The city of Arnold is replacing a beloved employee with a well-known Arnold Chamber of Commerce employee.
Mary Ellen Cox, who has been the administrative assistant for Arnold’s mayor and city administrator for the past 12 years, retired Oct. 1.
Terri Starwalt, who has been the chamber’s executive director for the last five years, will take over as Arnold’s administrative assistant on Monday, Oct. 11.
She said her final day with the chamber is Friday.
Cox was being paid $46,917 a year, and Starwalt will be paid a $41,760 annual salary, said Bill Lehmann, director of finance for the city of Arnold.
Arnold Mayor Ron Counts said he will miss Cox.
“She has definitely been a godsend for me,” he said. “She means an awful lot to me, and I hate to see her leave. She also means a lot to our city because she truly cares about our city, what goes on in our city and the people in it. I don’t know anybody anywhere who has a bad word for Mary Ellen. They love Mary Ellen because she is such a wonderful person. I think our city has been blessed for the time she has been here.”
Chamber president Kathleen Walke-Norris, who is owner of TK Insurance Solutions of Festus, said the chamber hates to see Starwalt leave.
“She has brought stability and growth to the chamber,” Walke-Norris said. “One of the biggest things she brought was caring. During the coronavirus pandemic, she reached out to people and supported them while going through it. She brought a sense of community to our chamber.”
Walke-Norris said the chamber has advertised for a new executive director, and chamber members likely will work together to cover the executive director duties until the board can find the right person to fill the role.
Donna Litton, chamber treasurer and vice president of business development at Fortune Bank of Arnold, said it will not be easy to replace Starwalt, who has helped the chamber grow from 96 members to 270 in the last five years.
“She has done a lot for our chamber,” Litton said. “When she started, our membership was suffering. She went out and hit the pavement and attracted a lot of members. She attracted past members who had not renewed in a while and a lot of new members as well. She is involved with everybody and knows everybody. She had a relationship with all of our members. I think that is key to retention of members.”
City Administrator Bryan Richison said Cox will be missed, but he feels Starwalt will be a good addition for Arnold.
“For the mayor and I, (Cox) made things so much easier,” Richison said. “I will miss her quite a bit. She is a great person on top of being a great employee.
“(Starwalt) already has a familiarity with the city, having already worked with us in her role with the chamber. She has done a really good job with the chamber. She organized their books, membership and billing. She has grown their membership, and they put on all kinds of events. She has done a really good job with the chamber, and that is a hard job.”
Cox
Cox of Arnold started working for the city in 2007 as a part-time court clerk before becoming the administrative assistant in 2009. Prior to working for Arnold, she was part owner in a construction company until 2005, when she retired to take care of her mother.
“It has been a good ride at the city, and you wouldn’t believe how good the people are to me,” Cox said. “I will miss the people, the kindness, the mayor, Bryan and doing what they asked of me.”
Richison said Cox played a key role in organizing his and the mayor’s schedules, setting up meetings and helping direct people who called City Hall for help to the correct department.
“She is patient, good on the phone, and when we get some irate people who want to talk to me or the mayor, she was very good at calming them down and getting to the root of the problem,” he said. “She is easy to work with and to get along with. She will be missed. She is kind of an institution.”
Cox said some of her favorite memories during her time with the city were its annual Christmas luncheons.
“To bring all of the employees at Christmas time together stands out. They all look forward to it, and that is a big plus,” Cox said.
She also said she was impressed with how city staff members worked together to help residents during floods in 2015 and 2017.
“In 2015, (Arnold Police Chief Bob Shockey) asked me to take over and get the employees’ schedules ready. I worked with the different employees in the city, and I saw how people worked and chipped in to help. In 2017, they called me at church and said the chief wants you here at 1 o’clock to get things going.
“Being with the people and knowing they needed food, cleaning supplies and things like that sticks in my mind. I will never forget those people crying for help, and it made me feel good that I could help.”
Starwalt
After working stints with Direct Security Services in Kansas City and at Eagle Bank, Starwalt said she took four years off before taking the executive director job at the Arnold Chamber.
Starwalt, 59, of De Soto said she has enjoyed her time with the chamber, but she’s ready for a new challenge.
“It is bittersweet,” she said of leaving the chamber. “I have really liked working for the chamber, and I like all of the people. I think it is time to branch out a little bit.”
Richison said Starwalt was one of 90 applicants for the Arnold administrative assistant job, and he interviewed eight of them. Then, he and the mayor interviewed the final three candidates before hiring Starwalt.
Richison said the three finalists all were qualified for the job, but his and the mayor’s familiarity with Starwalt helped them make their selection.
Along with the chamber working with the city for some events, Starwalt also helped keep an eye on the now-defunct Corridor 55, which used to be a city-run coworking space that provided offices and resources to area businesses.
“We were fortunate to have a strong group of applicants,” Richison said. “In the end, I think (her relationship with the city) gave her an edge. When you are dealing with three very qualified people who can do the job and have different strengths, I think the knowledge she already has of the city as an organization, the community, the businesses in the community and having worked with her was a positive for her. That was something at the finish line; she has good experience and a good resume.”
Starwalt said she is looking forward to working at Arnold.
“I think I will be a good fit with them,” she said. “I am very honored they chose me out of all of the applicants.”