Locust Grove Mayor Carlos Greer outside City Hall, where he served nine years on City Council before becoming mayor in 2024.
LOCUST GROVE: Carlos Greer remembers when Locust Grove had about 2,000 people. There was a Hardee’s, a few hotels and gas stations, and the kind of small town where everybody seemed to know everybody.
Becoming its mayor was never part of the plan.
Back at Henry County High School, Greer and Kam Varner were classmates. They debated each other, and both imagined becoming attorneys someday, arguing cases in courtrooms.
Years later, Varner called with a different idea. Henry County needed younger people to step into leadership. Would he consider running for office?
Greer said no.
She asked again a couple of years later. This time, he ran.
Greer won a seat on the Locust Grove City Council in 2015 and went on to serve for nine years. In November 2024, following the death of longtime Mayor Robert Price, voters chose Greer to become the city’s next mayor.
The significance wasn’t lost on him. Greer became Locust Grove’s first African American mayor.
Not everyone welcomed the change.
“There are people that walk right by me and won’t speak,” he said.
There was a time, Greer said, when he might have responded differently. Now, he smiles. His faith and the responsibility of representing an entire city changed his perspective.
Mayor Carlos Greer joins City of Locust Grove employees at a community event.
The mayor’s job is only part-time. Greer still works full time for the State of Georgia. His days can start around 7 am, getting his daughters ready and stretch until 8 or 9 at night between work, City Hall, and community responsibilities.
And being off the clock doesn’t necessarily mean being off duty.
Once, while Greer was eating at LongHorn with his family, a resident walked over, pulled up a chair and sat down at the table to talk.
That’s part of the job, too.
It’s also part of what Greer doesn’t want Locust Grove to lose as it grows. The city’s motto says that “everyone is your neighbor.” For Greer, keeping that feeling means paying attention to things as ordinary as sidewalks. He remembers seeing children walking in streets and through yards along Grove Road. Now there’s a sidewalk.
He notices people using it.
And when his time as mayor is over, Greer doesn’t describe the legacy he wants in grand terms.
“He served for all people,” he said. “He did a good job.”