Floyd Batiste, executive director of the Port Arthur Economic Development Corp., said it was a collaborative effort with open dialogue for various governmental entities convening for a day-and-a-half.

Batiste was referring to the Community & Economic Development Vision Summit held Wednesday-Thursday at the Carl A. Parker Center at Lamar State College Port Arthur.

Facilitators were Jeffrey Finkle, president and CEO of the International Economic Development Council, and Cynthia Johnson with the Small Business Development Center.

“It was a great day-and-a-half event for these stake-holding entities to come together and develop a vision, goals and objectives to be met for the near future,” Batiste said. “This summit was made possible not because of individuals, but the community getting together.”

Ron Burton, city of Port Arthur planning director, said the summit sets the tone for more coordination and collaboration for community development issues that affect every area of the city.

Kenneth Marks, PAEDC Board director, added, however, they need buy-in for the vision from the community.

Some of the table discussions at the summit were:

• Defining community economic development
• What does community economic development mean to your organization?
• What would you like to see Port Arthur look like in five years?
• Crafting a vision statement
• Turning vision into action
• Action planning
• Keeping momentum up

The various entities came up with a vision statement draft that reads:

“Port Arthur is a vibrant city that is an international hub for energy and maritime commerce, the birthplace of oil with a rich heritage of diversity, sustainable growth through new business, industries and infrastructure.

“The community provides its citizens with a high quality of life through educational, recreational, cultural and employment opportunities.”

After drafting the vision statement, participants discussed challenges facing the city such as downtown development and tenants who would be interested in locating there. They discussed cleaning up the city, tourism, increasing the number of businesses and jobs, the best way to use Hurricane Harvey funds, losing population and middle-class residents, increasing the graduation rate and employability of Port Arthur students, crime, fixing infrastructure such as streets and storm sewers.

Solution time followed.

The first table said the city needs to overcome apathy and retain youth through employment opportunities and home ownership.

The second table said young people need a good education and to be cognizant of the fact that many children are trying to provide for their families by any means necessary with someone to take up that responsibility working with children.

A representative from the third table said they need every entity present, honest dialogue and no more hidden agendas. Residents also need to respect others with a different agenda and focus on what is best.

The fourth table came up with five areas to focus on in Port Arthur:

• Cleaning the city and enforcing ordinances
• Fixing infrastructure for streets and lights
• Education, first and foremost
• Reducing crime
• Using Disaster Recovery Funds to create new places beyond what is now in the city

The last table wanted streets off the main thoroughfare cleaned, infrastructure repaired, focus on education and a time and place for a State of the City address.

The last discussion was an action planning based on post-Harvey, a vibrant economy, the future of the workplace, infrastructure and the health of the city categories.