advertisement

Community Advisory Group participation a family affair for Welge

It's a different time and place, but in a way, Don Welge is sitting in the same chair his father did more than seven decades ago.

The Gilster-Mary Lee general manager, president and CEO is one of 13 people hand-picked by engineering consultant CH2M to be a part of the Community Advisory Group of the Chester Bridge environmental assessment.

Welge's father, William Welge, was part of the original Chester Bridge Committee that proved instrumental in the development and construction of the current 75-year-old span.

"It makes you proud to try and carry on because that was an enormous deal, building that bridge for the City of Chester at that time," Don said. "It was a bigger thing than what we're trying to talk about right now, in proportion to that time and place.

"It was only in business for about two years and fell into the river."

Opened on August 23, 1942, the bridge was in service until a severe thunderstorm on July 29, 1944 caused the two main spans to fall into the Mississippi River. Reconstruction took two years and the bridge remains as the only vehicular crossing for 50 miles in either direction.

"The principle of it was they wanted it to expand and contract with the heat of the summer, and the problem with this is they didn't bolt it down anyplace," Welge said. "When a tornado came up the river, it just lifted it off."

Don was asked if his father talked much about the bridge project. William Welge's name and photo is included in the souvenir program from the Chester Bridge's grand opening celebration, and he served on a committee that included William G. Juergens - who would go on to become a United States federal judge.

William Welge also served as the entertainment chairman for the grand opening celebration.

"I remember him talking to us (about the bridge)," Don said. "Of course, I was just a kid growing up, but I remember him going to the bridge meetings. They had a little bridge office just north of where the bridge ended.

"The (Chester) Welcome Center is on the south side and (the bridge office) was on the north side and it was also very frustrating for him after they worked so hard to get the bridge built and it falls into the river."

The CAG will advise CH2M and the project's lead agency, the Missouri Department of Transportation, during a roughly two-year process that will ultimately determine the preferred location for a new Mississippi River bridge should construction funds become available.

Welge commented on the economic connection between Chester and Perryville, and highlighted the recreation agreement the two cities signed after the Chester Municipal Pool closed for good in the summer of 2014.

"They are still two communities, but they are linked economically," he said. "Very strongly and culturally too."