David Willmoth, three-term mayor and lifelong resident of Elizabethtown, arrived last to a lunch meeting of the Hardin County United Governance Subcommittee.
The tall, soft-spoken mayor took a seat at the end of the table and ordered only a salad, possibly still full from a hearty breakfast provided at the 7 a.m. Rotary Club meeting. A typical day in the life of the mayor of the Hardin County seat — a growing community expected to grow more because of the federal government’s base realignment at nearby Fort Knox — involves a lot of meetings and often a lot of eating.
That’s what the mayor does. But it’s not what the mayor is.
Willmoth is a self-described collector of “everything and nothing,” and when life gets out of whack for him, collecting realigns him.
His office provides a showcase for vintage baseballs, duck decoys and model Corvettes.
But when it comes to his true love, an adage used to talk about covering politicians comes to mind: follow the money.
Because Willmoth loves to collect U.S. and national currency.
He brought from a lockbox an envelope stuffed with old bills, each one ensconced in a protective sleeve, and he proceeded to share his favorite part about collecting currency: the history of the United States revealed in the beautifully engraved notes.
But all history lessons come to an end, and Willmoth waded through stacks of papers and rolls of development plans to get to his desk to answer the day’s correspondence — the currency of mayors.
