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Bentley Town Office and Fire Hall - 20052005
Bentley, Alberta
Credits:Bentley Museum Society
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Bentley Town Shop -20052005
Bentley, Alberta
Credits:Bentley Museum Society
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Turning on the natural gas in Bentley1968
Bentley, Alberta
Credits:Bentley Museum Society
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Turning on the natural gas in Bentley1968
Bentley, Alberta
Credits:Bentley Museum Society
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Town of Bentley - Water Facilities2005
Bentley, Alberta
Credits:Bentley Museum Society
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Town of Bentley lagoons2005
Bentley, Alberta
Credits:Bentley Museum Society
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Town of Bentley Recycling Trailer2005
Bentley, Alberta
Credits:Bentley Museum Society
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Waste Management & Town of Bentley recycling containers2010
Bentley, Alberta
Credits:Bentley Museum Society
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Bentley Transfer Station - 20052005
Bentley, Alberta
Credits:Bentley Museum Society
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Services: Electrification, Gas and Garbage and WasteThe first sources of light to the early citizens of Bentley were homemade candles, coal oil lamps and lanterns, Aladdin lamps and lastly gasoline lamps and lanterns.
One of the greatest changes to Bentley was the introduction of electricity. Frank and Percy Thorp generated the first electricity to the folks of Bentley. They used two large, twelve cylinder stationary engines to generate power. Later a larger diesel unit replaced these. Power was turned on at dusk and cut off at eleven o'clock or midnight. If you wanted to stay up it was back to the old lamps. On Mondays, power was turned on in the morning to accommodate the ladies and operate their washing machines and irons. If there was a special event or a dance the power stayed on till one o'clock in the morning. The Thorp's first business burnt down in the 1916 fire. It was from the second business, "Bentley Garage", where this power plant was installed. We do not have a definite date, sometime after the 1916 fire. Of course some residents of Bentley had their own light plants and others just stayed with their old lamps.
Calgary Power came to Bentley in 1935 and supplied A.C. power on a continous basis.
Gas - Bentley's Turn "On" Ceremony
Bentley Museum Society archives
Hon. A.R. Patrick, Alberta's Provincial Secretary and Minister of Industry and Development, was guest speaker at a banquet that preceded Bentley's "Turn - on - Ceremony" on Thursday, October 13, 1960.
Mr. Patrick noted that with all the services now enjoyed by the Village of Bentley and an abundance supply of good water Bentley would be in a position to encourage some industries to settle in our beautiful Blindman Valley. Mr. Patrick noted Bentley's ever increasing role in connection with the tourist industry brought about by our proximity to Gull Lake and Sylvan Lake.
Officials taking part in the Gas Turn on Ceremony included Murry Stewart, General Manager, Northwestern Utilities Ltd., Village of Bentley, Mayor C.W. Hergott, Hon. A. Russell Patrick, J. Speakman, M.P., Claude Summers, Village Secretary and Bentley Village councilors Elmer Calkins and Albert Herman.
Some interesting statistics provided at this time by Claude Summers, Secretary, - Treasurer of the Village of Bentley were as follows: Population 608, sewer service, water wells, Gas application to date, 173 .Highway 12 paved to Lacombe (13 miles) and Highway 20 graveled to Sylvan Lake (15 miles). 16 bed Bentley Hospital.
Garbage and Waste
The little house (toilet) out back was a necessity in the early years. Back in their time we hardly noticed them. They just blended in with the other buildings. These little houses served their purpose simply, honestly and well.
These outhouses were of different styles. The counter or bench was known as a one holer, two holer or three holer, to fit the backside of the user. Some fancy toilets even had a hole on a lower counter for the small children. Some were lined with cardboard, whitewashed, and even wallpapered with left over wallpaper. There was a rack on the wall or a box on the floor to hold old magazines, old catalogues and newspapers, as toilet tissue was unheard of then. Some folks painted their toilet to match the house. A few had windows installed - high up of course, to let enough light in to read. There were even pictures hanging on the walls of some outhouses.
These little building had numerous names, such as, privy, out door toilet, biffy, the john, outhouses, the little house out back and the latrine. A visit to this little house was referred to as, "going to see a man about a dog".
Maintenance to these buildings was very simple, after you finished scrubbing the kitchen floor you just carried on out to the toilet and the floor and counter were washed down The same procedure was followed on laundry day. You used the rinse water to scrub the kitchen floor and then the toilet. When the hole under the toilet filled up you simply moved the little house to a new spot, over a new hole and filled the old hole up with dirt. Lime was sprinkled down the toilet hole from time to time to speed up the decomposing process and keep the odors down.
Outhouses were a popular item at Halloween. Pranksters liked to push them over or move them back so if the owner made a little trip out at night he would fall into the hole. The owners were quite capable of doing a little trickery too. Sometimes they moved the toilets ahead and when the pranksters came and proceeded to push the toilet over they stepped into the hole themselves.
With the first flush of indoor china, outhouses, like poor puns, fell out of odor. Outhouses have passed three phases already - taken for granted, objects of rustic stigma, items of nostalgia - and a fourth may be in the wind.
It's interesting to note that a "Biffy" was set up on the Main Street of Bentley prior to 1935. Ernie L. Petersen and O.R. Johnson of Bentley were strong advocates of the Social Credit Party, before it was elected. To tease these fellows some Bentley folks set up a toilet in the middle of main street and dressed the building up with appropriate signage, such as, "State Credit House".
Many homes and businesses had their own water well or they shared a well with their neighbors. Water was piped into some homes by lines from the well or maybe they had a water cistern. If they installed indoor plumbing they would have need for a septic tank and a field. Some folks had running water in their homes but no flush toilet. They used the little toilet out back. The sewer system was installed in Bentley in the fifties.
The first lagoon was located north of the present lagoon and closer to highway # 12.
The present lagoon consists of four aenerobic ponds, which decompose wastes. From here the waste water goes to two larger ponds called faclative ponds where the purification process continues. From here the water waste goes to two larger storage ponds where the wind continues the cleansing process. At this stage there is no solid wastes present and the clear water is drained into the river once a year.
One of the last solid waste stations to go into operation was constructed by the County of Lacombe in the Town of Bentley in July 1987. Bentley's Transfer Station was the last to be built because the existing refuse sites still had some room. There is no more driving a few miles to a landfill. The station is right in the town limits, making it more convenient. This station includes a solid waste compactor, a dry rubble box and a waste metal box. The two landfills near Bentley NW21-40-0-W5 and NW33-40-01-W5 soon closed.
Lacombe Regional Solid Waste Authority manages the Waste Transfer Station with the operator contracted from Lacombe County.
But not all the people of Bentley are happy with the new facility- they miss the old "DUMP". Not only did folks take their garbage to these landfills, but they also looked for treasures and useful articles to haul back home. Sometimes they brought more home from the dump than they took there in the first place. It was not uncommon for the whole family to make the trip to the land fill. Going to the dump was never a hurried process. It took awhile to check out the whole area. It's been said some people did their Christmas shopping at the dump.There was nothing more heart breaking to get to the landfill and find the County boys had just been there and had done a burn or pushed some dirt into the landfill. No looking for treasures that day.Mother's got into trouble when after cleaning their child's room and depositing a few articles in the garbage, her children returned from the dump with their favorite toy or their favorite pair of cowboy boots (it didn't matter to them that the boots were too small and had holes in them). These children were heartbroken that their memorabilia was in the landfill and of course they brought it back home.
Two other landfills near Bentley were also closed SE12-41-03-W5 and SW21-39-01-W5.
Hal Lutz was the first operator hired to operate the new Transfer Station. Others that we can recall that followed and maybe not in order were Bill Sanders, Mike Peterson and Joe Maki.
The Town Of Bentley has one trailer and Waste Management have two recycle containers located near the Bentley Bottle Depot (50th Avenue south) where residents may recycle their cardboard, newspapers, tin, plastic and glass. The Town of Bentley haul the trailer with the glass and tin to a recycle station in Red Deer. Waste Management is responsible for empting their two containers and hauling the contents to their recycling stations.
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