Mike Crecelius is ready to travel the country with his wife, Teresa, and “Jake the Wonder Dog.” Crecelius will retire from his position as Fremont County’s emergency management coordinator after 15 years to the date of his start date, Aug. 8, 2008.
“We bought a camper last spring; there’s stuff in this country I’ve never gotten to see, and we are going to do that,” Crecelius said. “As an army brat, I got to see Europe and as a Marine, I got to see the Orient and Mexico, but not our country. So we are are going to travel and see the country.”
Crecelius said he saw the advertisement for the emergency management and environmental health position in the Sidney newspaper back in 2008 and thought it was something he could do. In fact, Crecelius has worn many hats in his lifetime.
As a self-described army brat, he moved many times as a youth due to his father’s military service and lived in several places throughout his elementary years. In eighth grade, the family came home to Sidney and he was able to spend all of high school at Sidney High School.
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“On April 30, my senior year, the recruiter came and got me and took me to Omaha. I did all the physical and paperwork requirements, and on May 1, I raised my right hand and went into the delayed entry plan because I was not yet old enough to carry a firearm,” Crecelius said. “So, January 6, 1976, the day I turned 19, my dad shook my hand and said good luck. I went off and had a 21 ½ year career in the United States Marine Corps.”
After that, Crecelius said he bumped around with a variety of jobs, from working at gun counter in retail and being a department manager to doing investigative work with the federal government, taking on a few other jobs before and after he returned to Sidney in 2003.
“Then I saw the job for the county and I got in. Second to the U.S. Marine Corps, this is the most satisfying job I’ve held,” he said.
Crecelius detailed a list of the many things he has endured throughout the years in his position.
“The very first winter we had a huge ice storm/blizzard and, over the years, we’ve had a number of high water issues along on the Nishnabotna River. I cannot tell you how many times we closed the Riverton Road when there was water across,” he said. “We had the 2011 flood, the 2012 tornado and there were a couple other smaller tornadoes, but those didn’t do as much damage in the county as the 2012 one.
“Then there was the 2019 flood and the 2020 pandemic. It’s been a wild ride, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. I call Fremont my home. The whole time I was in the Marine Corps, I always wanted to come back home and do something for the place I called home. So I took this job and feel like I accomplished that. I am happy with what I’m doing and what I’ve done for the county.”
One example of his strong commitment to the county was in March 2019, when Crecelius was at meetings in Des Moines. Everyone was worried about the rivers in Fremont County, and he thought he should stay home, but the supervisors and his commission said that since it had already been paid for he should go ahead and go and all would be fine.
“We were done early the first day and I was concerned because I knew it was raining that day, so I got on the computer to look at the water levels. After dinner, I got a phone call from someone I know at the National Weather Service. He told me how much more rain we were expecting and he told me that it didn’t look good for my county,” he said. “I went home the next morning because I couldn’t stay with a clear conscience. When I knew what Mother Nature and the Corps of Engineers were getting ready to do to the people of my county, I had to get home and be with my people. I came home by midafternoon and that evening we started evacuating.”
Crecelius said the best part of his job is taking care of the public and that he will miss “his people” the most when retiring.
“I’ll miss my people, that’s it. It’s like after the 2019 flood, I was asked to be a speaker about the flood and present at an annual meeting for Safeguard Iowa. I made the comment that I couldn’t even count the number of people I put my arms around and held as men and women cried on my shoulder,” Crecelius said. “People were devastated. That’s part of it. I was a criminal investigator and a military police officer. I’ve always taken care of people and this is what this job is all about.”
Besides continuing to play the Grinch for Sidney’s Christmas Window Walk at his wife’s request, Crecelius said he mostly looks forward to visiting family and friends in South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Colorado Springs and many other places all over the country, alongside his wife and rescue dog, Jake.
Wherever his travels take him, and whatever he finds himself doing, it’s very likely that this Marine Corps Master Sergeant will not have many idle minutes in his retirement years.
