By Deshotel                                           H.B. No. 3554
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to correcting the statutory description of the boundaries
 1-3     of the Port Arthur Navigation District.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 1, Chapter 197, Acts of the 58th
 1-6     Legislature, Regular Session, 1963, as amended, is amended to read
 1-7     as follows:
 1-8           Sec. 1.   There is hereby created within the State of Texas,
 1-9     in addition to the districts into which the state has heretofore
1-10     been divided, a port district to be known as the Port of Port
1-11     Arthur Navigation District of Jefferson County, Texas, situated in
1-12     Jefferson County, Texas, with boundaries as hereinafter set out
1-13     (hereinafter called the district).  Such district shall be and is
1-14     hereby declared to be a governmental agency and body politic and
1-15     corporate with the powers of government and with the authority to
1-16     exercise the rights, privileges and functions hereinafter
1-17     specified, and the creation of such district is hereby determined
1-18     to be essential to the accomplishment of the purposes of Section
1-19     59, of Article 16, of the Constitution of the State of Texas,
1-20     including (to the extent hereinafter authorized) the improvement of
1-21     navigation and the maintenance, development, extension and
1-22     improvement of port facilities, wharf and dock facilities, and the
1-23     development of the Port of Port Arthur within the boundaries
1-24     thereof as hereby established, which is declared to be essential to
 2-1     the general welfare of the State of Texas for the development of
 2-2     maritime shipping to and from its ports, and in the interest of
 2-3     national defense; the Port of Port Arthur being strategically
 2-4     located on the Gulf Coast with an inland-protected harbor and in a
 2-5     rapidly developing industrial area wherein shipyards and
 2-6     shipstoring basins are located, and the creation of said port
 2-7     district will result in material benefits and improvements to the
 2-8     territory included therein and in the increase of taxable values of
 2-9     property included therein, and result in material benefit to that
2-10     section of the state in which same is located.
2-11           The boundaries of said district in Jefferson County, Texas,
2-12     are as follows:
2-13           "BEGINNING at a point of the junction of the center line of
2-14     the rights-of-way of State Highway 87 and the city limits line of
2-15     the City of Port Arthur (as it existed on April 20, 1963) in the
2-16     Neches River;
2-17           THENCE following the city limit line of the City of Port
2-18     Arthur (as it existed on April 20, 1963) in the Neches River,
2-19     southward and eastward to a point in the geographic middle of the
2-20     Neches River at its entrance into Sabine Lake;
2-21           THENCE continue to follow southward and eastward, the city
2-22     limit line of the City of Port Arthur, (as it existed on January 1,
2-23     1974) to the point of junction with the geographic middle of Sabine
2-24     Lake;
2-25           THENCE southward and westward along the center line of Sabine
2-26     Lake to a point due east [west] of the junction of the center line
2-27     of the Intracoastal Canal and the center line of the Sabine-Neches
 3-1     Ship Canal;
 3-2           THENCE due west to the center line of the Intracoastal Canal
 3-3     at a point of its junction with the center line of the
 3-4     Sabine-Neches Ship Canal;
 3-5           THENCE westward along the center line of the Intracoastal
 3-6     Canal to its junction with the center line of Jefferson County
 3-7     Drainage District #7 Outfall Canal;
 3-8           THENCE northward along the center line of Jefferson County
 3-9     Drainage District #7 Outfall Canal to its junction with the center
3-10     line of Taylor's Bayou;
3-11           THENCE westward and northward along the center line of
3-12     Taylor's Bayou to its junction with the center line of Rodair
3-13     Gully;
3-14           THENCE eastward along the center line of Rodair Gully to the
3-15     center line of the rights-of-way of the Viterbo [Vitterbo] Road;
3-16           THENCE eastward along the center line of the rights-of-way of
3-17     the Viterbo [Vitterbo] Road to the center line of the rights-of-way
3-18     line of State Highway 69;
3-19           THENCE southward along the center line of the rights-of-way
3-20     of State Highway 69 to the center line of the rights-of-way of FM
3-21     Road No. 365;
3-22           THENCE eastward along the center line of the rights-of-way of
3-23     FM Road No. 365 to the center line of the rights-of-way of State
3-24     Highway 347;
3-25           THENCE southward along the center line of the rights-of-way
3-26     of State Highway 347 to the center line of the rights-of-way of
3-27     State Highway 73;
 4-1           THENCE [southward and] eastward along the center line of the
 4-2     rights-of-way of State Highway 73 to the center line of the
 4-3     rights-of-way of State Highway 87;
 4-4           THENCE northward and eastward along the center line of the
 4-5     rights-of-way of State Highway 87 to its junction with the city
 4-6     limit line of the City of Port Arthur (as it existed on April 20,
 4-7     1963) in the Neches River, the point of beginning."
 4-8           SECTION 2.  Proof of publication of the constitutional notice
 4-9     required in the enactment hereof under the provisions of Article
4-10     XVI, Section 59(d), of the Texas Constitution has been made in the
4-11     manner provided therein, and a copy of said notice and the bill as
4-12     originally introduced have been delivered to the Governor of the
4-13     State of Texas as required by such constitutional provision, and
4-14     such notice and delivery are hereby found and declared to be proper
4-15     and sufficient to satisfy such requirement.
4-16           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
4-17     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
4-18     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
4-19     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
4-20     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
4-21     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
4-22     passage, and it is so enacted.