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June 17, 2008

New seafarers’ building suffers damage from car wreck

By David Ball

PORT ARTHUR — The brand new Port Arthur International Seafarers’ Center building has many fine amenities — a place for seafarers to make themselves at home with TV, a pool table, kitchen, or to phone home. One amenity the center does not have or need is a drive-through.

Yet, that’s what happened Tuesday morning when a vehicle plowed through the front door of the structure and then sped away from the scene, according to Doreen Badeaux of the Seafarers’ Center.

“I got a call at 7:15 this morning from Phil Chauvin at Drago’s Supplies that someone had busted into the door. He then called the police,” Badeaux said. “The vehicle was gone and nothing was taken. There was enough force that the driver rammed through the interior wood beams, too. Fortunately they didn’t go through the back wall.”

She said she called Stuart Salter of Salter Insurance to cover the accident. The contractors sealed up the damaged front entrance with plywood.

“I’m just glad we have a local insurance provider to come out here. I want everyone to know this was not a hate crime. We haven’t been vandalized. Some will assume because its downtown Port Arthur that it will be vandalized, but it was some fool not in control of himself. It was from someone who wasn’t aware of their surroundings. They should had stopped and confessed,” Badeaux said.

Badeaux and others are still trying to complete the construction of the building, though the exterior is completed and this wreck is a setback.

“We feel hassled about the building project already,” she said. “We just lost another grant we thought we were in good standing to get. Whoever did this has issues and needs help. I’m perturbed.”

The Seafarers’ Center receives much of its funding from the annual Cayman Night and the event will need a good turnout to make up for this setback.

“We have a bigger space (at the new building) to maintain now and it’s getting much busier here,” Badeaux said. “Gas is so expensive and it takes a whole lot of gas to transport the seafarers. People don’t have to wait until Cayman Night to donate.”

Badeaux said the center is trying to raise awareness that additional funding is needed to complete the construction.

The 10th Cigar Evening, just one of the center’s fundraising events, is scheduled for Friday at the building.

“We can call it a ‘blowing out the walls’ bash,” she joked.

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