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IN THIS ISSUE:
•
Broussard and Bezdek in Havana
•
Port funds literacy  program for 11th year 
•
Music unwinds sailors
 
•
Port grabs students’ attention from gradeschool to college
 
 ABOVE:
The
Tucano
at the Port of Beaumont’s Main Street docks.
The
Tucano
, a vessel owned by Norway-based
Saga Forest Carriers
, anchored atthe Port of Beaumont in April. The visit marked the company’s first call at the port.Longshoremen unloaded 2,097 pieces of pipe from the
Tucano’s
cargo hold, whichwere trucked to the port’s Orange County property for storage. The pipe will eventu-ally be used to construct liquefied natural gas pipelines in Southeast Texas andSouthwest Louisiana.Much of the pipe is being stored at the port’s Orange County facility, representingsome of the first cargo being handled on the port’s recently developed property.A second Saga pipe shipment of 1,764 pieces arrived aboard the
Wave
in May.
BELOW:
Port trade devel-opment director 
ErnestBezdek
presents
Capt.Peter Willyams
with aplaque commemoratingSAGA’s first call at the port.
The port’s years-long relationship with international agricultural commodities giant
Louis Dreyfus Corp.
will continue for several more years.Port of Beaumont commissioners and Louis Dreyfus agreed to a new lease to oper-ate the port’s grain elevator for the next 10 years.“We’re very excited about extending this relationship with Louis Dreyfus as theyhave been a great partner with the Port of Beaumont,” port director Chris Fisher said.The new lease, which began June 1 and runs through May 31, 2018, establishesBeaumont as one of the primary grain ports in the Gulf of Mexico.The new lease replaces the agreement between the port and Louis Dreyfus thatwas set to expire on May 31, 2009.The port’s grain elevator has a loading capacity of 3.5 million bushels and handlesabout 2 million tons of bulk grain each year.
SAGA Forest Carriers makes its first call at the Port of Beaumont
Port approves new grain elevator lease with Louis Dreyfus Corp.
Director’s note
Port of Beaumont Navigation District of Jefferson County, Texas● 1225 Main Street ● Beaumont, Texas 77701 ●● (409) 835-5367 ● (409) 835-0512 FAX ●
Online at www.portofbeaumont.com
Expansion,improvementsmove forwardwith contracts
 
The Port of Beau-mont’s $52 millioncapital expansion program is well under way.The new headquarters building for the842nd Transportation Battalion of theU.S. military’s Surface Deployment Dis-tribution Command (SDDC) is nearingcompletion and the keystone of our ex-pansion—the new dock in OrangeCounty—is now under construction. Thisnew dock facility will be just a first step inopening up new acreage for the port todeep water vessel activity and is ex-pected to be a catalyst for unprece-dented port growth.We are also very proud to say that theexpansion is being paid for with port op-erating revenues, supplemented by acouple of much-appreciated federalgrants.We will keep you posted on this veryexciting expansion program.
David C. Fisher Executive director Port of Beaumont
Fisher 
 
Commissioners
Lee Smith
and
Georgine Guillory
hand out booklets and pencils to West Brook HighSchool students during Career Day 2008. Guillory,Smith, human resources manager 
Janet Floyd
andpublic relations manager 
Mike Smith
spoke withstudents at Beaumont’s West Brook and Centralhigh schools in March about port careers.Students from Mrs. Peggy White’s 4th Grade classat
Regina-Howell Elementary School
pose withtheir group project: “The Port of Beaumont, 1950-present,” exploring the port’s impact on the region.Students, teachers and parents from Beaumont’s
St.Anthony Cathedral School
pose in front of thecaptain and crew members aboard the
Padus River 
in March. The students took a tour of the port led bycustomer service director 
John Roby
. Seafarers’Center chaplain
Bill Peterson
presented greetingcards from the students to the ship’s crew.Port director 
Chris Fisher 
, commis-sioners
Nell Clark
and
GeorgineGuillory
and customer service direc-tor 
John Roby
attended the Ameri-can Association of Port Authoritiesconference last April in Washington,D.C., and visited Southeast Texas’congressional delegation.
TOP:
Clark
and
Guillory
pose with
U.S. Rep.Ted Poe
.
RIGHT:
Fisher 
,
Clark
and
Guillory
pose with
U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady
.
Port’s literacy partnership continuesOn top of the Hill
Port, Learn to Readmark 11-year effort
Commissioners
NellClark
,
Georgine Guillory
 and
Lee Smith
and porthuman resources man-ager 
Janet Floyd
passedout personalized readingbooks to kindergarten,first– and second-gradestudents at Beaumont’sDunbar ElementarySchool in May.The book giveaway markedthe Port of Beaumont’s 11thyear as a contributor to theLearn to Read program, puton by ABC Publishing of Beaumont. The program’soverall goals are to boostliteracy, develop listening andconcentration skills and buildpositive self-images amongchildren across SoutheastTexas and Southwest Louisi-ana.
BELOW LEFT:
A teacher helps
Nell Clark
distribute books to Dunbar Elementary kindergarteners.
RIGHT:
Eachbook was personalized, with each student’s name used for the main character—a hit with many of the children.
 
Jammin’ on the NechesLamar term paper becomes long-term project
Sailors can spend up to a year at a time away from friends and family on thehigh seas. To make the journey a little easier on their crew,
Capt. Peter Willyams
and
Chief Engineer Stephen Ralphs
keep guitars, drums andother musical instruments in the recreation room aboard the
Saga Tucano
toprovide fun and stress relief when daily work is done. During the ship’s callat the Port of Beaumont in April, Willyams invited port employees to join thecrew for an evening of appetizers and music.
RIGHT:
Crew members sing along to The Animals’ 1964 hit “The House of the Rising Sun.”
BOTTOM LEFT:
Capt. Peter Willyams (right) and Chief Officer Stephen Ralphs (left, with guitar)warm up chords to “Rollin’ on the River” while crew members thumb through a song book.
BOTTOM RIGHT:
Port public relations manager Mike Smith (right) poses with the
Tucano’s
crew.
Headliners
Board president
Pete Shelton
leda donation drive for a firefighters’memorial pavilion and statue inthe plaza named for him next tothe Fire Museum of Texas. Thepavilion and statue will be builtnext to the world’s largest firehydrant, encouraging tourism indowntown Beaumont, accordingto NBC affiliate KBTV.Commissioner 
Georgine Guillory
 was featured in a
Beaumont En-terprise
article discussing volun-teerism and people who haveinfluenced her the most. Of theport, Guillory said, “I never knewBeaumont had such a gem. Theport has grown three times in sizesince I’ve been here. It’s such anasset to the city.”The
Beaumont Enterprise
soughtCommissioner 
Louis BroussardJr.
’s opinion on rising global riceprices. Broussard, president of Beaumont Rice Mills, said mar-kets don’t yet show a shortage of American-milled rice. “By the timethe 2008 crop is ready, we’ll havean ample supply for our customer base,” Broussard said.
When his professor announced asemester research project, Lamar University history and political sciencesenior 
Curtis Smith
instantly choseto explore the Port of Beaumont.A Beaumont native, Smith hadalways heard the port’s superlatives,but he wanted to know more of theport’s rise to prominence.“To me, it was a chance to explainthis part of Beaumont to people whodon’t know about it,” he said of hisproject. Smith’s paper details the birthof modern waterborne commercebeginning with Arthur Stillwell’s pushfor a deeper canal from Sabine Pass to Port Arthur in the 1890s and dredgingthat canal to Beaumont.Smith concludes that extending the channel transformed the region by aid-ing the population boom and giving boosters tangible proof of the area’s eco-nomic power. “Once we [went] deepwater, the growth happened really quick,”Smith said. “We had something to claim there. We could say ‘Look at all thistrade we’re doing.’ Before that, we were just selling the area.”Smith got an ‘A’ in the class but his homework continues. He is looking for sources to gauge the port’s impact on everyday residents during the earlydays and any accounts of the port’s role during World War I. The researchlikely will take Smith well past graduation, maybe even graduate school.“Like with every answer, there’s a lot more questions,” he said. “It’s never quite finished.”
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