By Ken Stickney

ken.stickney@panews.com

Paring down the year’s top stories as they appeared in The Port Arthur News in 2018 was no easy chore. That’s what our news staff and publisher Rich Macke did this week.

There’s no better way to illustrate how difficult that task was than by listing a few stories that were left out: Greater Port Arthur’s energy industry growth; developments for the Sabine Neches waterway and ship channel; County Judge Jeff Branick’s re-election; rebuilding of our area’s schools; progress in rebuilding our coastline.

But our selections were not necessarily for the most important stories of the year — some were among the most important — but for stories that dominated the news. That means stories that dominated reader response, digital traffic and community conversation.

Here are our selections for the Top 5, in no particular order:

• Hurricane and Tropical Storm Harvey recovery.
• A major increase in Port Arthur homicides.
• Drainage issues in Greater Port Arthur and Mid County.
• Groves’ yearlong imbroglio over Councilman Cross Coburn, ending with his ouster from public office.
• The change in names for two Port Arthur Independent School District campuses, both named for Confederate officers.

None of those seem more important than the storm recovery, as this area struggled back all year from the August 2017 storm that dumped some 60 inches of rain on the community and flooded as much as 80 percent of Port Arthur. Damage estimates reached some $100 billion in coastal Texas and 49 affected counties, according to the Texas General Land Office, which is overseeing the federal aid response to help our community.

That story seems to complement, too, the issue of drainage, which especially plagued Port Arthur beyond the record rainfall and throughout 2018. A sudden downpour in late January flooded anew some homes in Dominion Ranch and in other area neighborhoods, creating a community uproar about the city’s preparation for flooding even months after Harvey, the greatest wake-up call in U.S. history.

Seldom had the community experienced the recent, public fear that visited Port Arthur in late January, when a spate of unrelated homicides left four people dead in two days. There were as many homicide arrests in that single month in Port Arthur as there had been in the previous year. And the carnage continued, with 13 homicides in all in 2018.

The Coburn story — the openly gay, teen council member’s embattled government position was at issue all year, after nude photos of him from a dating website surfaced — seemed to override the rest of the city’s governance.

Likewise, the renaming of Dick Dowling and Robert E. Lee elementary schools involved social issues that surfaced — then resurfaced — this year.

We’ll revisit those five well-read story lines over our next five editions, starting Tuesday, recounting how they developed and where they ended in 2018.