Port Arthur mayoral hopeful Thurman Bill Bartie said Motiva’s ballyhooed movements to create a downtown campus are great. But the former justice of the peace, who finished second in May 4 General Election voting for Port Arthur mayor, said voters are more focused on matters that rest closer to their daily lives: roads, ditches and jobs that pay well.

“We’ve got to deal with real issues,” said Bartie, who collected some 24 percent of the vote, “issues that citizens care about.”

Incumbent Mayor Derrick Freeman, who took 35 percent of Round 1 voting with five candidates in the field, said that’s just what City Hall is doing these days.

The City Council has poured $17 million into fixing city streets, with repair schedules advanced enough that the road crews have completed this year’s schedule and are looking at next year’s road assignments. That’s more than what’s been done in a decade, he said.

Engineering work and shovel work has been done on transforming the city’s lone golf course, Babe Zaharias, into a remedy for drainage problems near Jimmy Johnson by using ponds on several homes, Freeman added. A “pipe-bursting” unit, operating with the support of local plants, has been addressing worn infrastructure.

And as for jobs, Freeman said, construction jobs are booming at local LNG plants — Cheniere, across the lake, and Golden Pass, near Sabine Pass — and more are coming with the likelihood that Sempra’s local project, Port Arthur LNG, will get the final investment OK to open a site off Highway 87. The mayor said companies that are hiring must agree to give qualified local workers a chance.

 

Took credit

Bartie said that Freeman, who is completing his first three-year term as mayor, has taken credit for things that would have happened anyway. Motiva is moving its administrative and office workers from the main site on Savannah Avenue to historic buildings at the intersection of Fifth Street and Austin Avenue, downtown, which was available for purchase. Bartie said that would have happened no matter who was mayor.

But Freeman counters that myriad City Hall efforts during the past few years made the conditions for Motiva investment smoother. Those include development of downtown plan, creation of opportunity zones and historic districts, updates on a special tax zone downtown to generate infrastructure improvements, and more.

All that’s nice, Bartie said, but voters are asking other questions, such as: When the jobs come, will Port Arthur people be hired? And will they make decent wages?

Freeman counters that agreements with the plants call for hiring local, qualified workers. That’s especially true with tradespeople and construction workers. And special efforts have been made to include local companies in the bid process.

 

Endorsements

Former City Councilman Willie “Bae” Lewis, who finished fourth in the May 4 voting, said he won’t endorse either Freeman or Bartie, saying that neither has a plan. Port Acres resident Chuck Vincent, who ran third on May 4, said he would make a decision after talking with his own supporters.

Bartie said he’s talked with Vincent and with distant fifth-place finisher Lowra Harrison about endorsements. He said he expects to hear from Vincent.

But the runner-up Bartie said voters have already voiced their disapproval of Freeman by voting 2-to-1 against him in the May 4 balloting. The question is, can he get those people to return to the polls on June 22 for the runoff?

“If I could lock people up and make ‘em vote,” he said with a hearty laugh. Otherwise, he said, he’ll just make his case to as many people as possible.

That’s what Freeman, too, said he’d do. With the field down to two, he said, voters can make a clear choice.

“We want to knock on doors and. ask people for their votes,” he said. “That’s the greatest thing we can do — talk with people and answer their questions.”

He said voters were more excited about the vote this year than during the last mayoral election. Some 13 percent voted — about a thousand more votes cast than the last election.

 

Runoff dates

 

• June 10-18: Early voting
• June 11: Last day for application for mail ballots
• June 13 and June 18: Extended early voting hours, 7-7, at City Hall
• June 22: Runoff vote.