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Editor’s Note: This feature originally ran on February 22, 2025 in the 2025 Progress edition (Troup County Is…). The Progress edition is a publication produced annually by the LaGrange Daily News. If you would like to pick up a copy of the 2025 Progress edition, please visit our office at 115 Broad Ste 101.

Feature by: Jeff Moore

Interior designer to municipal government management not the career journey anyone would have expected for Hogansville native Lisa Kelly.

For Kelly, the community and the city, however, it made perfect sense.

Hogansville is her home — a place where she has deep roots and a desire and drive to make a difference.

“I grew up out in the farm country on my grandparents’ old farm,” Kelly said. “My grandmother sold my husband and me a piece of her property, and we built our house out there. That’s where I’ve landed, and I just love being in Hogansville. This is my landing spot.”

Her career journey began far from local government. 

After graduating as a “Green Wave” from Hogansville High School in 1988, she earned a degree in interior design in Atlanta.

“Of all things — interior design,” she said. “I think you need to ask me how I ended up here.”

Kelly’s career shift started with a leap of faith to spend more time with her family. She left a demanding job in the clothing industry, where she had climbed from designer to management.

With it came an end of the daily drive from her home here in Troup County to Ashford-Dunwoody in Atlanta for work.

“I turned in my resignation with no idea what I was going to do,” Kelly said. “I just needed some peace. Coming home and working for my hometown was just—it was just a blessing.”

She joined the city of Hogansville as an accounts payable and permitting clerk, a role that offered a significant pay cut but the peace she was seeking.

“I didn’t care,” she said. “I just needed to breathe a minute and raise my babies.”

Kelly’s talent and dedication didn’t go unnoticed. After four years, she was encouraged to apply for the city clerk position, despite her initial reservations.

“I didn’t even know what I was doing,” she admitted. “The city manager at the time said, ‘It doesn’t matter. You know what you’re doing; you just don’t know it yet.’”

As city clerk, Kelly pursued extensive training, earning her master clerk certification. The role often overlapped with assistant city manager duties, preparing her for what came next.

In 2017, Kelly was appointed interim city manager, a role she held twice before officially being named city manager in June 2023.

“At this point, I’d been through six city managers,” she said. “I was

approached by the mayor at the time, and he said, ‘Are you gonna apply for city manager?’”

She said it just felt like the time was right. 

“We have an amazing council that, although they agree to disagree sometimes, is unified in the direction Hogansville is headed.”

Kelly describes her job as a “smorgasbord of everything,” tackling everything from infrastructure projects to economic development.

“Lots of people have no idea what local government does,” she said, adding it’s all about seeing good things happen from one’s work.

Since stepping into her role, Kelly has focused on transformative projects for Hogansville.

“Whether it’s infrastructure improvements or development projects, it’s all about improving people’s lives,” she said.

The city is seeing growth and expansion as its location is meeting the needs of business and industry. She said she has an excellent mayor and city council to work with.

“Although they agree to disagree sometimes, they are unified in the direction that Hogansville is headed,” Kelly said. “I love the camaraderie and the support to be able to do so many things that just move us forward.”

Working together, she said, led to the huge accomplishment of reverting the city hall back to the Royal Theater in all of its glory.

“A donor gave the city the former PNC Bank building in 2019 to use as a city hall, which then opened the door to restoring the theater,” Kelly said, noting the offices were in the historic building since 1988.

“Nov. 9 was our grand reopening gala and it was just amazing to see it go from quasi offices back into a live performing event center,” she said. “It makes me smile every time I’m in that building.”

Kelly said she can’t give herself the credit for the project.

“It was a lot of people along the way that made that happen,” she explained, adding she enjoyed being in the city manager’s seat to see it through to completion. “It’s been a lot of work. It’s been

a lot of work to get that building, what it is and where it is, and

it’s been a whole lot of worrying about where can we find the

funding, how are we gonna make this happen?”

Seeing the reactions of people who grew up with the theater at the open house was amazing, she said.

Now comes the work of getting the right people and events on that stage and the right movies on that film reel.

“We’re looking at that to be Hogansville’s hub to drive economic

development, our hub to really round out our downtown,” Kelly explained.

Another project she is proud to have been a part of is the transition of the former Hogansville Public Library building into a new home for municipal court.

The city’s municipal court used to be held in a small room at the police department.

“In a very small room, what we call the courtroom that really couldn’t be considered a courtroom,” she said.

When the library closed, the building was returned to the city, the original owners of the property.

“I got to dip into some of my interior design skills on that one,” Kelly said. “It was fun.”

While these two projects were a lot of work, she said it was much needed both for city operations and the community.

“The Royal Theater gives us an opportunity for community involvement,” Kelly said.

At Christmas, Waffle House joined in for breakfast and visits with Santa at the theater.

“We gave out over 400 waffles and then showed The Polar

Express afterwards, Kelly said.

While the city does need to hold events at the theater that will make money to go toward its operation, Kelly said they can do small community events that let the community know they love them and that it is there for them.

In her vision for the city, she hopes at some point the annex building can house a tourism center.

In addition to leading people to the city, she said it could offer visitors some history of Hogansville.

Water and sewer infrastructure also excite Kelly.

The city just finished a $14.8 million water system improvement with grant funding, she explained. Another $5 million was leveraged to make improvements to the sewer system.

“I have started some of those projects and I have seen them come to completion,” she said. “But there’s so many people involved along the way that make these things happen.”

Hogansville has a four-year-old wastewater treatment plant and most of the sewer lines in underprivileged areas have been replaced, along with the water lines. They also have built a new water tank and a nearly four-mile stretch of backbone water line.

“That is finally enabling people not to suffer from low water pressure in some areas of town,” Kelly noted, adding that sometimes people’s lives are improved so much by things they can’t see that run underground.

All of these infrastructure improvements have the city poised for continued development and economic growth. She explained that when prospects come to visit she can tell them they have the availability of services they will need to open a shop in Hogansville.

“We’re perfectly poised between Atlanta and Columbus and then LaGrange and Newnan,” Kelly said. 

Along with being on an interstate, she said the improvements have enabled them to talk developers into coming to Hogansville.

“We now have a wastewater facility that leads us to growth,” she said. “We were almost at capacity on our wastewater plant, and now we’ve doubled that. So we know that we have the ability to grow. Same with the water system.”

Kelly said it has opened the door tremendously to be able to have viable conversations with some really good developers.

“It really is a good time to be the city manager,” she added. “We’re more financially stable than we’ve ever been. We can have the mayor and council throw out an idea and make it reality, where before we just

had to really scramble for years to figure out how we’re gonna do

that. So it’s a good time in Hogansville.”

“The mayor and council are pushing to improve the quality of life in the city,” Kelly said. “They are eyeing new trails, playgrounds and parks, which are mapped out in a new comprehensive park plan completed last year.”

“I would love to see us in this year have some priorities within that park plan, and it does appear that we’ll be doing that,” she said, which will allow them to start building parks.

“One that we’re really focused on is in the Village area of

town,” Kelly noted. “We’re hoping that we can get construction plans at least going and maybe bid out and have underway a new playground, a multi-use park area in the Village.”

Right now she said there is so much development and growth to manage that it becomes a challenge to be able to get anything else in in the day. “We are situated in that area where developers wanna be right

now,” Kelly explained. “We could stand to double our population in three to five years.”

She said the five subdivisions that are turning dirt in the city currently is a testament to the growth they are seeing.

Looking ahead, Kelly hopes to continue building on Hogansville’s momentum. From infrastructure upgrades to community outreach, she sees her work as a way to give back to the town that shaped her.

“Hogansville has always been home,” she said. “Being able to serve my hometown—it’s just the greatest blessing.”

At the heart of Kelly’s story is her family. Married to her husband Michael for 27 years, she describes their relationship as the cornerstone of her life.

“He is my rock and just my best friend,” Kelly said. “I tell people we’ve been married 27 years … and I still like him.”

The couple has three boys — a 33-year-old stepson she calls her “bonus child,” a 21-year-old, and a 12-year-old. While the age gaps mean the brothers don’t always have much in common, Kelly says they’ve found one shared passion.

“They have absolutely nothing in common but gaming,” she said with a laugh. “That’s been the one thing over the years—wherever they were in their lives, they can always play those video games together. It gives them a connection.”

Despite her demanding role, Kelly makes time for herself in a unique way.

“I love to ride my motorcycle,” she said. “I can just jump on it and go, let the wind blow on my face. I pray, I cry, I sing—it’s my thing.”

She also loves to ride on the open road with her husband and son.

Her passion for her family and community shines through, even during her downtime.

She enjoys volunteering in the community in her time away from duties as city manager.

“I volunteer at the Royal Theater on the weekends,” Kelly said. “My

youngest son works in the concession stand as a volunteer, and I

generally am helping with the box office. I have a lot of fun with

and I get to see people that I haven’t seen in years.”

Kelly noted she is also a liaison with the Downtown Development Authority, the Planning Commission and the Tourism Commission.

“I am on a couple of boards at the county level, Troop Strategy and I’m on the chamber board,” she said. 

Anytime there is an event in the city or county, she tries to be there.

“We could be picking up trash on the side of the road with my family when we do the Great American Cleanup,” she explained. “Or it could be working with the police department at Thanksgiving as they feed 100 families or the annual egg hunt at Easter, volunteering to line up the Christmas parade or helping make waffles with Santa.”

“I always try to be involved,” Kelly said.

Kelly said Hogansville has a great team right now that cares so deeply for what happens in the community. 

She wanted to extend her thanks to everyone in her community.

“I love this community,” Kelly said. “I tell people that I bleed green. I bleed Green Wave green. This is my home and I just wanna see it be the best that it can be. I don’t have all the answers. I don’t have them all, but I sure know my resources.”