Denes voted in unanimously as council president

Sandy Denes has only lived in Welling­ton for six years, but she can include vil­lage coun­cil pres­i­dent to her resume.

Denes was voted in as coun­cil pres­i­dent in a unan­i­mous deci­sion at last Monday’s meeting.

Denes, who just com­pleted her sec­ond year as a mem­ber of coun­cil, moved to Welling­ton a lit­tle over six years ago. She pre­vi­ously lived in Hunt­ing­ton Township.

Denes said she feels her short time liv­ing in Welling­ton is not a bad thing.

“I don’t see that as an issue,” she said. “I had no agenda or crit­i­cism. I attended coun­cil meet­ings spo­rad­i­cally for a cou­ple of years and then attended all com­mit­tee and coun­cil meet­ings the year before I ran. I wanted to edu­cate myself on what I was get­ting into and how busi­ness was done.”

While she lived in Hunt­ing­ton Town­ship, Denes said she still spent a lot of her time in Wellington.

Denes said she’s been a life­long mem­ber of St. Patrick Church in Welling­ton. She’s also involved in the Lorain County Jr. Fair, work­ing on the live­stock sale committee.

Her involve­ment in pol­i­tics began when she was work­ing at the Lorain County Farm Bureau.

“It encour­aged my involve­ment and aware­ness, and got me inter­ested in pol­i­tics,” she said.

Cur­rently, Denes is an admin­is­tra­tive assis­tant at the Lorain Soil and Water Con­ser­va­tion District.

Denes said her goal was never to become coun­cil pres­i­dent. She said she wanted to be a part of the process and be a voice for residents.

“I’m still learn­ing,” she said. “It’s a job that takes time. I try to edu­cate myself, ask ques­tions, and make the best deci­sions based on the infor­ma­tion I have. I’m will­ing to make tough decisions.”

Denes said a lot has been done in the vil­lage since she has been on coun­cil. The Splash Pad, green energy efforts, pro­hibit­ing sales on pub­lic green spaces, and the Court­land Street project are just a few.

Denes said she’s look­ing for­ward to begin­ning the under­pass project, the down­town revi­tal­iza­tion, con­tinue to expand the rec park, and many other items cur­rently on council’s to-do list.

Out­side her work on coun­cil, Denes also vol­un­teers at the St. Joe’s home­less shel­ter in Lorain. She said in her free time she enjoys trav­el­ing, cook­ing, read­ing, and gardening.

Denes has three adult chil­dren - T.J., Todd, and Amanda.

Denes said she’s proud to be a mem­ber of coun­cil and enjoys the opportunity.

“I work with a great group on coun­cil as well as vil­lage employ­ees,” she said. “I’m very pleased to be elected pres­i­dent by my peers.”

Posted by Terra Carlson on Jan 12 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.