By Lucy Fields

My name is Lucy Fields and I am running for re-election for bridge city councilmember- Place 6 number 2 on the ballot. I am married to Donald Fields and we have resided in Bridge City for the past 20 years. My education consists of two Master Degrees from Lamar University (master of Science and mast of Education) with an additional five certifications, three of which were in Counseling, Supervision, and Administration. I worked as a Social Worker for the State of Texas prior to my becoming a teacher, counselor and after school TAKS Principal and taught four years at Lamar University as an adjunct instructor before retiring. After retirement from the school district I worked as a Subcontract Administrator for HMT Tank Service for three years, worked as a census taker for the 2010 census for the Bridge City/Orangefield area and substitute taught in Bridge City Schools.

As a member of First Baptist Church, I serve on the Ministry and Hospitality Committee (past chairman), as well as a member of the Fellowship and Kitchen committees and sing in the church choir.

Being involved in Civic and Service Organizations has always been apart of my adult life. I have had the privilege to hold leadership positions in many of these organizations. My opportunities for leadership positions began back in high school as Editor of our school newspaper, President of the Future Nurses and Secretary of the National Honor Society. I graduate in the top en of my class. Prior to moving to Bridge City, I held memberships in the Jaycettes, held the office of President in the Quota Club as well as LaSertoma (Ladies Service to Mankind). After moving to Bridge City, I joined BPW (Bridge City Business and Professional Women Organization), which later became Bridge City Community Women in Action of which I held the office of President. I also worked on the Historical Society Heritage Festival Committee. I am presently a member of Rotary and participate in the flag program and Bunny Run to raise money for student scholarships.

While employed by Port Arthur ISD I served as a Chairman of the Superintendents’ advisory committee for several years. I also held the office of President for ATPE (Association of Teachers and Professional Educators). I served on a Bridge City ISDK Superintendents’’ committee consulting with district personnel on safety issues and other needs in each of the BCISD’s schools. As a retired counselor I encouraged the addition and expansion of more technology classes in our high schools as a need I saw as a past career counselor to give all students a chance to become contributing members of society upon their high school graduation.

As a member of the Bridge City Chamber of Commerce, I serve on the Board of Directors and am a Chamber Ambassador. I have severed as Chamber President and am currently the Chamber treasurer. I have received awards as Ambassador fo the quarter in 2012 and Ambassador of the Year in 2015. I serve as Chairman of the Bridge City Chambers Christmas Parade and Chairman of the Mother of the Year and Father of the Year committees. AS a service to the community we collect toys from our parade participates for the ministerial Alliance Christmas Program. We coordinate with school district employees helping to state the parade as well as the police department and city personnel in order for the chamber to produce a well-organized and enjoyable event for everyone. Every year the parade gets bigger and bigger as out of town citizens as well as BC citizens join in the parade or come to view our parade. As a chamber ambassador I regularly attend monthly chamber coffees and ribbon cuttings promoting our area businesses, employees and students of the month.

As outreach for our city, I have served on the Shop Orange County committee promoting all businesses as well as working all of the Bass Master and Redfish Tournaments, which benefit the entire county. I have also participated in Business Development Week, which provides valuable information to business owners for promoting their business as well as attended and worked Team City conference, Orange County Days and Golden Triangle Days in Austin.

I am very passionate about supporting and improving our communing in any way I can such as supporting our firefighters and the city by painting approximately 175 fire hydrants. I began this endeavor while on city council when some firefighters relayed a need for the hydrants to be flushed, repaired, cleaned up and possibly painted according to the national coding system after IKE. Many of the hydrants were still covered with debris at that time. With the rebuilding of our city, I felt we needed a reason to smile thus the evolvement of the first hydrant characters. Two years ago, when I ran for city council I stated that I would like to see the first hydrants flushed out and placed on a regular schedule as I felt this would greatly help and/or eliminate the brown water issue along the new filtration system when it was completed. Both of those things have been accomplished as of last year.

After the morning when Harvey hit I received a call from BC Fire and Rescue in need of staging area in order to respond to a huge list of 911 calls to rescue flood victims. City buildings were under water and no other facilities were able to accommodate the pressing need. I immediately made a call to my pastor at First Baptist Church, Bro Doug Shows, and he opened the church within 20 minutes and called in members to help. We all worked together to provide shelter, food and dry clothing to over 200 individuals and many of their pets. I also helped our church set up a distribution sight and helped distribute food, clothes, baby items, etc. In the days and weeks that followed I visited all of the distribution sites in Bridge City and Orangefield to assess what items and possible meals they had available to distribute and took information back to the city hall to be posted on the city Facebook page to be shared.

Whether it’s cooking at the high school for first responders after hurricane Rita, helping victims after the flood in Deweyville as well as victims of Harvey, praying publicly for the safety of our police officers, served on the police bargaining committee, donating books to the library for their use or sale to aid in the building fund, planting flower beds at city hall, or donating food and time for the Ministerial Alliance in their food and toy distributions are ways I have tired to pay it forward and show support in our community. In the past I also worked with Lou Raburn and our City Manager in raising monies, selecting and acquiring Christmas decorations for Texas Avenue and assist year with the installation of Christmas decorations on the corner of Texas Avenue and Roundbunch.

I have four years of experience as a city councilmember. I take the responsibilities of council member seriously and am always prepared for each meeting. I ask questions when I feel it necessary to insure the votes I cast are in the best interest of the citizens of Bridge City. An example of this was an agenda item that several council members were not convinced was a good thing for the city. It failed for lack of a second but was again placed on the agenda for the next meeting. I called all the cities in Orange and Jefferson counties prior to the next meeting with the reoccurring agenda item to see how they dealt with this issue as I still felt a lac of confidence that this was the right move for Bridge City. What I discovered was that not one of the cities in either county had this policy, and all felt it would be a detriment to their city. I also randomly contacted a dozen citizens for their input and all stated they did not feel this was good for our city. I presented my findings to council and the majority of the council voted against the agenda item. I have attended many Texas Municipal League conferences where I participated in informational meetings and educational classes for council members. One of the things as councilmembers we brought back from TML was to have more lines of communication with the citizens of our community. The LUKE (Let Us Know Everything) system was installed as well as the city now has a city Facebook page to provide informational items to the community in our effort to create more and better communication to our citizens. I have also served on the Building Standards Committee and the Board of Adjustments prior to becoming a councilmember. I am presently on the TAC (Technical Advisory Committee) for the region to develop a 2019 Texas Coastal Resiliency Master Plan to address natural and built strategies to enhance resiliency for coastal communities. We are meeting again in April and will be assessing and evaluating the nature-based and infrastructure projects and concepts that were discussed at the Fall 2017 meeting. We will be sharing expertise on the natural and built environments at risk in our own community and the projects that can address the coastal hazards in a holistic way that will help guide the GLO’s planning initiative. Flooding and evacuation plans are a big part of this.

I have proven leadership abilities and believe I have shown my support, dedication, loyalty and commitment to improving our community. I believe that it is not what my community can do for me, but what I can personally do to make our beautiful city a better place to live, work and play for all of us. I am asking for your support in voting for a candidate who “walks the talk” and once again represent the citizens of Bridge City as your Councilmember for Place 6, #2 on the ballot. My contact is 697-1206.