By Mitra Malek | Tuesday, March 13, 2007, 11:06 PM

Keep our growing pains to a minimum, Loxahatchee Groves voters called out Tuesday night.

Voters stacked their fledgling town council with five candidates already versed in what it will take to run the 3-month-old municipality: Four winners spent years ushering Loxahatchee Groves to independence, and one winner has been on the town’s water control district board for a dozen years.

Retired business owner Dave Autrey prevailed over nursery owner Toni Vorsteg for Seat 1; Bill Louda, a professor, defeated fireman Frank Schiola for Seat 2; retired schoolteacher Marge Herzog beat independent businessman Harold Murphy for Seat 3; and bricklayer David Browning sailed past nurse Darlene Crawford for Seat 4.

The tightest race was for Seat 5, where online investor Dennis Lipp beat out nurse Ilene Rindom.

"It feels pretty good," Autrey said. "It’s a good group of people, and I know we’re going to be able to work really well together."

Autrey is president of the Committee to Incorporate Loxahatchee Groves, which formed in the fall of 2003 with a goal of giving independence to this 12-square-mile community of nurseries, bird breeders, equestrians, nudists and people who love to live on dirt roads hundreds of feet from their neighbors.

Vorsteg, who estimates she talked to at least 400 residents during a two-month foot campaign, said the race was a chance for her to reconnect with old customers of her nursery, Folsom Farms.

"I had to keep my eye on positive things," she said.

For a town of 3,400, the race for power grew contentious and curious.

Candidates and residents filed complaints with the sheriff’s office and the state elections commission about missing signs and incomplete campaign fliers. The race for Seat 1 heated up with mailers from each candidate claiming the other wanted to develop the town.

A division appeared to form between candidates supported by the town’s nurseries and candidates involved with the incorporation committee.

Several candidates considered to be part of the nursery slate — Vorsteg, Schiola and Murphy — said the town’s $1 million budget for next fiscal year appeared too small. Their questioning cast doubt on their three opponents — Autrey, Louda and Herzog, all part of the incorporation committee that crafted the budget.

Autrey, Louda and Herzog maintained the budget was sound — and had to be for the state to sign off on it.

Louda said his bluntness probably helped cinch a win.

"I’m picky, I’m technical," he said. "I’m not always telling people what they want to hear."

Louda set off a firestorm among nursery owners when he took a stance against allowing more commercial nurseries along Okeechobee Boulevard during the candidates’ first debate, an otherwise staid event.

"It was part of what I wanted to do," Louda said. "We’ve got to get some discussion."

Herzog, president of the Loxahatchee Groves Landowners Association, said her longtime community involvement helped her. "My track record speaks for itself."

Herzog should be able to handle the job, said her opponent, Murphy. "She’s done a tremendous amount for Loxahatchee Groves." Most of the candidates camped outside the town’s single polling location, Palms West Presbyterian Church. Some stayed all day; others stood and chatted with voters for a couple hours. Jim and Doris Collier, who breed quarter horses on 25 acres they call home, said they voted for Autrey, Louda, Herzog, Browning and Rindom.

"They stand for the same thing I do," Jim Collier said.

That means keeping developers out, not paving roads and preventing commercial development on Okeechobee Boulevard, he said. Collier bought five acres in 1975, purchasing surrounding land until the property grew to its current size.

Robert Fesmire said his voting decisions solidified moments after the March 1 candidate forum ended at Sunsport Gardens Family Naturist Resort, where he has lived for two years.

He voted for the same slate as the Colliers. But the former bankruptcy lawyer’s reason was more intellectual.

"I went with my general impression, how knowledgeable they appeared," Fesmire said. Louda, in particular, seemed to be versed in many subjects, Fesmire said.

About 42 percent of the town’s 1,939 registered voters came to the polls, roughly the same number who cast ballots during the October incorporation referendum.

The newly elected officials will be sworn in March 29, and the new town will become operational the next day.