Isle of Palms Magazine Winter-Spring 2017-18

12 www.IsleOfPalmsMagazine.com | www.ILoveIOP.com | www.IOPmag.com A Walking, Talking Encyclopedia Carroll Really is the Mayor of IOP Now J immy Carroll has spent most of his life as an Isle of Palms resident, raising three sons on the island, coaching youth baseball, basketball and soccer teams and establishing a real estate business that survived recessions and depressions for the better part of four decades. Over the years, local residents have referred to him as “mayor,” and he proudly calls himself “a walking, talking encyclopedia of Isle of Palms.” Now he actually is the mayor of Isle of Palms, after garnering nearly 60 percent of the vote in the Nov. 7 election, defeating incumbent Dick Cronin and, in the process, dooming plans to spend $5.5 million on improvements at the city marina. By Brian Sherman “What a cool feeling,” said Carroll, who was born in Baltimore and was 4-and-a-half years old when his father, a Navy lifer, moved his family into a duplex on 22nd Avenue in 1959. “I’m fortunate. I am what I am because my parents chose this island.” Carroll, now 63, has lived in IOP since, except for the 13-year stretch he spent on Sullivan’s Island. Though he has been active in the community most of his life, Carroll didn’t seek political office until he ran for a seat on the City Council in November 2011. He was re- elected four years later and chose to seek the mayor’s seat in 2017 because “residents felt like they weren’t being heard.” And because he opposed the city’s plans to sell $5.5 Photo by Jenn Cady.