By Deshotel                                           H.B. No. 3554
         Line and page numbers may not match official copy.
         Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.
                                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
 2-1     improvement of port facilities, wharf and dock facilities, and the
 2-2     development of the Port of Port Arthur within the boundaries
 2-3     thereof as hereby established, which is declared to be essential to
 2-4     the general welfare of the State of Texas for the development of
 2-5     maritime shipping to and from its ports, and in the interest of
 2-6     national defense; the Port of Port Arthur being strategically
 2-7     located on the Gulf Coast with an inland-protected harbor and in a
 2-8     rapidly developing industrial area wherein shipyards and
 2-9     shipstoring basins are located, and the creation of said port
2-10     district will result in material benefits and improvements to the
2-11     territory included therein and in the increase of taxable values of
2-12     property included therein, and result in material benefit to that
2-13     section of the state in which same is located.
2-14           The boundaries of said district in Jefferson County, Texas,
2-15     are as follows:
2-16           "BEGINNING at a point of the junction of the center line of
2-17     the rights-of-way of State Highway 87 and the city limits line of
2-18     the City of Port Arthur (as it existed on April 20, 1963) in the
2-19     Neches River;
2-20           THENCE following the city limit line of the City of Port
2-21     Arthur (as it existed on April 20, 1963) in the Neches River,
2-22     southward and eastward to a point in the geographic middle of the
2-23     Neches River at its entrance into Sabine Lake;
2-24           THENCE continue to follow southward and eastward, the city
2-25     limit line of the City of Port Arthur, (as it existed on January 1,
 3-1     1974) to the point of junction with the geographic middle of Sabine
 3-2     Lake;
 3-3           THENCE southward and westward along the center line of Sabine
 3-4     Lake to a point due east [west] of the junction of the center line
 3-5     of the Intracoastal Canal and the center line of the Sabine-Neches
 3-6     Ship Canal;
 3-7           THENCE due west to the center line of the Intracoastal Canal
 3-8     at a point of its junction with the center line of the
 3-9     Sabine-Neches Ship Canal;
3-10           THENCE westward along the center line of the Intracoastal
3-11     Canal to its junction with the center line of Jefferson County
3-12     Drainage District #7 Outfall Canal;
3-13           THENCE northward along the center line of Jefferson County
3-14     Drainage District #7 Outfall Canal to its junction with the center
3-15     line of Taylor's Bayou;
3-16           THENCE westward and northward along the center line of
3-17     Taylor's Bayou to its junction with the center line of Rodair
3-18     Gully;
3-19           THENCE eastward along the center line of Rodair Gully to the
3-20     center line of the rights-of-way of the Viterbo [Vitterbo] Road;
3-21           THENCE eastward along the center line of the rights-of-way of
3-22     the Viterbo [Vitterbo] Road to the center line of the rights-of-way
3-23     line of State Highway 69;
3-24           THENCE southward along the center line of the rights-of-way
3-25     of State Highway 69 to the center line of the rights-of-way of FM
 4-1     Road No. 365;
 4-2           THENCE eastward along the center line of the rights-of-way of
 4-3     FM Road No. 365 to the center line of the rights-of-way of State
 4-4     Highway 347;
 4-5           THENCE southward along the center line of the rights-of-way
 4-6     of State Highway 347 to the center line of the rights-of-way of
 4-7     State Highway 73;
 4-8           THENCE [southward and] eastward along the center line of the
 4-9     rights-of-way of State Highway 73 to the center line of the
4-10     rights-of-way of State Highway 87;
4-11           THENCE northward and eastward along the center line of the
4-12     rights-of-way of State Highway 87 to its junction with the city
4-13     limit line of the City of Port Arthur (as it existed on April 20,
4-14     1963) in the Neches River, the point of beginning."
4-15           SECTION 2.  Proof of publication of the constitutional notice
4-16     required in the enactment hereof under the provisions of Article
4-17     XVI, Section 59(d), of the Texas Constitution has been made in the
4-18     manner provided therein, and a copy of said notice and the bill as
4-19     originally introduced have been delivered to the Governor of the
4-20     State of Texas as required by such constitutional provision, and
4-21     such notice and delivery are hereby found and declared to be proper
4-22     and sufficient to satisfy such requirement.
4-23           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
4-24     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
4-25     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 5-1     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 5-2     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 5-3     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 5-4     passage, and it is so enacted.