A Familiar Face at City Hall: New Menlo Mayor Kris Willis

Kris Willis never had a grand plan to become the mayor of Menlo, Georgia, a town of 500 people (give or take) a mile from the Alabama state line. But he’s happy to be there. He had recently moved back to Menlo when he was approached about the position last April by the Menlo City Council, when the previous mayor decided to step down. He thought about it, agreed to do it, and was appointed interim mayor. It went well, he thought, and he ran for the office (unopposed) last November.

Menlo Mayor Kris Willis

“I came into a pretty stable situation,” he says. “I’ve got a good council. The mayor is the one who gets a lot of the credit sometimes, but the council makes the decisions. The mayor doesn’t have a ton of power in our structure. They were making a lot of progress when I was appointed, so I came in with the idea that I don’t want to mess things up. We all have a similar attitude. It’s not about us, it’s about the city, and that makes for a situation where you can get a lot done.”

Willis was born and raised in Menlo, attending Menlo Elementary, then Trion High School. While at Trion he played basketball. He also started cutting grass and doing other odd jobs for the recreation department. Over time, he worked his way up, and for the next 28 years he worked for the recreation departments in Trion and then in Summerville, where he became the assistant director for Summerville Parks and Recreation.

Sports Provided Common Ground

“We worked with the schools but were funded by the city. I did a lot of league sports — baseball, football, basketball. I did most of the scheduling and recruiting of coaches, referees, officials, just keeping it all organized. I dealt with the public a lot. I coached a little. There’s people now that are grown that I’ve watched come all the way from 5 years old and they’ve got their own kids playing now. It’s interesting when you look back at how many generations came through there.”

If there is a through-line in the life of Kris Willis, you might point to sports, which he’s obviously always enjoyed. Some years ago, he began writing for an online sports media outlet, mostly about baseball.

“It started out as a side project distraction, but it’s worked out really well. I used to write but I’m in more of an editorial role now. It kind of grew and grew, and I eventually got a chance to do it full time from home, so a couple of years ago I was able to move back to Menlo. It took something special for me to leave my job in Summerville.”

He mostly covers Major League Baseball. “All our properties are online. We don’t have print. There was a point where I was in the press box for the Atlanta Braves. I did that for a couple years. That was fun. It was like living out a dream. I didn’t go every night. I’d pick and choose my spots when there was something that I needed to cover. But we covered every game, from a blogger’s standpoint more than a traditional beat writer.”

As chance would have it, when he moved back to Menlo, he lived next door to then-mayor Allen Keen. “I was interested in what was going on in the city. Allen and I would talk. I started coming to city council meetings, and when he decided to step down, that’s when they approached me and asked if I was interested in taking over.”

Familiar Faces

Willis is happy to be living back in Menlo. “I do love this place. It’s always been home. It didn’t matter where I lived, I always wanted to come back here eventually.” His wife Christy teaches at Menlo Elementary School, and son Riley is a senior at Chattooga High School.

Looking back at his early years in Menlo, the mayor is quick to point out that his strongest memories are of the folks he knew and still sees today. “The thing that jumps out to me is the people,” he observes. “Always the people. I still see a lot of familiar faces from the elementary school. There is a huge sense of community in that school. Those people I was in class with all the way from kindergarten to the eighth grade, they’re still some of my best friends.”

Even so, Menlo, as every city does, has changed over the years. “The glove mill’s not as big as it was,” he says, referring to the SHOWA facility. “My mom and my grandmother worked there. My dad worked there for a time.” Willis remembers when the Menlo Family Restaurant used a walk-up window. “I remember being a kid and going up and getting a milkshake out front.

“In the end, we’re a lot like every other small town out there. We don’t have as much money as we’d like. We’re trying to do the best we can with what we have.” Taking care of existing infrastructure is top of mind for the mayor. “The biggest project I would say we have in front of us is a well that’s offline that we’re trying to get back online. We may have to seek grant funding for that. We’ve got enough water, but the well gives us options. It gives us protection if one of our sources goes down.”

These days, Willis appreciates being able to walk from his home to most places in town — the post office, the bank, city hall, Lucky’s supermarket. “A lot of times, I don’t even get the car out, depending on the weather.” And walking is another way to stay in touch with people. “People see me. They know me, they know my family. I try the best I can to be available if anybody has questions or concerns. And everybody’s been good so far. I’m very appreciative of this opportunity.”

If you’d like to talk with the new mayor about what’s going on around town (or about baseball or anything else), you might catch him at Menlo City Hall. If he’s not there, leave a message with Nicki Hoard, the city clerk, or Beverly Price, the assistant clerk. But your best chance might be to catch him out walking.

Later this month, Willis will head to Athens, Georgia, for three days of training offered by the Georgia Municipal Association. He is looking forward to it. “If I’m going to do this, I want to do it the best I possibly can.”