Kangley honors long-time former mayor Carol Lahman, names new park after her

For 20 years, Carol Lahman was the mayor of Kangley.

In the village of 200 to 300 people, just west of Streator, that meant reading water meters, flushing water hydrants, working the pump house when the water system had issues and turning in water samples on a regular basis.

Did she drive the snow plow?

“You’re damn right I did,” she said with pride.

The long-time mayor, trustee and volunteer was honored Thursday as four generations of her family and several other friends gathered to show her the park named in her honor.

A sign was constructed across the five village lots on Main Street dedicating the Carol Lahman Park - Natural Recreation Area in the village of Kangley.

After Lahman, who now lives at Heritage Health in Streator, resigned in June as a member of the village board of trustees following 21 years of public service, the village’s current president John Sullivan said it became a no-brainer she needed to be honored.

Sullivan said the village will forever be indebted to Lahman for acquiring a grant from the state of Illinois to help the village with its water system and eventually passing the operations to Illinois American Water. Lahman met Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar in the process, posing with him for a photo with the grant check.

“It was a God sent to get that government grant,” Sullivan said. “We’ll never be able to pay her back for that.”

“The village has had this land for quite awhile that we wanted to be a park. We’ve been sitting on it, waiting for when and how we’re going to use it. When (Lahman) resigned, we thought that would be really great way to say thank you.”

The village hopes to add picnic tables to the recreation area that was abandoned land from a railroad company. A railroad line once ran through the property and a window factory also sat on the land in the late 1800s, Sullivan said. Up until recently, most of the land was overgrown with weeds and brush.

With friends and family meeting her at the newly-named park, Lahman shared memories and stories of running the village. Without the resources of a larger community, she was hands-on, whether it be driving the snow plow, handling the water system or even breaking up late-night, teenage house parties, carrying a baseball bat as protection.

She said bingo every Monday at the village hall paid for a lot of activities and projects throughout the town, and of course, she’d have to work the games. She talked fondly of delivering food baskets to seniors and toys to children. She loved the neighborly nature of the village.

“I used to know everyone in every house,” Lahman said. “We all knew each other.”

Lahman moved to Kangley in 1962 and volunteered with Kangley homecomings, bingos, sat on the appeals board and the community center board, before becoming mayor in 1977. After resigning as mayor in 1997, she returned to the village board in 2001 and served on the board until this summer.

Though her family and friends honored her for the decades of service for the village, an appreciative Lahman remained modest Thursday, deflecting the attention at times with her sense of humor.

“We just did what we had to do,” Lahman said, matter-of-factly.