The City of Vidalia is governed by a mayor, Ronnie A. Dixon, and five city councilmen. Toombs County has five county commissioners, with Charles Rustin serving as the chairman.  The City of Lyons governing body consists of Mayor John Moore and five city councilmen.  According to the 2000 census, there were over 26,000 citizens in the county, with over 10,000 living in Vidalia and approximately 4,000 living in Lyons. 

Toombs County has two public school systems, a county system and Vidalia city schools. Four campuses constitute the Vidalia city schools: a primary, an elementary, a middle school and high school. The Toombs County school system also has four schools. There are also two private schools, Robert Toombs Christian Academy offering K-12 and Heritage Academy which offers grades K-8.

Vidalia has excellent medical services provided by a variety of health care professionals and anchored by a state of the art medical facility, "Meadows Regional Medical Center."  The Tombs County Health Department also offers a variety of services and is headquartered in Lyons.

Toombs County has two recreation departments, one in Vidalia and one in Lyons, which provide a number of activities including sports and swimming. Vidalia also offers two 18 hole golf courses, Vidalia Country Club and Rocky Creek Golf Club. 

The City of Vidalia is known world wide as the home of the Sweet Vidalia Onion.  The City hosts the Vidalia Onion Festival each year in late spring, celebrating the onion so sweet it can be eaten like an apple. The festival features an onion cook-off, an onion-eating contest, an onion run, a beauty pageant, sports tournaments, an air show, a street dance, and arts and crafts displays. Thousands of people attend the annual celebration.

The City of Lyons hosts the Southeast Georgia Regional Soap Box Derby each June.  The winner travels to Akron, Ohio to compete in the national finals.

"THE VIDALIA ONION STORY"

The Vidalia Onion Story takes root in Toombs County, Georgia over 60 years ago when a farmer by the name of Mose Coleman discovered, in the late spring of 1931, the onions he had planted were not hot, as he expected. They were sweet! It was a struggle to sell the onions at first, but Mose persevered and managed to sell them for $3.50 per 50-pound bag, which in those days was a big price. Other farmers, who through the Depression years had not been able to get a fair price for their produce, thought Coleman had found a gold mine. They began to follow suit, and soon after, their farms were also producing the sweet, mild onion.

In the 1940's, the State of Georgia built a Farmer's Market in Vidalia, and because the small town was at the juncture of some of South Georgia's most widely traveled highways, the market had a thriving tourist business.  Word began to spread about "those Vidalia onions". Consumers then gave the onions their famous name. Reorders were made, and "Vidalia Onions" began appearing on the shelves of Piggly Wiggly and A & P grocery stores.

Through the 1950s and 60s, production grew at a slow but steady pace, reaching some 600 total acres by the mid 1970s. At that point, a push was made for Vidalia Onions to be distributed throughout the nation, and several promotional efforts were begun. Onion festivals became an annual event in both Vidalia and nearby Glennville, Georgia, and production grew tenfold over the next decade. In 1986, Georgia's State Legislature passed legislation giving the Vidalia Onion legal status and defining the 20-county production area. The Vidalia Onion was named Georgia's Official State Vegetable by the State Legislature in 1990. In 1989, Vidalia Onion producers united to establish Federal Marketing Order No. 955 for the crop. This USDA program established the Vidalia Onion Committee and extended the definition of a Vidalia Onion to the Federal level. The Marketing Order provided a vehicle for producers to jointly fund research and promotional programs.

Beginning in 1990, technology borrowed from the apple industry was adapted to begin the controlled atmosphere (CA) storage of Vidalia Onions. Now some 20,000,000 pounds of Vidalia Onions can be put into CA storage for up to six months, thus extending the marketing of the Vidalias through the fall and into the holiday season.

In 1991, the Vidalia Onion Committee began to annually honor one individual with introduction into the Vidalia Onion Hall of Fame. The committee considers the recipient's character, reputation and overall contribution to the growth and success of the Vidalia Onion. Inductees must be a leader in one or more of the following areas: protecting and promoting the name of the Vidalia Onion; protecting and promoting the quality of the Vidalia Onion; advertising and promoting the Vidalia Onion; sales of Vidalia Onions and creative selling methods; or research and growth development of the Vidalia Onion.