed the morning after the election, political veterans in the town inhabited with about 28,000 people, and an assorted equine and livestock population, awoke Feb. 6 to the dawning of an elusive dream – the city of Wildomar was a reality.

"I’ve been working for Wildomar to be a city for 19 years," said 87-year-old resident Max Stark when asked how he felt when he found out Measure C to incorporate Wildomar had passed by a two-thirds vote. "Believe it or not, it felt restful to me. Holy smokes, after all of these years…I wasn’t sure if I was going to live that long."

"I was delighted," said city council candidate and longtime volunteer Darrell Ruff. "It was a community effort."

Gerry Stevenson remembers the days when a "Where the hell is Wildomar?" bumper sticker could’ve been a top seller for the locals.

Back in 1979, Stevenson, along with middle school and community park namesakes David A. Brown and Marna O’Brien, founded the Wildomar Interest League after heavy rains caused massive flooding in the rural community.

After working with the county and other volunteers, a flood control plan and channel was constructed and soon other issues beckoned.

An identity crisis led to the next major project, one that could be called the first shot heard from the volleys of Wildomar, when residents rallied to create a separate zip code for the community.

Stevenson jumpstarted the idea but was sidelined for several years due to health reasons. Resident Harv Dykstra took up the baton, along with other volunteers like George and Marie Taylor.

Despite the opening of a new, larger post office on July 8, 1996, a block away from the former headquarters of postmistress Elizabeth Turner, the only mail bound for Wildomar was available for about 500 postal box customers and a quarter of residents with the 92595 zip code.

Daily door-to-door mail and package delivery for the rest of Wildomar listed Lake Elsinore as the hometown with the zip code 92532 because the majority of the Wildomar mail was still handled at the Lake Elsinore post office.

"There was a lot of confusion from people thinking they lived in Lake Elsinore since they had a Lake Elsinore zip code," explained local realtor and longtime resident Stan Smith.

With the assistance and support of local and state officials, Wildomar residents were given a choice and overwhelmingly approved the creation of the exclusive 92595 unified zip code for all Wildomar residents, with the exception of Sedco Hills, with 87 percent of the mail-in votes cast.

"It was very dear to their hearts," said Smith.

"People didn’t know if they were in Lake Elsinore or Wildomar," said Dykstra. "We felt like second-class citizens."

Smith served as the first chairperson of the Wildomar Municipal Advisory Council (WMAC) from 1986 to 1991 as the community geared up for another major breakthrough.

A shield from annexation threats was a welcome relief to the unincorporated communities throughout Riverside County when the county devised the experimental concept of the UC (unincorporated community) designation.

Still reeling from surprise after the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) set the boundaries for the proposed incorporation of the city of Murrieta in 1991 and including the gated community of Bear Creek, which had been within Wildomar, the WMAC began its successful application to LAFCO for UC protection and removal from Lake Elsinore’s sphere of influence.

"It was a Riverside County idea of how you might protect a place that could become a city in the future," said city councilman-elect and longtime volunteer Bob Cashman, who petitioned LAFCO with WMAC member Ruff. "Places that have their own historic identity, that have their own community spirit."

Stevenson believes the UC mantle of protection allowed Wildomar to mature and prosper, although cityhood was never the ultimate goal Advertisement

[ Chatton and Associates ] at the time.

The mission was to obtain better services from the county and preserve Wildomar’s territory in the spirit of "Don’t Tread on Me."

"For me, it was meant to be for us to become a city," Stevenson said. "But with God’s blessing there for a while, it was enough to give us time to develop and do what we wanted to do."

In the interim, Wildomar flourished. The Wildomar Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1990; the Mission Trail Library opened in 2002.

In the late 1990s, the Wildomar Incorporation Now (WiN) committee created a community facilities district funded by county redevelopment monies to expand utilities into the I-15/Clinton Keith corridor for commercial and residential development.

At that time, the only available services supported the Inland Valley Regional Medical Center located in Wildomar.

Ironically, the calm was shattered many years later when a group of residents from the improved Clinton Keith corridor in south Wildomar created ATM, or Annex to Murrieta, in 2002 and asked Murrieta to annex their southern neighborhoods in the hopes of trading county for city services, said Smith.

Murrieta responded by asking LAFCO for permission to annex Wildomar from Clinton Keith to Baxter Road in 2003.

Opposition to the annexation formed Rescue Murrieta.

ATM residents complained of the county’s inadequate emergency response times, which led to their annexation request.

A mail-in ballot parcel assessment in summer 2003 to assign two dedicated sheriffs and paramedics to the areas of Wildomar, La Cresta and The Farm was voted down.

The morning paper announcing Murrieta’s annexation plans jolted Stevenson out of civic retirement after recovering from her illness and put her back on the frontline, where she has been ever since.

"I went to the hearing and I was – how will you say? – sucked back in," she said with a smile.

The battle against Murrieta’s annexation attempt lasted until early 2005 and cost WiN nearly $40,000 in grassroots funds.

A sudden shift in the gusts blowing from Murrieta took the wind out of the city’s annexation sails to deal with its own recall election in May 2005 and the city withdrew its overtures.

The close call caught Wildomar by surprise and sent new and veteran volunteers scurrying to collect 3,000 signatures in the summer heat to begin the incorporation process to LAFCO.

"Every minute we weren’t moving towards incorporation was a minute we could get annexed," recalled Cashman, who served WiN chairman from 2003 to 2007.

Accordingly, Wildomar’s incorporation application was submitted to LAFCO in fall 2004.

In 2006, their worst fears were realized when a developer’s request for the city of Lake Elsinore to annex about 246 acres in northeast Wildomar was approved by LAFCO despite the pending incorporation application and the UC designation.

Since 2003, volunteers have raised about $90,000 through grassroots fundraising to pay the incorporation studies and other required costs.

They also hired a lobbyist to support Assembly Bill 1602 to restore vehicle license fees to new cities.

AB 1602 was signed by the Governor in summer 2006.

After the results of the election, volunteers were elated the years of hard work and sacrifice paid off. Now other projects in the new city of Wildomar beckon.

"I’m still going to make noise," promises Ruff. He says he is one of the many people who feel volunteering for Wildomar is in their DNA.

Calling himself the oldest of the old-timers who used to hang out with "cats" like Marna O’Brien, the quick-witted Stark said he and his wife, Carolyn, have no plans to retire.

"The only difficult thing about a meeting now is getting there," he said.

Stevenson reflected upon nearly 30 years of volunteering in Wildomar.

"There’s always been somebody working for the good of the community," she said. "If we had a problem, a bunch of people got together and they decided what to do and they organized."

"Nobody was going to do anything out of the goodness of their heart for Wildomar," she mused. "We had to go out and tell them, ‘This is what we need,’ so that’s how it really got started – to get the attention."

Reflected councilman-elect Cashman, "Clearly, it was time for cityhood. Cityhood is a beginning of a new era in Wildomar. The future looks bright."

"I’m very relieved," Stevenson said of the new city status. "I think it was the only option we had if we wanted to preserve Wildomar and I am truly happy I lived long enough to see it."