LAKE PARK — Oscar Griffith Jr. walked into Lake Park City Hall Tuesday as a private citizen. He unexpectedly left as the city’s first Black mayor.

Griffith was one of two new council members sworn in at Tuesday’s city council meeting. He and fellow newbie Michelle Ina Lane won election in November, displacing incumbents Thomas Barr and Carl Taylor.

As soon as the new council members were seated, Acting Mayor Ronald Carter announced that, for health reasons, he was quitting. City Clerk Tabitha Fowler said after the meeting that his resignation took place immediately.

Carter was Lake Park’s mayor pro-tem when Mayor Keith Sandlin died Aug. 20, moving Carter into the city’s top position temporarily. The Lowndes County Board of Elections said it has scheduled a special election to fill Sandlin’s seat for May 24.

In a move Griffith said took him by surprise, council voted to name him mayor pro-tem so he could immediately take over the mayor’s duties.

This chain of events not only changes the face of Lake Park’s city government — with a new mayor and two of three council members replaced — but means the city has had three de facto mayors in less than a year. That could become four if someone other than Griffith wins the May special election to fill Sandlin’s term.

Griffith said he hasn’t decided on running in the special election “but I haven’t ruled it out.”

Griffith’s sisters, Vera Bunion and Arlene Griffin, were on hand to see him sworn in as a council member. Griffin had driven up from Miami to watch, the new mayor said.

“(My family) was filled with joy” when he was chosen as mayor pro-tem, he said.

Griffith said he did not know of any pressing issues immediately facing the city that an acting mayor would have to handle.

“The city is well taken care of,” he said.

A Times reporter who went to Lake Park’s city hall saw no black faces in a display of photos of Lake Park mayors going back to the 19th century. As with many small towns, some early records are nebulous; for example, a photo of mayor Lawrence Wisenbaker gave his date of service as “1890-????”

In city business, the council was told that efforts to drum up bids for a digital city sign had only secured one bid. The sign could be used for announcing all kinds of city news, including emergency evacuation routes, Fowler said. The council decided to wait and see if more bidders could be found before making a decision.

Council also decided to table a motion involving public meetings regarding proposed railroad crossing closings inside the city.

The Norfolk Southern railway has been in discussions with the city for two years about closing crossings at Clayton Street and Essa Street.

“We have identified some of the least-used crossings, and Clayton and Essa Streets are two places we can make safer with minimal disruption,” Connor Spielmaker, a spokesman for Norfolk Southern, said in a statement. “With two less crossings, that means less opportunity for an incident to occur.”

The two sites are low-use and there are other crossings nearby, he said.

Council was told Tuesday that a petition has been circulating in Lake Park, gathering signatures of those opposed to the proposed closings.

The council also dealt with a number of vacancies on various committees.

Terry Richards is senior reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times.