Seven Questions for Uris Roberson Jr. Democratic Candidate for Wood County Judge

1. Mr. Roberson, you have a vision for Wood County and it includes a direct focus on our youth. Do you feel we could do more to give our young people direction and strong, positive role models?

Yes, I feel very strongly that we need to make sure we guide our youth in a positive way. So many come from dysfunctional homes and we need to provide more counseling and activities, programs that help those young people who are going through a crisis and don't have parents or grandparents to work with them. Wood County has very few activities for young people. We need to offer them opportunities for roller skating and other sports and activities that will get them off the streets. In particular, we need a swimming pool in a central location. It would be nice if we could combine that with a roller skating area, a basketball court and so on and if we could provide it at no charge.

Young folks are driving to Tyler and other towns for their social activities and if you consider the time, the money for gas, and the danger, it would be much better if we could provide something for them right here.

2. Do you see Wood County attracting new businesses to create jobs? How do you plan to make our region attractive to industry?

Giving tax rebates is one of the crucial ways to attract new business. Also, offering utilities at a discount. It would be nice to create a centrally located industrial area where amenities are available for new businesses, as they move in.

I believe we need to go high-tech, as opposed to the old type of manufacturing that we had in the past. We need to have a location that caters to those hi-tech businesses. We have people capable of performing those types of jobs and we need to provide them with the opportunity to work here in the community.

Another aspect of this issue would be to bring in more people to live in Wood County and that would also involve working with insurance companies, realtors, banks, and the appraisal district to provide them with temporary discounts. If we do this, we would be able to ensure that people become part of this community.

I believe we could eventually look into forming a county-wide fire department. This might work toward lowering our insurance rates on homeowner's insurance. We should try to provide additional fire hydrants in order to carry services into the more remote areas. We need to become more proactive to improve what we already have and then reach out and find additional services to accommodate our people.

3. Are you concerned about the rising tax load that burdens our property owners? Do you see ways to reduce it?

Yes I do. We really have two problems. We have the tax rate and we have the appraisal district. In the past we have reduced the tax rate, but the appraisal district has raised the value of the properties at a rapid rate and so the tax burden has increased instead of decreasing. Right now, you may live in a home that is appraised at $100,000 but is actually worth much less.

Let's not forget people who are on fixed incomes, retired folks and those who work for minimum wage. When people who lived and worked in Wood County retire into other counties because our tax burden is too high, we lose revenue.

This goes back to what I said before. We need to broaden our base by bringing in additional businesses and residents, so each individual doesn't have to carry such a heavy load.

4. Mr. Roberson, you are a minister of a local church. Do you feel your responsibilities to your congregation could interfere with your duties as a judge or vice versa?

No, what I do as a minister...this would be a complement to what I am already doing. . For the last thirty years, I've been a minister of a church and it would actually tie in to what I would do as a judge. That's the reason I'm looking at this. I'm concerned about people and about what we can do to help people. I'm not so much looking for a job, as I am looking for an opportunity to do things for other people.

I love people and especially I love young people and I would like to see Wood County emerge as a leader in what we can do for them. We have a lot of resources here. We have retired people from all types of jobs and backgrounds. If we can bring them together and create programs where our seniors can help mentor our youth we can create many new opportunities. If we all work together we can help each other and help Wood County grow.

Maybe some of the businesses could take in one or two young people as interns. This would be good for their resumes and give them an idea what they want to do with their lives. I've already spoken with one person, a photographer, who might be interested in such a program. We could engage businesses such as insurance companies, banks, etc. Let the young people get in there. Let them get a feel for what it is like. It wouldn't have to be all week, maybe just a couple days per week or so.

I'm of retirement age myself now and I know that I have a lot to give back to the community. There are a number of retired persons who would be willing to participate, if such programs were available.

5. Poverty is still a reality in Wood County. So is segregation. Do you think it is time to heal this community?

Well, I think that a lot of times people think because something has been done a certain way for a long time, it should always continue to go that way. I'm looking at what is happening all over the country. If we don't do a better job of treating everybody equally, there are some groups out there who will take in young people into the gangs where they feel accepted for who they are and influence them in a negative way. It would be wiser to do something positive, before it is too late.

We need to do something to eliminate the very strong segregation which is still in place, from the graveyards, the businesses, etc. It's time for us to start working together also with the Hispanic community. I feel obligated and we should all realize that we are obligated to work together to heal not only Wood County, but the nation.

6. You advocate safe houses for victims of family violence. Do you think our community needs and can support such facilities?

I'd like to look at our budget and see how much money we can pull out for that purpose. We use money for roads and heavy equipment and such but we need to realize that we have to work to protect our families from living in a negative environment. When men (and sometimes women) are angry and lash out at their spouses, we need to protect the immediate family and give them a safe haven, so they don't have to go back into an abusive home situation. I have seen this type of problem in my work as a minister. My answer is, yes we need to provide this service to families in Wood County.

About fifteen years ago, there was a wave of killings where men were killing their wives, killing their girlfriends. We need to put some emphasis on this. We also will need to provide some counseling for families in trouble, especially for the victims, so we can prevent this type of thing from happening.

There have been some programs in the past here in Wood County, but those who provided them did not want to continue to fund them. If we can bring in more businesses and increase the tax base, we should have more funds available to help families in crisis.

We also need to have foster services for the children of families with problems. I would like to have a place located close to the Sheriff's department, where they could have direct security.

7. What experiences do you feel have most prepared you for leadership in Wood County?

I've been blessed. I come from a rural area. I grew up in Smith County. As a young man, although I come from a meager foundation, I was able to travel. I met my wife during the initial training for the US Peace corps and we worked and traveled for two years. We worked in Tanzania, East Africa and that experience gave us much insight into working with people from different cultures. When we came back, we settled in Houston where we managed a private school and daycare. We did that for about sixteen years. I had come from industry originally and my wife had taught school and so we were able to apply that to running the private school/daycare.

It was difficult to keep our school funded, and so we worked with a Christian school in the Houston area and later with others. We got together and created a school board for the various private schools and had to do a lot of structuring and organizing and funding to make sure that our schools would be kept afloat.

Later, I served on the selective service board. I've been there for about seven years. I've worked in different positions in the education field. I worked with youths who had been incarcerated and helped them study for the GED exam. Even while in the Houston area, we worked with people in the criminal system to help them with transition. We made our facility available to people in the community and it really made a difference in that community.

When I returned to this area, I worked with Jarvis Christian College for two years, before I came to Mineola to teach. I realized that in order to make some changes, I would have to be on the school board and so I ran for school board and served for three years.

I have experience in many different areas and I want to pull from all those areas, from the business aspect, from the religious aspect, from the community aspect, and from the educational aspect. I want to bring all my experiences together to benefit Wood County.

At this point, I decided to address Mrs. Roberson, who was present during the interview. I asked her what she thought, would qualify him to be a judge for Wood County. She answered just as candidly:

My husband is a person of his word, very dependable. If he says he is going to do something, he is going to do it. He is intelligent and looks at both sides of an issue. He makes wise decisions. He is good at working with the community. He's done a lot of volunteer work for the community. He is a good business man. He took care of our business for years and was great at managing the finances. He is good at math. He is a good husband, father and grandfather and he's an excellent minister. He likes to help people, he has a passion for it. With all of this, I think he would make an excellent judge.