Brooklet City Council last week announced Lonnie Adamson III as sole finalist for the job of Brooklet city manager. For the past 16 months city manager of Coolidge, Georgia, near the Florida line, Adamson is a Georgia Southern University alumnus who served two years as a recreation and parks associate director for Bryan County.

His 2008 bachelor’s degree from Georgia Southern, where he had played football for the Eagles in 2002-2005, was in general studies with a business concentration. But after starting a first career as an athletic coach and physical education teacher, he entered graduate school and in May 2019 attained a Master of Public Administration from Columbia Southern University in Orange Beach, Alabama, with a 3.5 GPA.

Brooklet officials issued their public notice naming Adamson as sole finalist May 5 to comply with a provision of the Georgia Open Records Act.

Under the state law, most documents that identify people applying for jobs with public agencies are shielded from release. But when the “executive head of an agency,” such as a city or county manager or school superintendent is to be hired, the law requires that “all documents concerning as many as three persons under consideration” as “best qualified” be released for inspection and copying “at least 14 calendar days” before a meeting where final action or a vote to hire will be taken.

Often, agencies release information on only one finalist after others have been given an opportunity to withdraw.

So now, the Brooklet council could now vote to hire Adamson on or after May 19, such as during the regular council meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 21.

In a phone call Friday with the Statesboro Herald, he confirmed that he wants the job.

“Right now, Brooklet is experiencing a tremendous amount of growth. There are opportunities for development and opportunities for the city to take advantage of its geographic location coming off of the port area and the different plants. …,” Adamson observed.

“And it’s very attractive to me because it gives me the opportunity to not only get back to Southeast Georgia but also take part in the process of helping the city transition to this growth,” he said. “They have a new school going up, and being part of a community with a wonderful school system. So it’s a very attractive opportunity.”

Brooklet’s new charter

He would be the second person hired to the permanent job of Brooklet city manager since it was created under a new city charter approved by the Georgia General Assembly in early 2024. Under the previous charter, the mayor had day-to-day administrative responsibilities.

As a transitional step, Carter Crawford, whose long career included previous tenures as city manager in Statesboro and Metter, served as Brooklet’s interim manager for a year, to July 2025.

The first person officially hired to the Brooklet city manager post, Paul Dyal, had served in various roles, concluding as city manager, in larger Lake City, Florida. After starting the Brooklet job around Aug. 1, 2025, he resigned in mid-October and was reappointed as an interim manager but left by Oct. 31. Brooklet City Clerk Lori Phillips was then appointed interim city manager Nov. 20 and continues in both roles.

This time the City Council worked with a consulting firm, Sumter Local Government Consulting, to conduct its city manager search. Sumter’s contract fee was stated as $21,000, plus travel and other expenses, in November, before the search started.

The process reportedly yielded seven applicants, and the council held in-person interviews with two of them.

Brooklet Mayor Nicky Gwinnett was out of town during the interviews, but he drove Adamson around town for a couple of hours one morning to see aspects of Brooklet’s infrastructure.

“I was impressed with the guy,” Gwinnett said Friday. “He seemed to be really sharp, and the main thing I like about him is he’s coming from a small town like we are, not from towns that’ve got huge budgets. So I think he’s probably a better fit for us as opposed to somebody that’s used to having sixty or seventy million dollar budgets to play with.”

So far, Brooklet’s annual operating budget is less than $2 million.

From a smaller town

Brooklet, whose 2026 population estimate at worldpopulationreview.com is 2,233, would to most Americans be a very small town. But it is larger than Coolidge, estimated population 552, where Adamson has been city manager since January 2025. Still, Coolidge also has a small police department and well established sewer and water systems.

Although Brooklet has a water system, it is only now completing the first phase of its first real sewer system, reaching downtown businesses at first after tying in with a pipeline to Statesboro’s treatment plant.

Similar projects

In Coolidge, which is in Thomas County where Thomasville in the largest town and county seat, Adamson led the final phase of a $600,000 water and sewer overhaul that included replacing crumbling manholes and failing water shutoff values and installing cured-in-place pipe liners. He also reorganized the police department and reconciled a full year of backlogged bank statements, he wrote in his city manager candidate portfolio letter to a Sumter Local Government Consulting representative.

“I am particularly interested in the City Manager role in Brooklet because it allows me to apply hands-on executive experience within a larger municipal organization while advancing strategic priorities, improving internal processes and ensuring effective day-to-day operations,” he wrote.

Adamson, 43, is originally from Waycross, where in two phases of his earlier career path, 2010-2016 and 2018-2023, he worked for the Ware County Board of Education as a teacher, athletic coach and mentor for new staff members.

His role with the Bryan County government, May 2016 to July 2018, was transitional between athletics and public administration. He was the county’s associate director for recreation and parks at Richmond Hill.

He holds a Georgia Municipal Revenue Administration Certificate, is NIMS certified in emergency management and remains a certified educator, according to his resume.

He gave Brooklet’s mayor and council a 90-day transitional plan for the start of his administration.

That and his resume and portfolio are available for public inspection at Brooklet City Hall by contacting Assistant City Clerk Melissa Petitt.