Editor’s Note: The following letter from Wellington Chamber of Commerce President Victor Connor is addressed to Wellington Councilman Matt Willhite. A copy was sent to the Town-Crier for publication.
Dear Councilman Willhite:
I write this as an individual, shocked by what I saw at [last week’s] council meeting. Of all the council members, it is most surprising to see you, a Palm Beach County firefighter and station captain, vote for politics over human and horse safety. During your career, you have seen the devastating injuries that car accidents inflict on the human body, and you may have witnessed what an accident between a horse and a car can do as well.
Yet, after the village’s traffic engineer, Equestrian Sport Production’s traffic engineer and even Mark Bellissimo adversary Victoria McCullough all directly testified that a dedicated left-turn lane was safer, and that a lack of that lane presented safety concerns, you still impeded constructing a safe left-turn lane on Pierson Road into the Global Dressage equestrian complex.
Although citizen after citizen told of being forced into making U-turns in horse rigs at one of the most dangerous intersections in Wellington, the Players Club intersection, and after others testified they had to make U-turns in the school yard, and some testified they had to drive north on South Shore to Forest Hill, east on Forest Hill to Stribling, right on Stribling to Pierson and then down Pierson, you still steamrolled the Jacobs’ political agenda over the safety of human and horse life.
While I have disagreed with you on many political issues, never in my wildest imagination did I think a firefighter, a professional who has witnessed firsthand the devastating injury done when machine and fragile human collide, and machine and helpless animal collide, would elect personal political power over your duty to the safety of the very community that elected you…
Whatever your politics, your duty and allegiance to serve and protect the community that elected you has been shamefully compromised by your unconscionable alliance to the Jacobs’ agenda.
It will be a sad personal day when it dawns on you that Matt Willhite, a man whose civil service career is built around the sanctity of, and protection of life, sold out human and animal safety for personal political gain. Matt, you threw us to the wolves.
Victor Connor, Wellington
As you are attached to Marks hip and don’t live here stay out of our community.The traffic is an issue. One lane preserve even with a turning lane don’t cut it.Our village not yours should not be paying for widening the roads to 2 lanes plus turn lanes.It should be on Marks shoulders not the tax payer.Mined your own business.
Wellington Chamber of Commerce – VConnor, President continues to have dysentery of the mouth. The members of the Chamber need to wake up and remove this foul smelling ameba out of office.
Councilman Wilhitte is not a paid political pawn. He is looking out for the safety and concern for the residents. He can’t be bought by a commercial developer unlike the President of the Chamber.
If V Connor is so concerned about equestrian safety than he should look in his own hometown (Lake Worth) and call for a thorough investigation of the fire at Gulfstream. Connor should be proactive and serve the community that he lives in Lake Worth not Wellington.