The Government & Public Affairs Division chaired by Joe Domino met on Tuesday. Lee Otis Zapp Jr. from the Galveston Windstorm Action Committee presented a review of actions in the 81st and 82nd State legislature toward coastal counties relating to windstorm insurance and what needs to happen in the future. He believes we need to unite to create a voluntary insurance market. We had a good discussion about solutions and plan to explore further collaborations in the coming months.

Jim Rich participated in the monthly meeting of the Sabine Neches Navigation District.

The Jason Alliance of Southeast Texas board of directors met on Thursday to discuss plans for the visit of Dr. Robert Ballard on January 30. It was ten years ago, Dr. Ballard was the speaker at the Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting inspiring business leaders to develop a local Jason program. Today the program provides annual training to hundreds of area science teachers and reaches thousands of students in Southeast Texas. We expect to fill the Montagne Center on the morning of January 30 to hear Dr. Ballard upon his return trip to Beaumont.

Jim Rich, Dean Robinson, Bobby Fillyaw and others spoke in support of Dr. Jimmy Simmons after he presented a proposal for an innovation and commercialization center at Lamar University. The Southeast Texas Regional Planning Commission hosted a public hearing to determine the distribution of hurricane recovery funds on Thursday. The commercialization center aimed at creating new jobs and new businesses is an appropriate use of the community block funds.