Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Gregg County will have its day in Austin, County Judge Bill Stoudt said Tuesday.

Stoudt was rebuffed on his first try at scheduling a Gregg County Day in Austin, when elected officials and business leaders from Longview, Kilgore and the rest of the county would meet with lawmakers during their biennial session.

It's become a Texas tradition for cities to send delegations when the Legislature convenes every other year, and in November, Stoudt tried to coordinate a countywide sojourn. But Longview and Kilgore already had scheduled their biennial trips to Austin, and the idea was shelved until Stoudt learned last week that March 29 will be set aside for a Gregg County delegation.

Longview Day in Austin takes place March 8. Kilgore's Day is March 1, the same day the Tyler Area Chamber of Commerce scheduled its visit to Austin. The Kilgore/Tyler groups will use their trips to hammer mutual needs into the lawmakers' ears, leaders said.

"So we said, ‘Why not just make this the start of a regional, Smith County/Gregg County/Rusk County effort?' ” Kilgore Chamber of Commerce President Mike Coston said. "We didn't even know each other was going. We're trying to develop regionalism, but this was just purely accidental. So it's kind of neat, now that this happened, because we're hoping to build something on this for the future."

The two groups are not coordinating any activities. Coston and Tyler Area Chamber of Commerce President Tom Mullins said they looked into a dinner get-together, but both already had booked dining halls and neither hall could hold both groups.

"For a number of years, we did a Tyler-Longview Day," Mullins said. "But for some reason it just lost interest."

Stoudt said the Kilgore/Tyler link falls in with recent steps toward better cooperation. A roundtable of elected officials and business leaders from several counties has met a few times since gathering at Kilgore College in 2003. And Gregg and Smith counties continue to team up on applications to lure a veterans cemetery and a veterans nursing home here. The two counties already have formed one of the state's first Regional Mobility Authorities to issue bonds for highway construction that would be repaid with tolls.

Stoudt said he did not believe his county was the odd man out when he learned Kilgore officials would be in Austin with Tyler after he'd hoped they would be part of a Gregg County delegation.

"No, not at all," he said. "I think it's just coincidence they are down there at the same time. Just as long as we're all working together and trying to get on the same page – and I think that's what we are trying to do and what people are tying to do regionally."

Stoudt said the delegation is forming for Gregg County Day in Austin. The team already includes Kilgore Mayor Joe Parker, White Oak Mayor Tim Vaughn, Gladewater Mayor John Paul Tallent and Longview Mayor Pro Tem Daryl Williams, Stoudt said.

Mullins, who was part of the Northeast Texas roundtable that Stoudt spearheaded, said a coincidence in the 2005 session could spark something bigger when it comes time to visit Austin in 2007.

"It's a good idea to try and share our common interests," Mullins said.