SPRING LAKE — During the board’s last meeting of the year, newly elected Spring Lake commissioners were sworn in and a new mayor pro tem was selected on Monday night at the town’s recreation center.
Commissioners Soña Cooper and Adrian Thompson will return to the board for the coming term. Both commissioners thanked town staff and residents for their reelections to the board, and committed to continuing their work from the previous term.
“My commitment is simple,” Thompson said. “To listen, to lead with integrity, and to make decisions that reflect the needs and the voices of the town of Spring Lake.”
Cooper said it was an honor to serve with the three outgoing commissioners—Marvin Lackman, Raul Palacios, and Robyn Chadwick.
“You all came in, in the fire,” Cooper said. “And you helped to put some of that fire out. Hopefully we will continue to move this town forward.”
Lackman, Palacios, and Chadwick were each awarded the county crest by Cumberland County Board of Commissioners Chair Kirk deViere for their service while in office.
Also returning to Town Hall, Mayor Kia Anthony was sworn in for her third consecutive term. She said she will remain committed to the priorities laid out by town officials, staff, and residents through months of strategic planning sessions last year. Anthony also said she will remain collaborative and open to hearing the voices of Spring Lake residents to inform her work for the town.
“Show up at the meetings, send an email, make some noise,” Anthony said to the over 100 community members at the ceremony. “I work for you, and you have every right to demand results.”
Freshly elected Commissioners Tony Burgess, Fredricka Sutherland, and Jackie Jackson also took their oaths of office on Monday.
Following the swearing-in ceremony, the new board elected Sutherland as the new mayor pro tem for the upcoming four-year term in a 3-2 vote. Thompson presented a motion to elect Cooper as mayor pro tem—a role that Cooper held in the previous term—but with Cooper and Thompson the lone votes, it did not carry.
All three new board members, Burgess, Sutherland, and Jackson, voted in favor of Sutherland for the position.
The next Spring Lake Board of Commissioners meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on Monday, January 12 at Spring Lake Town Hall, 300 Ruth St.
