Community helps Roberson rebuild

The former owner and publisher of the News-Dispatch, Dale Roberson, lost his house and more importantly his wife Joyce in a tragic fire back in November. Repairing his life gave the 81 year old a challenge but family, friends and the community have kicked in and helped with giving him a place to live until his new house can be wired with electricity and running water.

First, friends helped in clearing his land of cedar and a pre-fabricated house was transported from Waco where it was built to his property in Driftwood. The house is 16’ by 40’ including a 6’ porch for a 16’ by 34’ living quarters.

“They loaded it off an 18 wheeler… it got set up with a forklift with remote control and put it in front of the house and delivered it. It was driven with a joystick,” Roberson said. The house was delivered, but no doors or windows were cut out until Roberson could figure out where he wanted them on the house.

“The back door was put in by his daughter,” proud daughter Shannon Shubert said, also explaining that a lot of help came from all over the valley after the tragedy.

“Truth is that we couldn’t have done this without the help of everyone of Dad’s friends, neighbors, acquaintances and maybe even an enemy or two. What an amazing community. It has made me realize how much I miss small towns and home,” she said.

His granddaughter and her husband in New Braunfels were able to supply used windows from a teardown, a grandson Clifford wired the inside for electricity. “Habitat for Humanity helped transport windows,” Roberson said.

Also significant in the efforts were Tim McKenzies, who provided Roberson with a place to live temporarily and has worked to clear the land for the house, Tracey Dean who is always around, always working, Richard Smith the general contractor, and Roberson’s family. Daughter Kathy Carl helped get him settled into his new place, managed the GoFundMe account, cleared land and cleaned out storage buildings. Daughters and sonsin-law Rachael Roberson Nielsen and Brian Nielsen, and Kalli Kovacs Banks and Tony Banks helped clear land.

“We obviously are being super frugal in building the house. It’s going to be very nice once we are finished. But the money to finish it is a constant concern. Very grateful for all the work that the above folks have put in. It’s a somewhat slow process but as I said on Friday, the average age of my main construction team is 77,” Shannon said.

The insulation has been stapled into place, and the wiring is ready to go. A trench from the water well house has to be dug in order for the electricity and running water to be supplied to the house.

“The house is being built by old folks, and they have done such a great job. It’s going to be a great house,” Roberson said.

Funds are still needed for the construction efforts. To help contact:

gofundme.com/fire-recovery-for-dale-roberson