Coming home: Port Arthur News reopens its doors

Published 4:53 pm Saturday, December 16, 2017

By Ken Stickney

Ken.stickney@panews.com

 

Rich Macke remembers well wading out of the Port Arthur News, the newspaper office 3 feet steeped in floodwater. That was right after sunrise, Aug. 30.

He and his wife, Jennifer, had spent their Aug. 29 wedding anniversary prepping for disaster, Tropical Storm Harvey pounding at Greater Port Arthur and its neighbors.

Macke spent that day at the newspaper office, too, unplugging and moving vulnerable equipment to higher ground. His family tended to their Dominion Ranch residence until flooding — it would reach 5 feet — forced them and their pets from its confines and to the newspaper office on 2349 Memorial Blvd., still dry.

That night, with all their vehicles destroyed, they rested their heads on the newspaper’s couches, catching some shuteye until, around 1 a.m., Jennifer extended her arm toward the floor and discovered water, ever rising.

That was then.

On Monday, the refurbished Port Arthur News will raise the flag and reopen its doors to the public at 8 a.m.

“We are back in business in our home,” Macke said. “We are beyond ecstatic.”

The same can be said for the 20 employees headquartered at that office, who have greeted the news joyfully, especially when Macke sent photos of the building’s progress.

Since shortly after the flood, the newspaper has operated out of its sister Boone Newspapers Inc. site in Orange, at the Holiday Inn Port Arthur-Park Central on Jimmy Johnson and out of staffer’s own homes.

“It’s a place where we are comfortable working, and we’ve been displaced three months,” Macke said of the refurbished office. “Our staff has been phenomenal, supportive, but it wears on the staff. They are completely ready to make the move back home.”

Most of what was in the 7,800-foot building was ruined but has been or will be replaced. Minor work remains to be done, but the building is cleared for occupancy.

Company President Todd Carpenter arrived shortly after the flooding to ensure the paper could continue to produce — it did not miss an edition — even producing some work in Natchez, Mississippi and printing in Lufkin.

The News continued to produce online work as well as a print product, distributing the newspaper free for a while wherever Greater Port Arthur people, many of them themselves displaced, gathered.

“The plan has always been to go back into the building,” Macke said.

The Port Arthur News had occupied its present site since 2015, and the new set-up mirrors the old one.

“We just wanted it to be better,” Macke said, an effort which included purchasing new equipment and furniture.

The cost has been dear, Macke said. A Florida company was hired to dry out the building, disinfect it and knock down walls, a seven-day project. Much business was lost in the days after the storm because of businesses temporarily closing. Remodeling and new furnishings cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“When they were done, we took stock of what was left. They pulled all the furniture out and we really didn’t have much we could keep,” he said.

BNI helped start a fund to assist employees and “helped them keep the faith.”

Plans with the Chamber of Commerce call for an open house in late January.

“It’s a little saddening, too,” Macke said. “We were able to get the business up, but a lot of people’s homes won’t be repaired until later next year.

“Still, our opening might help other people return to some sense of normal,” he said.

In the initial days after the storm, Macke said, newspaper carriers asked if The Port Arthur News would close. That, he said, was never an option.

“We will be coming home,” he told them. “We are the voice for Port Arthur and Mid County.”