David Atkinson is looking to earn the people’s vote for Hockley County Commissioner Precinct One in March.
From Dickens County, at the age of 15 he got involved with the fire department. Once Atkinson was out of high school he transitioned and got into the EMS field. Finding that rewarding feeling from helping individuals, Atkinson found himself working for Levelland EMS in 2007 to 2014.
In addition to working the EMS side of things, Atkinson also volunteered his time to the Levelland Fire Department. Since that time, Atkinson has also found work through Precinct Two as a road hand.
“I had prior experience with some heavy equipment but I learned a lot about maintaining roads and how to how to cut a road whether it was dirt or caliche,” said Atkinson. “If you travel out that direction in precinct one you’ll see that the majority of the roads are below the ditch. They’re cutting down flat and and there’s nowhere for the water to go so we’ve got a lot of muddy roads that bring disrepair and it takes weeks to dry out.”
Atkinson explained that the roads in precinct one are continuing to see high usage through farmers, oil field and regular citizen driving.
“The roads are unfortunately hindered by the by the lack of drivability when the weather becomes bad and it becomes every one’s biggest problem trying to navigate those roadways,” explained Atkinson. “I’ve spent time as a first responder and there are people who need an ambulance or a fire truck. However, if the conditions leave roads in a bad state it is hard for anyone to receive any form of assistance.”
Atkinson explained that more and more people are utilizing roads that were not built for such traffic and it is becoming a priority that those roads are handled because there are multiple groups of people that rely on them to do their jobs.
“It looks like a lot of lack of training as that’s the only way that I can figure out how they’ve gotten into this bad of a shape,” said Atkinson. “I have first hand experience with those machines in those situations. Wether it being maintaining the roads and the accessibility.”
Having spent 17 years in Hockley County, Atkinson feels that he has developed a lot of relationships with individuals throughout the entire county and feels that his constituents understand what his campaign encompasses.
Moving forward, Atkinson wants the community members to know that he is someone they can count on even in emergency.
“In the past I have heard of commissioners not answering calls or being hard to get a hold of,” said Atkinson. “There are times were problems will happen outside of business hours and I am not afraid of getting my own hands dirty and getting the job done to ensure our community members can operate their dayto day lives.”
While Atkinson understands that working on roads is not the only aspect a commissioner is tasked with, he explained that he is more than willing to find solutions to address concerns such as the jail.
With constant talks of the current capacity and funding going into the jail, solutions are needing to be made and Atkinson has been discussing with constituents who have been long time members of the county in precinct one.
“The jail is something that has to be addressed due to the amount of money that is being allocated to it just to operate,” said Atkinson. “I think the thing that stands out is the out of town inmate housing costs and the lack of revenue we are generating to house other county inmates, but that goes down to our capacity which is at the max at most times.”
Atkinson acknowledged there is a lot of work to be done when it comes to county government and being commissioner.