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The Voice of St. Matthews, November 17, 1955: W. T. Porter, Steve Porter’s (61) fatherBellewood Elects Porter For 4th Straight TermIt was in March, 1950, that W. T. Porter was sworn in as a member of the Board of Trustees of thenewly-organized City of Bellewood.He was named Mayor shortly thereafter by his fellow trustees and he has served in that position eversince. On Tuesday of last week, he was elected to his fourth term on the Board.March, 1950, it will be remembered, was the great month of incorporations. The Cities of St.Mathews, Springlee and Bellewood all came into being at that time.So far as it can be checked, Mr. Porter has the longest record of continuous service of any trustee ofany City in the St. Matthews area, south of Brownsboro Road.Mayor Noland, B. W. Gratzer, Henry Leathers and Sam Rudy have served in St. Matthews since thebeginning, but Bellewood was incorporated a week or two earlier.Quincy Tyler and R. J. Hancock in Richlawn have possibly served more time, but not uninterruptedly.Mr. Hancock served a term as City engineer, and Mr. Tyler did not run for office in 1953. Hewas pressed back into service as Mayor in January of this year when Mayor Courtney McIntyre died in office, and threeother trustees resigned because they’d been transferred by their firms or four other business reasons.A quiet, business-like but friendly gentleman, Mr. Porter is active in several local organizations. This past summer, he waschief scorekeeper for the National League and compiled all the statistics for the players’ final fielding, batting and pitchingrecords.His boy, 11-year-old Steve (WHS’61), played with the Ermanns in the League. Steve, incidentally, tries his hand at severalsports. He swam this summer for the River Road Country Club team, and is now playing with the Beavers in the St. MatthewsFootball League. Mr. Porter was a director at the Country Club the past year.Mr. and Mrs. Porter served on the Community Chest and Y.M.C.A. fund drives. “It seems we work for one good causeafter another,” said Mrs. Porter.By day, Mr. Porter, 45, is vice president of sales at Porcelain Metals. He and the trustees run the City nights and weekends.“I’ve enjoyed it from the standpoint of getting to know so many people,” he said. “Our problems here in Bellewood are notmajor.” Now that fire and garbage services have been established, “we sort of let thing run themselves,” he added.It is his conviction that the residents “want things to go along without a lot of regulations and restrictions.” He feels thatthe “best thing a little City can do is to provide a reasonable number of services to justify its existence.”His City of 125 homes, just north of St. Matthews and east of Chenoweth Lane, has no hope of providing elaborate municipalservices, he said.Looking at it realistically, he concludes that the main advantages of being an incorporated area in the County are that itgives him and his neighbors “a means for group action to provide certain municipal services, and an opportunity of electingwhat is going to happen to our little area. As a City, we have some voice in determining what is going to happen to us inthe future.”His meaning is pretty clear, An unincorporated area is a sitting duck for Cities wishing to annex it. But an incorporatedarea can be annexed only by vote of the people.The City’s treasury is primarily a reserve road fund, and at the end of this year, should amount to about $4,500 or $5,000.This money is invested in a manner prescribed by law and brings in a good rate of interest.Bellewood’s tax rate started out at 48 cents went up to 52 cents for one year to cover an “extraordinary expense,” and twoyears ago came back down to 46 cents. Existing County assessments were used, with some adjustments for inequalities,and these assessments have not been altered.The City government has resurfaced Brookfield, partially at its own expense, and partially by assessment of the abuttingproperty owners. “This was done at the 100 percent request of the residents,” Mr. Porter pointed out.Repair work has been done on Elmwood. The City contracts for fireprotection from the St. Matthews Volunteer Fire Department, and providesgarbage collection twice a week for seven months, and once aweek for the other five months. Also fire plugs have been added andmaintained where needed, and now every house in Bellewood is within1,000 feet of a fire plug.Mr. Porter was born and raised in Cincinnati. A graduate of Purdue,he has a B.S. degree in Science.His stepson, First Lt. E. Riggs Monfort, 26, is the young man who,crippled in one leg as a child by polio, recovered and became an AirForce jet pilot. He is now stationed in Okinawa.The Voice Of St. Matthews, March 12, 1959: