Balanced budgets and building bridges: Whelan leaves as longest serving commissioner in Monroe County history

Mike Whelan helped lead Monroe County through floods, droughts, tornadoes, a recession, a pandemic and a change in demographics and politics in his 28 years as Eastern District Commissioner.

Whelan retired Dec. 28 as the longest serving commissioner in the history of the county. 

Whelan recalls the night when the election results were yelled from the second floor of the courthouse to those on the courthouse lawn. He won every precinct except for one – where an opposing candidate lived – and that was by one vote. 

Sworn in on Jan. 1, 1997 at age 38, Whelan leaves behind a legacy of balanced budgets and better bridges and roads.

He is most proud of his part in the building of 35 bridges — more than one per year. 

Bridges in rural counties play a vital role in transporting agricultural products like grain and livestock to markets, and safe passage for residents to school, shopping and church.

“Everybody drives over them — Republicans and Democrats alike. Everybody is glad to see a new bridge go in,” he says.

A contract was awarded to build a bridge near Santa Fe in Whelan’s first year as commissioner. Halfway through the project, the company filed bankruptcy and the commission had to go back to the bonding company and find a new contractor. That bridge remains his favorite of those he guided.

Whelan and other commissioners also are partners in preserving one of the county’s historic sites, the Union Covered Bridge. Built in 1871, it is one of only four remaining covered bridges of the Burr-arch truss design in Missouri. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and, like Mark Twain’s birthplace and shrine and Mark Twain Lake, plays a major role in attracting tourists to the county.

Whelan also has seen Monroe County transform from an agricultural community to a recreational destination for visitors to Mark Twain Lake. Dedicated in 1984, just 13 years before Whelan joined the commission, the lake brought change and new pressures on county budgets for rezoning, roads and extra law enforcement patrol. The commissioners also have negotiated squabbles to keep the peace between the “locals” and “the out-of-towners.”

In addition to that, the Democrat has seen the county go from blue to red. In the last election, more than 77 percent of voters checked the box for Republicans. Once a Democratic stronghold, the county saw the nationalization of local and state politics around 2006. Whelan’s retirement leaves the courthouse without a single Democrat in office.

Whelan is proud of the commission’s common-sense approach to budgeting that has kept the county in the black in years when other counties struggled. 

He points to improvements in county road maintenance. Equipment upgrades and quadrupling of the rock budget has improved the quality of the county’s 668 miles of gravel roads.

Whelan recalls one particularly challenging budget preparation when the courthouse boiler quit in mid-January. Courthouse employees relied on insulated underwear and overalls for six weeks to help them through the days.  

One of the most challenging periods was when the county received $1.02 million in American Rescue Plan Act fiscal funds to help with economic recovery after the COVID pandemic. Some of the funds were spent on the 1912 courthouse, the last domed courthouse built in Missouri, and included a generator to keep 911 operations going in emergencies, new roofing, tuckpointing of cornices, a security system and automated doors to improve accessibility. Funds were also spent to help vital services such as the senior nutrition centers, health department and to provide seed money for a new MU Extension county office.

The county also recently bought a former farm cooperative building to store and protect road equipment. The purchase included fuel tanks, which allowed the county to buy fuel at about a 60-cent per gallon savings. County employees can now perform maintenance on all county vehicles.

One of Whelan’s most notable experiences was the implementation of 911 emergency services in the county. Commissioners worked with Marceline Mapping Company to locate and name all roads and with telephone companies to put in trunk lines to serve 911.

A lifelong resident and farmer in Monroe County, Whelan says it is his love for the county that has kept him going all of these years.  Missouri ranks 50th of 50 in commissioner pay, and the job is never 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Whelan says the phone rings from 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. with calls from residents or county employees.

Whelan has held other long-time roles in his commission position, including serving on the Northeast Community Action Coalition, MU Extension Council of Monroe County and, most notably, “parker” at the annual St. Stephen Catholic Church Swinkey Picnic for more than 50 years with his father, Artie, and son, Aaron.

The eastern district commission post has been held by farmers within a small radius of the county for more than four decades. Former State Rep. Paul Quinn encouraged Whelan to run for office the first time. He was the presiding eastern district commissioner and decided to throw in his hat for county assessor. Another nearby farmer, the late David L. Utterback, served as county commissioner for 24 years, a record only recently broken by Whelan. The late John Fields, who owned much of the land that Whelan now farms, also served as commissioner.

Farmer David Hays, elected as the new eastern district commissioner, is no newcomer to the courthouse. His grandfather, the late Lamar Hays, served as presiding county commissioner from 1960 to 1970.

Whelan says he leaves the county in good hands with Hays and Presiding Commissioner Curt Wheeler and Western County Commissioner Justin Edwards. He plans to continue to farm about 2,500 acres of corn and soybean with his son and perhaps go to a few more tractor pulls than he has been able to go to since becoming commissioner.

He says his heart will never be far from “the courthouse, the lifeline of Monroe County.”