Dec 11, 2015 6 min read

WAYNESBURG – Charles Berryhill has served on Waynesburg Borough Council for 40 years, many of them as council president, but on Dec. 31, his tenure will come to end.

“I believe in term limits,” Berryhill said, when asked why he is calling it quits. He was joking, of course.

Berryhill said he just felt it was time for some younger people to come forward to pick up the reins.

Berryhill, 82, has represented Ward 1, Waynesburg’s north side, since 1976, after earlier serving for six years as a member of the borough’s zoning board. After so many years on council, Berryhill said, he will miss it, but probably not quite as much as he misses teaching, which was his vocation. Berryhill taught English at Waynesburg for 32 years, retiring in 1993.

“There will be a hole there, but it won’t be as big as the hole I left down at Waynesburg Central High School,” he said. “Every time I wake up in the morning, I honestly wish I were going down to teach. I miss those kids as much as you can miss your own children.”

Earlier in his life, Berryhill said, he decided to become involved in local government and run for a seat on borough council. He said he always thought a councilman should consider the betterment of the whole community.

“I’d hear someone say, ‘If I get elected I’m going to have this curb fixed or I’m going to have this cop disciplined because he gave me a ticket I didn’t deserve,’ that kind of thing,” he said.

“I said, ‘This is ridiculous; this is a small town and we need people on council who are concerned not for their own property, not even for their own ward.’ We need people in there who are interested in the entire town.”

Berryhill said he has tried to keep to that philosophy and even now takes calls from residents throughout the borough, not just Ward 1.

“I have my normal ones who call me from the north side, but I found that many people didn’t know who their councilman was. They knew me because I had them in school or I had their kids in school.”

Through the years, Berryhill said he received thank you notes from people he was able to help.

“Several people have been pleased with what I did for them, but I would have done it for anyone,” he said. “My point was: What’s best for the town?”

Berryhill has served as the president of council for 24 years with only a two-year break in the mid-1990s. When asked to cite council’s accomplishments during that time, he said it would be too difficult to name them all.

“There are so many things we did, the parks, the cleanups, the paving. I remember the year we paved almost every street in town … then of course, along came the water company and dug them up,” he said.

The many things that have been accomplished, Berryhill added, were never accomplished solely by him. It was always a council decision, requiring at least five votes.

“The job we did was important, my part wasn’t,” Berryhill said. “No matter what I wanted to do or accomplish, I could not have done it without four other councilmen.”

Berryhill did speak of one action council took a number of years back that he remembers with a little bit of pride. It was a time when council was faced with a very tight budget and council members voted to give up their monthly salaries, $50 a month at the time, to provide raises for the street workers.

He also said he can’t recall anything he has ever done that has benefited himself.

“You can go through 40 years of minutes, and if you find one thing that’s benefited me, I’ll be amazed.”

Throughout his tenure, Berryhill has continued to stop at the borough offices two or three times a week to sign checks, check his mailbox and keep up with what is going on in the borough.

“He was there almost all the time, except for the occasional vacation break,” said former borough police Chief Tim Hawfield, whose 32 years as chief coincided with Berryhill’s tenure.

Hawfield said he saw Berryhill probably more than anyone else on council. Other council members usually only showed up at the borough offices when there were meetings, he said.

“He was always concerned about the welfare of the community, and he supported the police department,” Hawfield said.

“Chuck also really loves being a teacher and misses being a teacher,” he added. “We had many conversations on books we have in common. He loves history, and he and I got along well on that.”

Councilman Dar Fitch also has worked with Berryhill many years, having served on council on and off for the last 20 years and as mayor for six years.

“He’s been a super president. I’m totally impressed by that man and I have been from the start,” Fitch said. “I never call him Chuck,” Fitch added, “I always call him Mr. Berryhill. I do that only with the people I really respect.”

Fitch said he has always enjoyed working with Berryhill. “It’s been a honor to serve with him and it’s been a bigger honor to call him a friend.”

Many changes have taken place in the borough during Berryhill’s years on council, some not so good.

Berryhill said it’s sad to drive around town and see so many houses coming down and businesses that have closed just because people are too willing to drive somewhere else to buy something, even when the savings is only a pittance.

He believes, however, the borough has a good future.

“I think it has a chance to rebuild,” he said.

Berryhill also mentions Waynesburg University and what it has done during the years to beautify its campus, which is a plus for the borough.

Berryhill believes the borough will be in good hands with council and the new members coming on in January. He said he has talked to Brian Tanner, the man who will replace him in Ward 1, and believes he has a very similar philosophy regarding his concern for the entire community.

“I feel very good about them, very good,” Berryhill said of his many years of service. “And I know come Jan. 1, when swearing-in time comes (for the new members), I’m going to miss it.”