Tyrone Adams is the fifth and final candidate to declare his run for the office of Mayor of Hinesville.
While some in the community know him as “Mr. Ice” or just “Ice,” he wants everyone to know him as “a hardworking man who wants to do what’s right for the city of Hinesville.”
Adams thinks Hinesville needs a leader, someone to build up the community and make the area an inviting place for residents and businesses.
“I love Hinesville. There’s no place like it to me,” he said. “But in saying that, we have to grow. We’re not growing, we’re stagnant. Matter of fact, I believe we’re losing ground.”
His mother, the late Alfreta Adams, was a Liberty County magistrate judge and whose example guides him today. She was involved in the community, working with 4-H and as a home economist in the county.
“She had a great amount of respect from the members of Liberty County. She worked with people, and people knew her from the time they were little children until the time she passed. And that’s kind of the way I patterned my life,” Adams said.
Adams is married to his wife, Jodee, and they have five children, six grandchildren and another grandchild on the way.
His top concerns as mayor focus on youth services, business and income for city employees.
Adams said that once local youth graduate high school and go to college, they do not come back home. He wants to develop opportunities that will bring hem back to Hinesville.
“That’s the only way we’re going to grow Hinesville. We’re not going to grow doing the same thing we’ve been doing for the last 30 years,” he said.
Adams also wants to see Hinesville become more business-friendly. As a former business owner and manager of a few local sports bars and nightclubs, including the Colloseum, Big Apple, and Starlight, he said he understands those challenges personally.
When he owned the Colloseum, “That is when I really felt the full impact of the city of Hinesville on my chest, I believe,” he said. “And I understand the way the small businesses in town feel when they have to fight City Hall. Or not even fight City Hall, but to get anything from City Hall.”
Adams said his most-pressing issue is that he wants to make sure the police and fire department and Emergency Medical Services personnel receive “the cost-of-living income increase that they so richly deserve.”
“I think it’s unfair that our heroes cannot receive their cost-of-living increase, but yet we’re steadily giving out Christmas bonuses. And that has to change,” he said.
Adams said he doesn’t have a problem with the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, otherwise known as SPLOST, coming back.
“Because if it’s used correctly, it’s a benefit and not a hindrance,” he said. “And where we’re at right now, we need all the benefits we can get.”
Adams currently works as a driver with Yellow Cab and said it’s the best thing he could have done because he gets to see the town every day, from the poorest neighborhoods to the richest. Every day, he said, he speaks to the poorest and richest people.
“I hear what’s going on in the community. I’m not locked down into one social area. I spread across all social areas,” Adams said.
Four years ago, Adams ran for mayor. He said he doesn’t see himself as a politician, using disparaging terms to describe politicians.
“We need somebody in that office standing at the head of our room, leading us, working with us together, that has Hinesville — Hinesville, Georgia — as their major concern,” he said. “One thing I want you to remember about me: I will always, always, always do what I think is best for the citizens and the community of Hinesville.”