For Josh Young, It All Comes Back to Home

The Waldron mayoral candidate talks family, common ground and why he decided it was time to step forward

Ask Josh Young why he’s running for mayor, and he doesn’t begin with water lines, city budgets or streets.

He talks about home.

“This has been home about 200 years,” Young said, referring to his family’s roots in Scott County. “This is home. This is where I’m gonna be. It’ll always be home.”

For Young, home stretches beyond Waldron’s city limits. His family’s history winds through Forrester, Parks and Black Fork, tying him to this part of Scott County through generations of people who lived, worked and raised their families here.

His mother, Pam, is part of that story. She spent years babysitting children throughout the community, sometimes beginning her day at 5 a.m. with as many as 16 children to care for.

Young laughed that she “raised half the town.”

There is a good chance quite a few readers will know exactly who he is talking about.

Today, Young and his wife, Courtney, are raising three young children, Luke, Axel and Will, in Waldron. They also have a 19-year-old daughter, Payton, attending law school at George Mason University in Virginia. Between work, ballgames and four children at different stages of life, there is rarely much sitting still in the Young household.

Then again, sitting still does not seem to come naturally to Josh.

He describes himself as hands-on, the kind of person who has a hard time watching someone else work when he knows he can help.

“I can’t sit back and let someone else do work that I know I can help do,” he said.

That is also how he talks about Waldron.

Young’s life has taken him far from Scott County. He has lived in Texas, New Mexico and England and spent time in several other places, but none of them replaced home.

“I’ve been everywhere, so I’ve seen the small towns,” he said. “This is where I’m gonna be.”

Running for mayor was not part of some carefully laid plan. Young said the decision grew from watching the same concerns come up year after year, hearing people talk about what needed to change and eventually deciding he wanted to be part of the work.

“This is it,” he said. “The only thing I’m concerned about is this town.

If elected, he plans to leave his current job and make serving as mayor his full-time focus. He admitted with a laugh that until a few months ago, he did not even realize the position was paid. He simply thought he might be able to help.

That willingness to admit what he knows, and what he does not, came up throughout the interview.

“I’ve never been a mayor,” Young said. “I’m a common person. Been in the military.”

Later, he put it another way.

“I’m not a politician,” he said. “I’m kind of an outsider.”

Young was born in Waldron in 1979 and graduated from Waldron High School. He attended Arkansas Tech University, where he studied criminal justice and played baseball until an injury changed those plans.

He had always considered joining the military. In August 2000, he decided it was time.

He just did not tell his mother right away.
Young recalled Pam answering a call from an Air Force recruiter and telling the man he must have the wrong house. Then she learned her son was leaving in two weeks.

“She was mad,” he said, smiling at the memory.

Just over a year later came the attacks of Sept. 11. Young’s service took him to New Mexico, where he worked with the F-117 program, and later to England. He spent eight years in the military and another two working for a Department of Defense contractor.

When he returned to civilian life, Young went to work for Academy Sports and Outdoors, first in San Antonio and later in Fort Smith. He eventually joined Target, where he now oversees logistics and reverse logistics.

The work involves trucks, inventory, vendors and the constant need to solve whatever problem comes next. Young said it has also required him to sit down with people who bring different experiences and ideas to the table.

“I’ve seen people work together and do great things together,” he said. “I feel I can bring something new and different to this place.”

Young believes that kind of cooperation is missing from too many conversations in Waldron. People have not stopped caring, he said, but they may have stopped talking to one another.

“It’s kind of like people don’t sit down and talk no more,” he said. “It’s always social media instead of just saying, ‘Hey.’”

He does not expect everyone to agree. In fact, he seems more puzzled by the way disagreement has become personal than by disagreement itself.

“If you disagree, you disagree,” he said. “It’s okay.”

Young has spent time speaking with city officials, council members and others involved in local government. He has heard different opinions and, at times, very different versions of the same problem. Still, beneath those disagreements, he said most people are worried about many of the same things.

“There’s always a central point that everybody’s really concerned about,” he said. “There’s got to be some middle ground.”

Streets and water are two examples. Nearly everyone agrees they need attention, Young said, but agreement on the problem has not always led to agreement on what should happen next.

At one point, he asked what council members normally do after they disagree during a meeting.

“Do y’all sit down and talk after?”

The answer, he said, was that everyone usually leaves.

“They just get in their cars and go their separate ways.”

Young is not suggesting that council members discuss city business outside the requirements of Arkansas open-meeting law. His point is simpler than that. He believes people work better together when they know one another as people, not only as names attached to votes or comments repeated on Facebook.

“What we see is what we see on the phones,” he said. “What we see is what other people post.”

That concern over communication reaches beyond the council table. Young said residents should have a better understanding of what is happening inside City Hall, including where city money comes from, where it goes and why some projects move forward while others do not.
“The biggest thing is getting out the correct information,” he said. “Getting out information of what we’re doing behind the scenes.”

He pointed to the city budget as one example. Information may be available, he said, without the average resident walking away with a clear picture of the city’s finances or the decisions being made.

“I know how to read budgets,” Young said. “I know how to listen to people.”

Listening would be one of his first jobs if elected. Rather than walking into each city department with a list of changes, Young said he would want to spend time with the people already doing the work. If something is not getting done, he wants to know why. Is the department short-staffed? Is there not enough money? Is equipment needed? Or has something else been holding the work back?

“What are we doing now?” he said. “How can I improve what we’re doing now, or how can I fix what we do now?”

When asked what value guides that approach, Young answered without needing time to think.

“Integrity.”

His explanation did not involve a speech or campaign promise. Instead, he talked about seeing a piece of trash on the floor.

Pick it up, he said. Throw it away. Do it because it needs to be done, not because someone is watching.

“You don’t need the camera on you.

Family came just as quickly. Young said his children and the kind of Waldron they will inherit are a large part of why he entered the race.

“I value them,” he said. “I’m only getting into this to help them out in the long run.”

He does not want them to look around 50 years from now and find Waldron still having the same conversations about the same problems.

When asked which problems need attention first, Young named streets and water. Both are issues his own family has experienced.

There have been mornings when everyone was trying to get ready, only to discover there was little or no water pressure.

“You wake up to get the kids ready, the water pressure be off,” he said. “There’d be no water pressure.”

For a family trying to get children out the door, that alone is frustrating. Young also sees reliable water as one of the basic things Waldron must have if it expects to grow.

“If we want to grow, how we gonna be supplying?” he asked. “We can’t supply 3,000 people with water. We gonna bring more businesses with water.”

The debate over whether to continue repairing the current system or invest in a new water plant does not have a simple answer. Young said he wants the city to compare the long-term costs and determine which option makes the most sense for residents.

If Waldron will continue spending large amounts on repairs every several years, he believes building a new plant may be the better investment.

“Why not build a new one so we know it’s going to be reliable for the next 10 to 20 years?” he said. “And in 20 years, hey, what’s next?”

Young has also watched nearby communities receive significant grant funding for water projects and questions why Waldron has not had the same success. He believes the city should pursue every opportunity available.

“The worst they can tell you is no.”
His concern about streets and sidewalks became more personal when he remembered a woman near the post office.

She was using an electric wheelchair but reached a point where she could no longer safely continue along the sidewalk. Young helped her move into the road so she could keep going.

“So how’s she gonna get downtown?” he asked.

It was not a policy statement. It was simply something he saw and could not forget.

People often talk about improving downtown, Young said, but a downtown meant to welcome people must first be one they can safely reach. The same attention should also extend into the neighborhoods surrounding it.

“Everybody talks about downtown,” he said. “But we’ve got to remember the rest of town too.”

Young supports the work being done to improve Main Street and would like to see more businesses fill its vacant buildings. He also recognizes what is being asked of anyone willing to take on one of those properties. Purchasing a building for a high price and then paying to restore it can quickly become more than a small business owner can manage.

“You gotta give them a reason to buy it too,” he said.

He wants the city to look into grants, tax incentives and other programs that could make those investments more realistic. At the same time, he believes downtown improvement, safer sidewalks and stronger neighborhoods must be treated as connected pieces of the same community.

Flooding is another concern, particularly in residential areas. In a statement outlining his priorities, Young pointed to Winchester Street, where heavy rain can leave families dealing with water around their homes and property.

He was careful not to claim he already has the answer. Young said he does not know every detail of the city budget or what flood-control work may already be underway. He wants to begin by learning what has been tried, asking where the process has stalled and listening to the people who have worked with the problem.

“Good leadership means asking questions and making informed decisions,” he wrote.

The approaching interstate project is one more reason Young believes Waldron should be looking ahead.

“We’ve got the new interstate coming through, no matter what,” he said. “It’s coming. We can’t say no to it, so we can’t ignore it.”

He sees the interstate as an opportunity, but not one that will automatically benefit Waldron. If travelers can bypass town, Young said the community must give them a reason to exit, stop and spend time here.

“If somebody’s coming off that interstate, what are they going to see?” he asked. “How do we get them to come into town instead of driving on by?”

The answer, in his view, begins with taking care of what Waldron already has. Reliable water, better streets, safer sidewalks and stronger local businesses are not separate from economic growth. They are what make growth possible.

Young knows that running for mayor means opening himself to criticism. He also knows not everyone will agree with him. Neither seems to worry him much.

“It really doesn’t bother me,” he said. “I’ve been in the military. I’ve been overseas. I’ve seen some of the worst places.”

Compared with those experiences, he said, comments on social media are not something he intends to carry home.

“They don’t live with me,” he said. “They don’t pay my bills.”

He would rather someone come to him directly, ask a question and decide for themselves.

“Me, unfortunately, I am what you see,” he said.

What people see away from the campaign is usually a husband and father whose life revolves around work, family and ballgames.

Young and Courtney first began talking because she needed a softball glove and he had one she could use. More than a decade later, they are raising their family in the same community where both have deep connections.

When they need a break, the family heads into the woods, visits relatives or spends time near Cherry Hill. Young enjoys hunting and can remain outside from early morning until late in the evening, something he admitted Courtney does not entirely understand.

When the children are playing ball, the family can usually be found at the ballfield. At home, the television moves between baseball, “Big Brother,” “Survivor” and, thanks to the youngest child, more “Cocomelon” than Young would prefer.

His local food choices came easily. Charbroiler’s for smoked turkey. Judy’s for cheeseburgers. The Rock for Friday fish.

Sweet tea is his usual drink, though Dr Pepper and Mountain Dew remain old favorites. Journey was an equally quick answer when asked what he listens to.

The easier questions brought the conversation back to family again. Young named his mother as the greatest influence in his life and spoke about the years she spent caring for children throughout Waldron. He also named his uncle Paul as someone he continues to look up to.

When asked what success would look like after one year as mayor, Young did not describe a Waldron with every problem solved. He pictured smaller moments most families would recognize.

Turning on the faucet and having water.

Driving the children to school without worrying about what the roads might do to the car.

Seeing people come downtown for a festival, an event or simply because they wanted to be there.

“I’d like people to say, you know, I got up and I was able to drink out of the faucet today,” he said.

He would not expect Waldron to be fixed in a year. He would want residents to feel that it had finally begun gaining ground.

“One year, I would like people to say this town has made an improvement,” Young said. “Not fixed things, just got ahead.”

Over the course of the interview, the conversation moved from his mother and military service to water lines, sidewalks, flooding, downtown buildings and the interstate. Still, nearly every topic eventually returned to the same place.

People.

People talking instead of arguing online. People helping when someone cannot safely make it down a sidewalk. City leaders looking past their disagreements long enough to find the concern they share.

Young’s vision for Waldron includes projects that can be measured, but it also includes something harder to place on a progress report.

“I truly believe we can like each other again,” he wrote in his campaign statement. “And if we do, imagine what kind of town Waldron could become.”

Or, as he put it more simply:

“I want us to get back to waving at passing cars.”