Meet Madeline Gibson
Madeline Gibson is running for Wood County Commissioner Pct.3.
Precinct 3 Map
Madeline was born in Pittsburg, TX and raised in Daingerfield in Morris County, TX.
She is a decorated U.S. Navy Veteran who was in the first Sonar Technician class to graduate after Sept. 11, 2001. She deployed into a Combat Zone within a couple of months afterward. In fact, her logo is based on the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal for being deployed to Combat Zone.
Madeline Gibson was a workcenter supervisor on two ships, in charge of the maintenance of equipment worth millions of dollars and about seven technicians. With two 6-month deployments to the Mediterranean and one 3-month Counter Drug Operations Deployment, she experienced more time at sea than most sailors with her time.
Madeline enjoyed her time at sea and never complained about being deployed so many times.
Experience
After discharge, she used her Montgomery G.I. Bill to earn a degree in Environmental Science and a minor in Construction Science. Her first job after the military was at a small transportation engineering firm in Garland, where she worked on environmental documents for projects like road widening, bridge widening, hike and bike trails, etc. They worked on public hearings and public meetings, as well as wetland delineations for those state or city-funded projects. Soon after starting there, the Great Recession hit and the small firm experienced a couple of rounds of lay-offs.
Ms. Gibson was able to gain employment as a contractor with Google X (now Alphabet Inc.) in Dallas, TX and Mountain View, CA for one year. The most exciting project was designed to provide wi-fi coverage to rural areas affected by natural disasters. In that position she provided many new ideas and options that the engineers hadn’t considered and made many contributions to the improvement of the operations of the project. The experience was amazing and strenuous and at a faster pace than she wanted. Madeline appreciated working with some of the founders of Google and other prominent engineers and coders, but that wasn’t her calling.
Reason for Running
A few years later, Madeline came back to TX to take care of her mother and be closer to her nieces and nephews. She was drawn back to rural Texas to serve the kind of communities that she originated from.
Receiving full disability from the Veterans Affairs, Madeline Gibson still feels a need to give back to the community. Wood County has a lot of potential and could use some fresh blood in leadership.
Key Priorities
Improve Transparency In Our Commissioner’s Court
Residents deserve access to more details about how their tax dollars are spent.
Some residents have expressed a desire for the Commissioner’s Court to be more transparent on the agenda line items that are voted on in court. Currently, the agendas are just line items with no details or costs.
Simple links to digital documents can easily be made available to the public.
Improve Our County Roads
Water can devour our roads. Some roads are in such bad condition that they damage resident’s vehicles.
Simply managing the drainage will reduce the amount of maintenance needed and, therefore, save tax dollars.
Being proactive on drainage and road repair material will make more beautiful roads and a balanced budget!
Be More Proactive With Grants For The County
Ms. Gibson would like to see her fellow Wood County residents benefit from infrastructure grants that some current County Commissioners are shying away from.
Some of our County Commissioners are afraid to work with grants because of “strings attached”. We need to be able to work with grants to improve the county, despite extra work.