While some candidates across Guilford County were frantically watching the votes roll in on Tuesday night, Nov. 7 – Election Night, that is – there was one mayor up for reelection who didn’t even glance at the results in his race.
That was Gibsonville Mayor Lenny Williams who ran unopposed and pulled in 97 percent of the vote – with the other three percent being various write-in votes.
When the Rhino Times informed him of his margin of victory Tuesday night at roughly 10 p.m., Williams said he had tried earlier in the evening to view his and other results, but he’d come across a technical glitch – so he just decided he would check out the results later.
The 88-year-old Williams is a fixture as mayor of that town and has had the popular support of residents for over two decades. He’s been mayor of Gibsonville for nearly 22 years straight and now he’ll serve another term.
He said he enjoys the job and has seen the town grow tremendously over the years – and he wants to continue to help guide that growth as long as he’s able and the residents continue to support him.
“I have had some opponents run against me over the years,” Williams said, but the soft-spoken likeable mayor has been reelected every time the seat was up for grabs since 2001.
Williams said now that Gibsonville has grown a great deal, there are new issues facing the town. The long-time mayor said a very large number of houses in the area were being constructed and that growth needed to be managed, and he added that traffic was a major concern that he wants to help address in his coming term.
Reminds me of my old amigo, Howard Coble.
Lenny’s also quite the fiscal conservative. In addition to being a fine fellow.