Of course, you can fight City Hall.

You can also work with it.

The latter is what citizens of Sabine Pass chose to do a month ago when they scheduled what became a packed meeting at Sabine Pass School and challenged the city of Port Arthur to do better by them. That proved to be a wiser course, at least for now.

The litany of citizen complaints was lengthy and well founded:

• Raw sewage was resting in ditches and front yards.
• Streets had crumbled.
• Ditches and the drainage system fail to protect them from flooding.
• City Hall had ignored them.

That last of those complaints was most damning. When City Hall stops returning your calls, it’s easy to feel forlorn, because you know the rest of the complaints will go unaddressed.

It’s also easy to feel ignored, especially when your tightly knit, rural community lies some 10 miles from the city’s core, which is the case with Sabine Pass.

It’s easy to feel rueful, too, when you’re part of a Port Arthur neighborhood that attempted to form your own town four decades ago, only to be annexed by the larger city. How’s that working out for you, Sabine Pass?

Until a month ago, citizens might have said not too well. No one in Sabine Pass has forgotten the history.

But Mic Cowart, who with Kristi Heid, superintendent of Sabine Pass Independent School District, organized the Feb. 7 meeting community meeting, said this week that some things may have changed.

Cowart said he and Heid met last week with Hani Tohme, Port Arthur’s public services director, to review the city’s on-the-ground response to last month’s community meeting. “I think we saw progress,” Cowart said.

Not every ill was cured, Cowart said, but lots of effort was made. The list of remedies included:

• Pipes and manholes that contributed to sewage problems were cleaned or replaced.
• About 200 feet of pipe was replaced to fix a water leak.
• Potholes have been patched.
• Port Arthur has developed a better map of drainage ditches.
• Dredging and drainage work has been ID’d; work will begin when the ground dries.

There’s lots left to do, which the city concedes. But Tohme said the city is determined to get it right.

One obstacle: Roadwork will necessitate City Council approval. That takes a lot of time and can depend upon political whimsy.

Nonetheless, Sabine Pass people should take heart from the good-faith effort the city has made. Sabine Pass can present a challenge to serve: It’s a long way from the core city, too easy to overlook, and it lies in pathways of nature’s peril.

But for now, Sabine Pass has the city’s attention. Residents there should take heart.