By Natalie Hamren
NKyTribune reporter
First in an occasional series about NKY’s mayors
Florence Mayor Diane Whalen grew up knowing all about what it took to be a mayor. She saw her father, Hop Ewing, — who held the position for 20 years — work daily at his job.
“I saw the growing pains the city went through, and it was much smaller, so the mayor truly did field all the phone calls and all the complaints and responded directly to each and every one of them,” Whalen said. “That’s what I remember growing up is just the home phone ringing all the time and him taking care of business no matter what time of the day and night it was.”
Mayor Whalen
Despite being “the furthest thing from her mind” as a kid, Whalen has now been in the position herself for over 20 years. In her tenure, she’s accomplished a lot — despite roadblocks over the years.
“We’ve, probably, in the last 20 or so years, had as much as a billion dollars in economic investment and in the community. It’s spread all out,” Whalen said.
Whalen doesn’t take all the credit herself, however. The city council and other professional staff in Florence have helped accomplish these goals over the years. Whalen said without these incredible people, none of these things would have happened.
“You’ve got to have a group of people that you know, that you trust, that are all working towards the same goal,” Whalen said. “And the goal — in Florence — with everybody, has been to see it continue to thrive, to provide the kinds of services the residents want, and try to find the place that you want your kids to come back and live when they grow up.”
Whalen said she wishes she would have kept a journal to record and document her accomplishments over the years, but a specific accomplishment that comes to mind is the redevelopment in the rebirth of Mall Road.
She said it took discussions with three separate governors before the funding was made available as a state route to see the improvements to Mall Road from gravel road to the parkway it is now.
“The investment that the state made on behalf of the City on Mall Road is what has continued to spur the development there,” Whalen said. “Costco, Menards, Dave & Buster’s, Chic-fil-A at that end — having the people that do own the property along the way build to the specification or to the area that they’re in. And so they’ve invested money in their piece of Mall Road to continue to move it forward.”
COVID changed things
With all the success in her position as mayor also comes struggles.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way Florence has had to operate over the last year. Whalen said there many unknowns on how to keep the city operating while also keeping the employees safe. One change the city made was to have the police department do roll call from their vehicles rather than be together in one room. Another change was splitting the public services department into shifts, such as water and sewer so that if one person got sick, they still had people able to work.
“It was a matter of learning with everybody else as we went through this, what we needed to do to keep our community safe, to keep our essential workers safe and still provide the services that everybody was looking for and needed. I mean, everybody was looking for some kind of continuity and we wanted to be that,” Whalen said.
Whalen herself was only in the office on certain days of the week to avoid being with other staff members and prevent the potential spreading of COVID-19.
“What we learned as we moved through this was, it was concerning and it was dangerous, but it could be managed with respect. You respect what’s going on for you and for the people around you and do your best to stay safe and healthy,” Whalen said.
Diane Whalen
Understanding retail-centric
Going forward, Whalen said an area of concern is the retail market. Shoppers are relying more on online shopping — especially during the pandemic — and the future of in-person shopping is unknown.
“Florence has always been very retail-centric. We have a very huge retail community here. And when you look at things like the mall, you have to stop and envision what comes next,” Whalen said. “Because there’s certainly not any business model you can look at — it’s 44 years old — which is how long that mall’s been there, that doesn’t change and adapt.”
There are currently discussions and interest in the vacant Sears building at the Florence Mall, as well as the out lots where banks were previously. Whalen said the previous owners of the mall gave the deed back to the bank due to financial issues. The bank has a new management company that it’s leasing the mall to.
Whalen said something that people don’t understand is that Sears, JC Penney and Macy’s all own their buildings in the mall.
“There is just a tremendous amount of interest and synergy going on over there that gives me great hope for the future of Mall Road and that corridor,” Whalen said.
Favorite part of the job
Whalen said her favorite part about her job is the people. She said she gets to see a lot of good in serving the community.
“The people who work for this city — our police officers, our firefighters, our paramedics, our public services, the people in the offices in finance — they truly care about the job they’re doing,” Whalen said.
Whalen said that, overall, the people of Florence are kind and truly care about their community.
“People are good and people are kind and are appreciative of what is going on in the community and the people that work here,” Whalen said.
There are other candidates running for mayor, One has filed already.