CHAMBERLAIN — Two important elections happened in November 1980: Ronald Reagan was elected United States president and Lyle Bennett was elected a councillor in the Village of Chamberlain.
While Reagan was limited to two terms — or eight years — in office, Bennett’s political career was more than five times longer than The Gipper’s. However, like all careers, Bennett’s time serving his community has come to an end.
The village council, administration and townspeople honoured Bennett’s 44 years in office with a celebration at the village hall on Jan. 30. Bennett had decided last year not to run in the November municipal election because of health issues.
During the ceremony, Mayor Herman Zentner praised Bennett for his “impressive length of service” and for achieving such a historic milestone. The new mayor noted that the outgoing councillor was first elected on Nov. 3, 1980 — a day before Reagan’s win — and held that position for 11 consecutive terms.
Bennett’s last day was Nov. 20, 2024.
“To put that in another perspective, Lyle had been a councillor for as long as I am old,” Zentner chuckled. “It is rare to come across a person that shows the dedication to hold a position for as long as Lyle had.”
The mayor then presented Bennett with a plaque featuring a picture of the community.
“I got 44 years of taking on this council job and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it,” Bennett said. “We’ve had some tough times and some good times and some bad times and some rough times, but we had a good time, and that’s what the main thing is all about.”
The retiring councillor noted that, if it weren’t for his poor health, he would have run again in the municipal election last fall. Meanwhile, he thanked the taxpayers for “putting up with (him) all these years,” while he congratulated the new three-man council for stepping forward with new ideas.
Bennett jokingly added that he hoped the new council could “(make) Chamberlain great again.”
The retiring village councillor later said that he appreciated the community’s “nice gesture” with the ceremony, but he didn’t take on the job for this type of recognition. Instead, he was “pleased and proud” to represent Chamberlain for over four decades.
“I’m Mr. Chamberlain in all sense of the words. I (do) a lot of Chamberlain stuff and it means a lot to me,” the 69-year-old said, noting that his father was a councillor in the 1950s and helped bring water, sewer and power to the community.
Bennett was 25 when he first became a councillor, and over the next 44 years, he went through seven mayors and several town administrators while he attended over 500 council meetings and many more special meetings.
When he first started, the three-person council and administrator held its meetings in a small room. Since smoking inside was still permissible in the 1980s, Bennett noted that when the meetings ended, he couldn’t see anyone across the table because of the thick smoke cloud.
One big issue council faced regularly was the landfill, a topic that consumed the first half-hour of every meeting because residents complained that other residents weren’t following the rules when dumping their refuse, he recalled.
Being a councillor was plenty of fun, although there were always issues with keeping the water flowing and sewer infrastructure maintained, said Bennett.
On one occasion, Bennett recalled having to use dynamite to unplug the lagoon. He and another village employee were in a boat on the sewage pond, with the latter dropping sticks of explosives around the mound. They then retreated to shore before detonating the dynamite.
“It blew the mound of stuff all up in the water, and it got opened up, and it was good for 20 years … . You don’t do that today,” he chuckled.
Bennett added that keeping taxes low, producing drinkable water, ensuring the sewer system worked and staying current on water treatment plant regulations were the main tasks he focused on during his 44 years.
