Growing up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Lansing Mayor Patty Eidam said she knew from a young age that she wanted to become a police officer.

“My Uncle Wayne, my mother’s brother, was a local police officer, and I just worshiped that man,” Eidam said. “I just thought that was the coolest thing, that he helped people and always seemed to be so happy and went out of the way to do extra things for our little town. I never wanted to be anything else.”

By 1966, Eidam had graduated high school and planned to enroll in a community college to study law enforcement.

But during a time when female officers were few and far between, she was forced to put her plans on hold.

“My dad told me, in the most gentle way that he could, that he had four boys behind me to put through college and that I wasn’t going to go to college,” Eidam said.

Instead, Eidam entered the United States Army, which helped her achieve her dream at age 31, becoming Lansing’s first female police officer.

Her service paved the way for her election as the first female mayor of the village in 2017, a role she will step out of this year due to term limits.

Eidam said she is proud of her work for the community of a little under 30,000 people, including ushering in repairs of aging infrastructure and pouring resources into public safety.

She said stepping into the mayor’s seat after serving as both village trustee and clerk, she inherited a village that lacked a street resurfacing program and struggled with an understaffed police force.

She quickly began replacing unelected leaders including the village administrator, village attorney and director of communications, and eventually the police chief, fire chief, public works director and building commissioner.

“That administration that I was fortunate enough to bring together makes the village the best that it’s been in decades,” Eidam said.

Police Chief Alfred Phillips, who was sworn in in 2021, commended Eidam for her dedication to improving the Police Department amid mass retirements and backlash following police killings, including the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

“When I was named chief, we were down to as low as 47 officers. We are up to 63 now — my focus has been hiring people,” Phillips said.

He said Eidam supported developing a program to recruit officers from other departments.

“Some of them wanting to leave for good reasons, some for bad reasons. But we really screen them out — we have nothing but great officers coming here,” Phillips said.

Eidam also launched a street resurfacing program and repairs and replacement of decrepit sidewalks and sewers. She also focused on financial stability and economic development, overseeing the arrival of businesses including Cerro Grande & La Rosita, Starbucks, Taco Bell, Chipotle, two wine bars and, most recently, Chick-Fil-A.

Ken Reynolds joined the village as Eidam’s executve assistant and later communications director, but eventually moved up to venue operations director following the 2018 opening of the Fox Pointe music venue.

“To me as a resident here, what stands out is you can see the actual tangible signs of progress,” Reynolds said. “You can touch them, you can literally see them, as opposed to just an idea.”

Eidam said as she leaves office, she stands tall knowing she her successor, Trustee Brian Hardy, will be in a strong position to build on the village’s growth. Hardy ran uncontested in the April 1 election.

“There are things that we can always do wrong, and there are some things I didn’t get to finish up of course,” Eidam said. “Although I never made promises, I did set goals, and for the most part, those goals have been met.”

While achieving female firsts were not among those goals, Eidam said she is happy to report Lansing is more inclusive and diverse than when she first arrived on the police force in 1979. But the work isn’t finished.

“I think we have five or six female officers right now, and of course our department is so diverse in so many other ways,” Eidam said. “But this is still a man’s world, there’s no doubt about it.”

ostevens@chicagotribune.com