House Bill 7 ~
Culture, Recreation & Tourism Committee
Thanks to all who signed a petition, wrote a letter, or called or emailed a representative and thanks to those communities and organizations that passed resolutions for our exclusion in HB7!
Museums of Port Isabel Director / Historic Preservation Officer, Edward Meza & Assistant City Manager & PI Economic Development Corporation Administrator, Jill Francisco on the way to the State Capitol in Austin.Representative Contacts
Petition Against HB7
Port Isabel Lighthouse Historic Timeline
Port Isabel Contact List
State Capitol in Austin, Texas.
Thanks to your efforts House Bill 7 will be rewritten to exclude the Port Isabel Lighthouse!
The delegation and the City of Port Isabel wishes to express their appreciation to everybody who took the time to pass resolutions, write letters, sign a petition, send faxes or make a call. Your efforts resulted in facilitating our success when we took to the State Capitol’s grounds on Tuesday. With your help we were able to compile over 100 pages of support for our exclusion, an effort that couldn’t go unnoticed. We wanted to take the time to thank you all for taking your time to make your valuable contribution!
Edward Meza (Port Isabel Museums Director / Historic Preservation Officer)
Jill Francisco (City of Port Isabel Assistant City Manager / PI EDC Administrator)
Calvin Byrd (Former Mayor, PI Chamber President & presently Chamber Board Member)
Valerie Bates (Port Isabel Marketing Director)
03/07/2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-
PORT ISABEL-
Port Isabel Lighthouse State Site Removed From HB7
Thanks to the help from concerned citizens of the Rio Grande Valley and the Laguna Madre area, over 650 signatures were gathered expressing a desire to keep the Lighthouse operations in the hands of the City of Port Isabel and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) as it has been for almost 15 years.
Thursday evening an alert reached former Mayor and Chamber Board member, Calvin Byrd that House Bill 7 was scheduled to hit the House floor on Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. By Friday morning a delegation was put together and reached out to the Rio Grande Valley and the residents of the Laguna Madre area as letters of support and resolutions were compiled in an effort to make a case for the cause. Resolutions from the Cameron County Historical Commission, South Padre Island, Laguna Vista, Port Isabel, the Port Isabel Economic Development Corporation, the Port Isabel Chamber of Commerce were combined with letters from Port Isabel’s Mayor, Patrick Marchan, the Port Isabel Historical Preservation Board, the Port Isabel Chamber of Commerce, the South Padre Island Chamber of Commerce, Valerie Bates, Port Isabel Marketing Director, the Port Isabel Merchants Committee and other local citizens were combined into a book totaling over 100 pages to be used as a tool to inform the State of Texas that the City of Port Isabel and its community had the same vision as House Bill 7 and the Texas Historical Commission. Furthermore, the City of Port Isabel, under the direction of TPWD, had achieved that vision including insuring a “good visitor’s experience”, the preservation and historical interpretation of the property, and the staffing of the enterprise with specialized and qualified staff.
The delegation, including Calvin Byrd, Chamber Board; Edward Meza, Port Isabel Museums Director and Historical Preservation Officer; Jill Francisco, Port Isabel Assistant City Manager and Port Isabel Economic Development Corporation Administrator and Valerie Bates, Port Isabel Marketing Director, left for Austin on Monday with support materials in hand to meet with area Representatives and Culture, Recreation & Tourism Committee Members. Lobbyist, Martin Pena met with the delegation and assisted with traversing the capitol grounds and insuring that the correct offices were visited. “His assistance was invaluable”, the delegation agreed.
At 2:00 p.m., the hearing convened, during which time Calvin Byrd, Edward Meza and Valerie Bates testified against the Port Isabel’s Lighthouse inclusion in HB7 and demonstrated the City of Port Isabel and TPWD’s relationship to be a successful one. Committee Chairman, Harvey Hilderbran told a packed hearing room, “We will work to remove the Port Isabel Lighthouse from House Bill 7”.
While the merits of House Bill 7 is a match for some of the other properties in the proposed list of 21, Port Isabel officials and its community felt strongly that the bill’s provision would not be beneficial for the Port Isabel Lighthouse and could cost the state more money. Since December 13, when Edward Meza was first notified of the Texas Historical Commission’s desire to include the Lighthouse in HB7, efforts began to gather as much support for the Lighthouse’s exclusion as possible. The delegation wishes to thank all those who took time to express their support with a signature, letter, phone call to their representative and the communities and organizations that passed resolutions. “They gave us the right tool to get the job done”, the delegation said.
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info@portisabel-texas.com
©2007 Valerie D. Bates / www.portisabel-texas.com. All rights reserved.
