Longtime Benton City mayor and councilman dies. His focus was on growth.

Lloyd Carnahan spent decades working to make Benton City more attractive to businesses.

Economic development was his top goal throughout 24 years as a councilman and eight as mayor for the 3,400-person community.

Carnahan, 85, died June 22 in Richland.

The retired plumber moved to Benton City in 1948 when he was just a child, and spent the rest of his life in the city, according to his death notice.

He became involved in Benton City politics in the 1970s when he joined the planning commission. He first joined the city council in 1979 and served until 1999.

After four years away, he returned again to city council during a turbulent stretch involving then Mayor Bryan Robinson. The controversial mayor was jailed once, subject to two recall attempts and had regular fights with the city council.

Carnahan ran for the mayor’s spot in 2007 with the goal of mending the rift between the council and the mayor. He ended up winning out of a field of four including Robinson.

“We will be getting along with everybody,” Carnahan told the Herald at the time.

In his two terms as the mayor, he worked on projects aimed at making it easier and safer to drive into the city. The biggest change was a $4.5 million roundabout that was built at the intersections of highways 224 and 225 at the exit of Interstate 82.

Carnahan was one of the supporters of the project which was aimed at easing a bottleneck in the area, according to a 2012 Tri-City Herald article.

It was critical to access the 212 acres south of I-82 where Department of Natural Resources land has potential for light industrial development and job creation.

The funding came in as part of a $30 million package of improvements approved by the Washington State Legislature.

During his time on the city council, he also served on Mosquito Control Board, Benton County Solid Waste Management Committee, Tri Aqua Net and Benton County Flood Management Committee.

While Carnahan pushed for the improvements for years, he was voted out of office in 2015 before construction was finished.

He lost to the Mayor Pro Tem Linda Lehman.

After the loss, he ended up leaving city government behind.