BROOKINGS – No one thing led up to Jeff Weldon’s decision to retire as Brookings city manager at the end of June, but several things came together to make him feel the time was right, he said. 

He’s been planning for this day for a while.

“My wife (Tracie) and I have been talking, thinking long-range plans for the last couple of years, what will be the time to do that. Kind of culminated with a couple of things. You know my 60th birthday is today,” Weldon said Friday. 

Two big life events happened for him in recent months, as well.

“Both my kids had kids,” he said referring to the births in May and August of his first two grandchildren. 

On the other end of the spectrum, “my father passed away last month, so just some of those things in life made it seem right (to leave),” Weldon said.

He and Tracie will move back to central Minnesota, where her family has some land and they want to build a home.

“I get to be close to my family, including my mother,” Weldon said, adding that a “high priority” will be spending lots of time with the grandchildren.

“My health is good and I want to make sure I can enjoy retirement,” he said.

That includes a lot of hobbies he wants to pursue.

“I’ve been working over the last several years to cultivate more hobbies, to make sure I’m busy in retirement,” Weldon said. 

He and Tracie enjoy camping, so he plans on lots of camping, fishing and boating, as well as traveling.

“I love golf,” he said enthusiastically.

“And we are fortunate enough to have a vineyard on our property, so I’m going to try to do more to grow grapes and I might try making some wine, just for the fun of it, as a hobby.

“I really enjoy pencil sketching, so I look forward to doing more of that. I do pencil sketching on landscape scenes,” he said.

“So much of what I do (professionally) is left-brain stuff. And that is really the opportunity for me to do something in art that is right brain,” Weldon said.

Not an easy decision

As much as he’s looking forward to retirement, he still enjoys his work.

“It was not an easy decision by any means. I have a passion for this business, I love doing what I do. I could do it for a long time, but it just seemed like a good time to make a life change,” Weldon said.

He wanted to give the council plenty of time to decide how they wanted to fill the position, because it’s “a crucial position in the community.”

In his notice letter, Weldon wrote: “I also believe it is a good time for Brookings to perhaps have a different style of staff management than what I have been able to provide; someone who has strengths where I may have had weaknesses.”

“I guess I’m kind of being reflective there,” he said. “All of us are only human. There are things I do well and there are some things I probably don’t do very well. We can’t be experts on all things. I think after 10 years, it’s probably the city council and the community would benefit from somebody that had different skill sets than I do. That’s kind of a philosophical answer.”

His career has spanned 35 years, the last 10 of which have been in Brookings.

He recalled the people he worked with as an intern in Eagan, Minnesota, and as an assistant in Apple Valley, Minnesota.

“Those two gentlemen taught me so much about the business, and I was fortunate to learn under them,” Weldon said.

He was city administrator in Redwood Falls for 12 1/2 years. It was a small community with little staff.

“I wore so many hats, but that was absolutely crucial for me to develop knowledge and skills in so many different areas in local government,” which he brought to Brookings when he came 10 1/2 ago, he said.

“I am so incredibly grateful to the council members and the mayors that I’ve had the privilege to work with for so many years, in all my communities, but especially, I guess, in Brookings,” Weldon said.  

Brookings highlights

Some of the highlights in the past 10 years have been building the city and county government center and updating the city’s other facilities, and the opportunities in economic development, commercial development, and residential development that has helped Brookings grow and “be on the cutting edge,” Weldon said.

“Nobody does this stuff alone,” he said, mentioning partnerships are “the key” that made it all possible. 

“Brookings has such a positive, progressive and innovative attitude about community-based issues. More than any other city I’ve worked in. And that’s probably been the single biggest highlight of working here is being able to work in that kind of environment,” he said.

He wishes he could have seen the Swiftel Center expanded into a conference/convention facility with an attached hotel and the Brookings Marketplace get finished.

“I think that will happen. I think we’ve set things in motion for it to happen,” Weldon said.

Even though it’s time to leave, it will be hard.

“I will miss this great community. The coming months are gonna be, I’m sure, difficult for me to leave. Public service and local government management has been a big part of who I am. It’s a very difficult but a very challenging and rewarding profession,” Weldon said. “It’s been a lot of fun, at times frustrating, but that’s how you grow. And it’s been great.”

Contact Jodelle Greiner at jgreiner@brookingsregister.com.