Nicky Gwinnett is now Brooklet’s mayor, and Keith Roughton its newest City Council member, after both took the oath of office administered by Municipal Court Judge Joey Cowart at Brooklet City Hall on Thursday evening, Jan. 4.
They take office at a time when the leadership of Brooklet is moving forward with plans to build the city’s first real sewer system, improve the capacity of its water system and undertake sidewalk extensions and road improvements. Residential subdivisions have filled an increasing share of the landscape between Brooklet and Statesboro in recent years, and now Brooklet and areas southeast of it are expected to see growth spurred by new industries under construction in Bulloch County and neighboring Bryan County.
But after raising his right hand and reciting promises to “faithfully execute the office of mayor” to the best of his ability and “support and defend the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of Georgia and the charter, ordinances and regulations of the city of Brooklet,” the new mayor’s remarks were brief.
He first thanked voters who supported him in his previous role as a City Council member and all Brooklet residents for the opportunity to serve as mayor.
“I promise that I’ll do my best for this town because I love it,” Gwinnett said. “I grew up here and it means an awful lot to me. That’s really all I want to say.”
He actually said a little more in an informal interview afterward, for an expanded or future story.
The man whose full name is Lonnie W. Gwinnett Jr., now 64, is a lifelong resident of Brooklet and a graduate of Southeast Bulloch High School. A cabinet maker, he has owned and operated Kitchen Craft Custom Cabinets for about 39 years. Besides serving the past four years, 2020 through 2023, on City Council, Gwinnett served a previous four-year term nearly 20 years ago.
Gwinnett has known he would be mayor since last August, when he was the only candidate to qualify for the nonpartisan office after previous Brooklet Mayor Joe Grooms III decided not to seek re-election.
Roughton’s role
Roughton will now occupy Brooklet Council Seat 1, which Gwinnett vacated to become a candidate for mayor. All five Brooklet council members are elected citywide, and Roughton won a three-candidate race that concluded with the Nov. 7, 2023, election day. Now 53, he recently retired after 30 years employment at Georgia Southern University where he was an athletic administrator and also taught some classes.
As Roughton told the Statesboro Herald, his interest in city government grew from being part of neighborhood organizing on Lane Street a few years ago over concerns about the Bulloch County government’s plans to extend the S&S Greenway Trail into Brooklet. When the council seat became available, he saw an opportunity to serve at an exciting time for Brooklet, he said.
“I’m honored to be able to do this,” Roughton told the 20 or so people who attended the brief ceremony. “I do view it as community service, and I’m humbled that people have given me the opportunity to serve this community. I’ve lived here for nine and a half years with my wife and children and we truly love it, and I want to give back, and I know we have a lot of opportunities ahead of us and challenges ahead of us, with all the growth that’s going on in this county.”
Judge Cowart made some remarks of his own before swearing in the new officials. In municipal court judicial training, judges hear that city courts are where most people first see justice at work and that city councils are where many first begin to see how government works, he said. He also alluded to the new mayor’s lifelong vocation.
“We are a country that was founded upon differences of opinion, and those differences can lead to resolutions,” Cowart said. “Anybody who works with wood, you know that sometimes you’ve got to sand some wood to get it nice and smooth, and you don’t have to take out a hatchet and tear it apart to just smooth things off and get the edges around it.
“So I urge you to engage in debate but to remember you are all brothers and sisters, working for one common goal, and that is to make the city of Brooklet better than it was the day before,” he told Brooklet’s elected officials.
Bradley Anderson also starts a new term on Brooklet Council after running unopposed for re-election. As mayor pro tem, he called the Jan. 4 ceremony to order as a council session.