Theresa Urbano Runs for Commissioner
Theresa Urbano has announced her intention to seek the third district County Commission seat in next year’s election.
Currently, Jerry Crow is the commissioner from District 3. Mr. Crow was elected as a Republican, and Mrs. Urbano plans to run as a Republican. At this time, Mr. Crow has not said if he will or will not run again.
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Mrs. Urbano says she has been a property owner in Jasper County since 1995, and a full-time resident since 1996. She retired in May, 1995, after 17 years of service with the Department of Social Services where she worked in several different agencies and capacities.
She was a counselor and manager of a satellite office with the Department of Labor where she brought in more job hires in one month than anyone in the history of that department.
She also worked as an investigator with the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, and never lost a case. She worked for the Department of Social Services as an intake worker and finally as a case manager with the Job Connection Program.
During 1994 and 1995, Mrs. Urbano was in a special two-year training program with the Department of Education, Adult Training and Development Network called Project BUILD. It was an interagency collaborative program to build partnership with a variety of providers and participation in a wide range of development activities.
“Intense training in Project BUILD showed us ways in which to identify issues and themes common to participating agencies and work to develop collaborative solutions,” she said. “I can apply this knowledge and training and experience to working with the issues here in Jasper County.
She said she wasn’t ready for full retirement when she moved to Jasper County. She has done substitute teaching at Jasper County High School, and worked for two years as a Family Support Worker with the Life Enrichment Team in Butts County. She has served on the Jasper County Board of Equalization since 1999.
She remains on call with the Monticello Police Department, Jasper County Sheriff’s office, Department of Family and Children Services and Jasper Memorial Hospital as a Spanish interpreter.
Mrs. Urbano and her husband, Steve, volunteer in both the Jasper County and Butts County visitors centers, are members and active in the Jackson United Methodist Church, and give free puppet shows to schools, nursing homes and churches.
They are members of the Jackson Lake Homeowners Association and they participate in lake clean-ups, she said.
Mrs. Urbano is a member of the Turtle Cove Woman’s Club, has served as president of the Turtle Cove Garden Club, and is currently a club leader with the Take Off Pounds Sensibly (TOPS) club that meets weekly in Turtle Cove. She began the TOPS program at Turtle Cove in January, 2003.
She has a bachelors degree in economics (human resource management, with a minor in English that she earned at Southern Connecticut State University in 1978. She graduated from Middlesex Community College in 1977 with an associates degree in marketing with a minor in accounting. She has completed several graduate studies and has studied environmental and political science.
She served in the woman’s Army Corps from 1957 to 1959 at Ft. McClellan Alabama as Cadre in the Officers Training School.
She raised six children (a set of twins and godson), and several foster children. She has 15 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren, three stepchildren and six step-grandchildren.
Mr. and Mrs. Urbano, along with their dog, Cenza, live in Turtle Cove.
