More information about his candidacy may be found on his political website.

A contracted manager of the Georgia-Pacific Treated Lumber Plant in Middleburg, he answered the following questions for rrspin.com:

Why are you running?

This is a question that I answer repeatedly. I had not given the thought of running for office a single moment, until I read that no one else was running. Since then things changed, but I had already plucked down my $67.50 in Halifax and once I buy my ticket, I take my ride.

I have a lot to be thankful for. My ex-wife and I get along fine. She has done a super job of raising my beautiful daughter and they have given me my reason for living, my wonderful grandchildren.

I am running for them I suppose, because I want them to have opportunities in my hometown. I have a grandson 7 years old, going on 47, a granddaughter 12 years old, going on 21 and another grandson 2 years old.

I am about to retire from a full-time job with insurance.

If ever there was an opportune time to give back, it is now.

It is time for me to strive to reach my full potential to make my family proud.

What are the issues that are most important to you to help the citizens of Roanoke Rapids?

I read where the Walton family, owners of Walmart, have more wealth that the bottom 38 percent of the country's population. That's easy to say when 38 percent have nothing.

I think times may very well get worse very soon, with welfare cuts and unemployment cuts still looming.

How can McCrory cut benefits to zero? I know entitlements have to be cut, but when the head of household, who at one time worked, comes home with zero, it seems to me to be ripping the heart and soul out of the family unit to me.

The reason for bringing up Walmart is that I will be favoring small business and Mom and Pops businesses any way possible. I welcome any and all big business but, again I will favor small businesses.

I will also use my vote to favor policemen, firemen and city employees. I seek to help Roanoke Rapids have the best paid, best trained, best managed and best equipped personnel anywhere. I think these things result in the best achievements and accomplishments.

Folks, if you want to see professionals at work come to a city council meeting. The Mayor, City Council, Public Works, Fire and all who work with them make what they do look easy, so easy I get lulled into thinking maybe I could just sit in the empty chair and go, "Look mom, no hands".

What is the best way to solve the issue at the theater, be it through refinancing or some other means?

Please keep in mind that it took a lot of people to bring it about, so I can only speak for myself. I think it suffered from a suddenly ill economic climate.

I remember in 2002, on the coast, I would be having lunch at Slammin' Sammy's and the discussion at our table of realtors, bankers and builders would be who amongst us had a hook on an old motel. People were lined up to buy them, but you needed to know someone who knew someone to get their mother, uncle or cousin to sell it to you. The economic climate changed just as fast as with the theater. Now you can hardly give a cottage away.

I think the theater can be our foothold to becoming the Gateway to the South. The new South of the Border. You can order grits from here down.

I am dying to defend this next statement. For the most part our schools are not going to produce huge numbers of doctors, lawyers or scientists, but with the help of hospitality degrees we could produce our versions of the snotty french waiters. Who would mind being hospitable if when you got off work, you had enough tips to make a payment on your Audi? The whole county could become one big Mayberry.

As for the one theater that we presently have, didn't we learn anything, I mean anything? If it is too little, do like you would do at home, knock out the back wall. Don't just give up, roll over, play dead and don't give it away. Enjoy it, visit it and hope like hell you don't get taxed for it.

How do we effectively market the WestPoint plant and what do you see as its best use?

First, I personally would like to stipulate that the occupant provide full time jobs with reasonable insurance benefits. Having said that I promise not to unnecessarily stall nor absolutely gridlock an opportunity, because I sure don't think I am being elected to shut down the government. By the way, time to flip congress.

I have read where the country has lost thousands of manufacturing plants and millions of good paying jobs in the last ten years, so marketing to manufacturing will be a challenge. However, I keep hearing that things may improve due to overseas safety requirements, shipping costs and delays and foreign work forces demanding better pay. It is possible that some of our exported jobs may be returning little by little.

As for the WestPoint plant itself, if I don't know, I'll say I don't know and I don't know the specifics. Ninety days ago, I had not given it much thought.

I can tell you that with our Economic Development Office, our Chamber of Commerce Office, our Tourism Office and our Main Street program that we have the best people in the country working on a best use of it.

How do you feel council should best work with the Main Street program and what do we do to improve the city's overall economy?

First, in just the past two years, since I counted open businesses versus closed store fronts and parking spaces from railroad tracks to railroad tracks, and the number of new businesses has improved from one out of three empty store fronts to where if all the owners parked in front of their businesses, there would be no customer parking. The Main Street Program has been doing a great job. While I am discussing parking, I'm reminded of a popular radio program with a trivia question of "What can one say to a woman to make 40 percent of them break into a cold sweat?" My first thought was Viagra. Wrong. The answer was parallel parking.

Even I wait for two or three vacant spaces. Parking has got to be killing business. Consider angle parking even it is state owned.

Try going into downtown Rocky Mount and seeing the beautiful street lights, benches and see thru trees. Could we get benches so old folks like me can rest between stores and plant a type of tree that's pretty but on can see thru. Even with these things, on Saturday afternoon, they still have no traffic and no way to encourage it. Roanoke Rapids can have traffic by means of one word: signage.

It's kind of like the Geico guy on the motorcycle made out of money with dollar bills flying every where he can use the interstate, but we are not inviting him to the Avenue.