McKinney Mayor Bill Whitfield hopes to get air service to city

by Minnie Payne

MCKINNEY — Bill Whitfield, 78-year-old McKinney mayor, has come a long way from the two-room school that he attended through ninth grade in Itasca, Texas. Whitfield graduated from Itasca High School in 1947 and continued his education for two more years at North Texas Agriculture College, now University of Texas at Arlington.

“I met my wife, Jo Ann, and married, with intentions of going back to school, but didn’t mean to wait until 1982 to return,” Whitfield said.

He said that in 1949, he went to work for Foremost Dairies and worked for a year, then went to work for E. F. Drew, a manufacturer of products that are sold to the dairy industry. After leaving E. F. Drew, he went to work for Kraft Foods, where he remained for 35 years, receiving Kraft’s most prestigious honor, the J. L. Kraft Jade Ring Award.

“We were living in Lubbock and in 1982, I enrolled in Wayland Baptist University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Business in 1984,” Whitfield said. “My wife also enrolled in Texas Tech in 1982, where she went on to earn her master’s degree.”

Whitfield explained that the reason he ran for city council in 1998 was because at the time he was president of the homeowner’s association in Eldorado and a neighbor’s house flooded on three different occasions.

“We obviously had a problem, and I couldn’t get anybody at city hall to help me, so I decided to run for councilman in an effort to solve the problem, which we solved,” he said. “When I ran for mayor in 2003, I didn’t like the way things were going, and I thought I could do better.”

The McKinney Mayor can serve up to two three-year terms, he said, and he agrees with that policy.

“Kraft Foods move their middle managers around about every five to seven years and the reason for that is that they [managers] won’t become complacent,” he said. “That’s the reason I think it’s not good for a mayor to serve long term.”

The population for McKinney is about 121,000 and at the last report, he said McKinney was still the fastest growing city in the country.

He didn’t hold any offices when he was in high school and college, but he said that his parents did allow him to take time away from his farm chores to play high school basketball and football. He said that he’s just a country boy and has always had an outgoing personality.

Whitfield is actively involved with the North Collin County Habitat for Humanity, for which he served as a former president.

“The North Collin County Habitat for Humanity builds houses for people who can’t afford them,” he said. “They [NCCHH] get a lot of things given to them.

“People who buy the houses don’t pay interest and families who otherwise might not be able to own a home realize a dream come true.”

He said that he likes most knowing that he has had a part in the accomplishments that have taken place since he has been mayor. One such task was getting state Highway 121, which is expected to be complete in the first quarter of 2010, funded by the North Texas Tollway Authority.

He explains that the NTTA gave $1 billion-plus upfront to build the toll road and there will be enough money left to build U.S. 75, plus other near neighborhood roads throughout the county. The state doesn’t have enough money to build all the roads needed in the metroplex.

“There were people who thought that TxDOT should build the road as a free road,” he said. “McKinney worked with the Regional Transportation Council to make it a toll road and for 52 years the NTTA will collect the tolls.”

There is one other big accomplishment that he would like to see come to pass before he leaves office, he said, and that is to get construction started on the main runway of the McKinney Airport.

“Just knowing that we could get air service to McKinney would make me very happy,” he said. “We would like to be the third air carrier service in the metroplex and if we could just get 10 or 15 flights out of McKinney that would be what we’re looking for.”

Whitfield has been married to his wife, Jo Ann, for 58 years, and they have two daughters, Denise, 56, and Michele, 50, and two grandchildren.