ROCHELLE — After 23 years with the city, Bruce McKinney is closing a chapter as he heads into retirement.

McKinney has served as Rochelle City Clerk since August of 1994 as well as numerous boards and committees including the Rochelle Chamber of Commerce, Ogle County Board, IML Legislative Committee, and the Lincoln Highway Heritage Festival Committee. He has also served on the Police and Fire Pension Boards.

McKinney has seen many changes throughout the years, such as the change from commissioner to a council/city manager form of local government.

“We had a mayor and four commissioners, and each one ran their own departments. There was no city manager,” McKinney explained. “There were good points and bad points of commission form of government.”

Changes in technology have helped with record entry and keeping, which McKinney says is an improvement from the days of the typewriters. Now documents are scanned, entered into a database and easily retrievable with a few keywords.

McKinney also explained his job of city clerk involves filing all birth and death certificates in Ogle County, which is normally something most county clerks would do.

“Many years ago, since Rochelle was the only city in the county that had a hospital, they put the city clerk in charge of birth and death certificates,” McKinney said. “All of those records are kept right here in City Hall.”

Working for the city came after McKinney’s career at Swift in the accounting office and later supervising in the loading department. After a transfer to Swift’s offices in St. Charles as a buyer, McKinney said the long commute times from Rochelle for 15 years led him to apply for the Rochelle City Clerk position. He was eventually hired for the job, beating over 60 applicants.

Since then, with his service on various boards and committees McKinney has also been a member of the Municipal Clerks of Illinois. There he served as District President, State Secretary, and Vice President. A series of strokes four years ago kept him out of the President position, one he was slated for.

Throughout it all, McKinney said the most rewarding thing about being city clerk is the opportunity to meet so many people.

“With this job when someone comes to the city and is not sure who they need to talk to, usually the first person they ask to see is the city clerk,” McKinney said. “If I can’t help them I will know where to direct them…I’ll take them to where they need to go and make sure where they need to be at.”

Special day

Last week at the Rochelle City Council meeting, Mayor Chet Olson declared Tuesday, May 1 as “Bruce McKinney Day.” The proclamation states several character highlights including McKinney’s dedication and perseverance.

“Bruce McKinney deserves our greatest respect. His example has shown us how to provide service to others, take pride in our community and persevere in the face of hardship,” as stated on the proclamation. “He deserves to be congratulated for his contributions to the City of Rochelle.”

Olson along with City Manager Jeff Fiegenschuh also commented on McKinney’s departure from office in a recent press release.

“I’ve had the pleasure of working with Bruce over the last fifteen years as Mayor. He brought dedication and professionalism to the office of City Clerk,” said Olson.

“I’ll miss joking with Bruce and talking baseball each morning in the office! I wish him nothing but the best in retirement,” said Fiegenschuh.

McKinney said plans for retirement include traveling. He has five children and eight grandchildren.

“My mom is 90 years old and lives in Shelbyville, Ill. I hope to spend some time visiting with her. Maybe my sister and I would take Mom out to South Dakota to visit my youngest brother,” he said.

Along with the opportunity to meet and interact with many people daily, McKinney said he will miss working with everyone at City Hall.

“This is a great group of people to work with. We have fun we also get the job done,” McKinney said. “Not only the people here, but all the city employees…I’ll miss them. I’ll be around to come in and joke with them every once in a while. It’ll be different.”

McKinney’s special day on Tuesday includes a retirement celebration at City Hall from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

At the April 23 City Council Meeting, Sue Messer was sworn in as City Clerk. Rose Hueramo and Jenny Thompson were sworn in as Deputy Clerks. McKinney’s advice to the trio is this: “Just have fun and do your job. A little humor goes a long way!”