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COMMUNITY
Galambos: “I believe in going
out... at the top of your game”
BY JOE EARLC AND MELISSA WEINMAN
The only mayor Sandy Springs has
known plans on stepping down.
Eva Galambos, who advocated for the
creation of a city of San
dy Springs for decades
and then was elected its
first mayor, announced
during a press confer
ence at Morgan Falls
Overlook Park on April
22 that she intended to
retire.
“I’m going to be
85 years old in July,”
Galambos said. “I be
lieve in going out when
you’re at the top of your
game.”
Days after she an
nounced her plan to re
tire, Galambos went on
leave and turned over
her duties to Mayor Pro Tem Tibby De-
Julio, city officials announced. Galam
bos underwent abdominal surgery and
took the time off to recover, city offi
cials said in a brief press release April 30.
“Doctors expect a full recovery,” the city
said in the release.
Galambos is winding down her sec
ond four-year term as mayor of a city
she fought long and hard to bring into
being. She led Sandy Springs cityhood
groups through a quarter-century-plus
campaign, lobbying friendly and un
friendly legislators alike until a Repub
lican sweep of state politics brought in
lawmakers friendlier to the notion of
starting a new city.
“Without her perseverance, tenacity
and dedication there would be no city of
Sandy Springs,” said former state legis
lator and City Councilman Rusty Paul,
who announced plans to run to succeed
Galambos at the same event at which
she announced her plans to retire.
Other long-time Sandy Springs resi
dents agreed Galambos’ work was crit
ical to the creation and start-up of the
new city.
“She is Sandy Springs,” said Oliver
Porter, who worked with Galambos to
establish the new city. “She’s enormous
ly important. It’s not that we will not be
able to go on and prosper without her
after she leaves, but she will be missed.”
Porter called Galambos “the bulldog
that made the city happen” and said he
once told her she should title her mem
oir “Bulldog In Lace.”
Galambos’ work lobbying for and
then starting Sandy Springs helped re
draw the political landscape of the At
lanta suburbs.
Since 2005, when Sandy Springs’ ad
vocates broke the political logjam stop
ping the creation of new cities, residents
in six other communities in the Atlan
ta suburbs, including Dunwoody and
Brookhaven, have voted to turn their
communities into municipalities.
Sandy Springs Mayor
Eva Galambos
Wendell Willard, Sandy Springs’ city
attorney, a state legislator and a long
time friend of Galambos’, said that as
mayor, she set a high
bar for those who would
follow her.
“I think she has re
ally set the example for
the future leadership of
Sandy Springs,” Willard
said. “She always put
the city first. ... I hope
whoever comes after her
can learn from her ex
ample.”
For her part, Galam
bos said that as she turns
85, she felt she deserved
“a softer schedule” than
the one she had to deal
with as mayor. “No
more 7:30 a.m. meet
ings,” she told the 50-plus civic and po
litical leaders gathered at Overlook Park.
“I’m going to go back to some of my
hobbies I have not had time for,” she
said. “I love music, and I’m going to go
back to my music and enjoy being with
my husband.
“No more rushed meals.”
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