Published: July 24, 2007 10:50 am      

Dodson announces candidacy

A familiar face in the Cooke County Commissioners Courtroom hopes to make his presence there official in 2008.

Wayne Dodson, a northeastern Cooke County resident, said in an interview Monday he intends to seek office as Precinct 1 County Commissioner in the 2008 general election.

The position is currently held by Republican Gary Hollowell, who is up for re-election in November 2008. Hollowell said Monday he has intentions of running again.

Dodson is a registered Republican and a delegate to the 2006 Republican Party of Texas Convention. He is a former district manager for Levi Strauss, and has lived in Cooke County for about a decade.

“I’m not questioning his integrity. I know he’s a nice guy,” Dodson said. “But I know more about fixing roads than he does.”

Dodson owned Metro Mowers and Maintenance, a heavy equipment and land management company around the Dallas/Fort Worth area that prepares land for construction and road development.

Hollowell, who sat through a day’s worth of county budget preparation and an hours-long Commissioners meeting Monday, said he has no prepared statement to offer.

“We’ve made a lot of progress, and we plan to continue,” he said.

Dodson accused Hollowell of capping roads and not thoroughly repairing them.

“For the past 10 years, I’ve fussed and complained. And I think I’m done complaining, and am going to do something about it,” he said. “Our campaign slogan is: ‘You won’t see the same pothole in the same road for year after year.’”

Dodson participated in several Texas Department of Transportation regional transportation meetings in Wichita Falls and lobbied for an overpass to be built on FM 678 for Woodbine/Callisburg school traffic in the Callisburg ISD.

Though Dodson has in the past hailed some of the advantages of a new highway thoroughfare through the area, he said he never took a strong position on Trans-Texas Corridor toll road.

“With transportation, there’s not a whole lot you can do about it — especially when everyone to the south in Dallas and Denton wants it. And Sherman and Denison wants it. We can either be a part of the process or we can complain,” he said.

Several local government entities in Cooke County, including the Commissioners Court, and the Texas Republican Party, have approved resolutions opposing the Trans-Texas Corridor.

Dodson spent many hours in the past three years monitoring the proceedings of the Commissioners Court, and often complained about what he considered to be a large fund balance, suggesting spending leftover funds in the county budget on road maintenance.

Reporter Andy Hogue may be contacted at andyhoguegdr@ntin.net